Her infant daughter could have died after being infected with oral herpes. Now Claire Henderson wants to send a message out to other parents and warn them about making the same mistake she says she did. “Please share this with every new mum and pregnant woman you know. COLD SORES CAN BE FATAL FOR A BABY,” she writes on her Facebook page.
A British mother wants to warn other parents after her daughter nearly died from someone’s kiss.
About a month after baby Brooke was born, Claire began hosting friends who wanted to meet the infant. But one such visitor was carrying the oral herpes virus.
Claire told Buzzfeed News that the visitor didn’t seem to have a cold sore at the time she held Brooke. However, HSV-1 can be transmitted through saliva and surfaces in or around the mouth as well, according to the World Health Organization.
One night, when Claire was nursing Brooke, she noticed that her daughter had gotten a cold sore and that her lips had started to swell up.
“My friend had shared an article with me on Facebook when I was four months pregnant on the dangers of cold sores in babies,” she said.
Thanks to this prior knowledge, she knew that the situation was serious, so she immediately took Brooke to the hospital.
At the hospital, the doctors also understood the gravity of the situation.
“If she had been left it could have easily spread and — worst case — been fatal,” said the mom.
“I know this sounds like I am scaremongering but if my friend had not told me about this my baby girl could have been very seriously ill,” Brooke’s mother wrote on Facebook.
According to an expert Buzzfeed News spoke to, it is babies infected with the virus could indeed lead to complications. Children three months or younger can not fight the virus alone. It can lead to serious neurological disease, or in the worst case death.
“It’s one of these diseases that we are really vigilant for, but it’s so rare,” says Dr. Bonnie Maldonado, a professor of children’s infectious diseases at Stanford University to BuzzFeed News.
Little Brooke was put on anti-viral drip for five days, but is feeling much better now. But both mother Claire and the professor are urging other parents to be alert.
“The moral of the story is DO NOT let anyone kiss your newborns mouth, even if they don’t look like they have a cold sore- 85% of the population carry the virus. Everyone who I have spoken to had not heard of this before and so I felt it was important to share Brooke’s story and raise awareness to stop anyone else going through what we have this week,” she warned on Facebook.
And the professor agrees with the mother.
“We would really encourage people not to kiss babies in the first month of life if they have lesions,” Maldonado said.
Please spread on to everyone you know who have or plan to have children.
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