LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — It's that time of the year again when shelves are stocked with tissue boxes and cold medicine, and kids begin to run temperatures at home.
With the holiday season in full swing it's that much easier to pick up a virus and travel with it to each destination you go to, infecting people along the way.
"So the walking pneumonia is much more contagious with prolonged direct contact," explains Pediatrician Caitlynn Iddings. "So that would be in a school setting, in a college dorm setting and of course through a sibling at home that's sick that maybe they share a room with or the bacteria with that called mico plasma so lots of parents bringing it home to their kids as well."
Iddings says many kids and adults are bringing home pediatric pneumonia and passing it around wherever they get it from. Pediatric Pneumonia, or walking pneumonia, is an acute respiratory infection in the lungs that causes painful breathing and minimized oxygen.
Iddings has diagnosed at least two kids a day with walking pneumonia in the last month. "Some kids with this bacteria will get a lot of wheezing. So you'll get some audible little wheezing noises or with younger ones if you're holding them you might kind of feel that little gurgly and rattling sound in the chest."
One mother, Beth Minton, has lived in terrifying moments since her daughter Elena Daith was nine months old. That's the age Elena was diagnosed with Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome [CFC]; an extremely rare genetic disorder.
"It's always scary and hard to see your baby like that and not be able to do anything," said Minton. "Especially when there's underlining stuff with her."
Last year, Elena was hospitalized after contracting pediatric pneumonia. "She had a lot of temperatures. She had to be on oxygen. She would go down on it and have to get more oxygen. She wouldn't eat anything, she'd get sick so they had to do fluids for a while. It was scary we were in there for a few days when she got sick that one time."
Beth says Elena's sickness is a great example of why it's so important to not only take precautions but make sure you are wiping down every surface, washing your hands, and being aware of what you're sharing. Not just for yourself but for others.
"I think it's scary for every mom but just to have that like self awareness and knowing that stuff and what you need to do like don't hesitate about taking them to the ER if you feel like their breathing or something is off just to be proactive in it," explains Minton.
