Mom recounts son’s bout with RSV

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — Lauran Reinhold’s 13-month-old son Ezra recently beat RSV.

“He woke and he had this kind of creepy cough out of nowhere,” she recalled.

Respiratory syncytial is an upper respiratory virus. And experts say it’s on the rise throughout the U.S.

Reinhold said their first urgent care visit took them by surprise. “They tested him for RSV, flu, COVID and everything came back negative.”

They were sent home without a diagnosis but with medications and directions to give him breathing treatments.

[RELATED: What’s behind worrying RSV surge in US children’s hospitals?]

Two days after that visit to the clinic, Reinhold got a call from her son’s daycare saying another kid had a case of RSV.

“His symptoms got worse,” she said of her son. “He could not sleep laying down. So we had to sleep in the rocker with him every night.”

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They did not get answers until almost a week after his initial sign of symptoms, and after seeing several doctors. It wasn’t until another trip to the hospital and seeing two doctors in a day that they got answers.

“The second provider did a chest X-ray and saw the lining of the chest, and they retested for RSV and we got the positive confirmation,” Reinhold said.

Willis-Knighton pediatrician Dr. Randall White Jr. said typically the symptoms are like a common cold.

“Things that get concerning in young children or babies is when you get a lower respiratory tract infection or what we call bronchiolitis … and you can start wheezing, have rapid respiratory rates,” he said.

According to the CDC, there are approximately 100 to 300 deaths in children younger than 5 years old each year.

“Follow your gut because I think we, as moms, we all have that gut intuition for our kids..” Reinhold said.

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