Kissing foreign babies is something that people love, a custom that, in addition to being disrespectful, can be very dangerous for a newborn baby. Most people are not aware of the serious danger that can cause kissing of newborns.
Lucy Kendall, a mother from Yorkshire, England, is one of those who adds to the call that nobody kisses babies after his son, born on August 3, contracted a neonatal herpes because of a kiss.
A few days ago he shared on his Facebook profile the photos of his son Oliver admitted, who had to remain hospitalized for 21 days.
He says that it all began at eleven days of life, when the baby did not want to drink milk during the night and his body temperature began to rise. The next day he was taken to the hospital and had to be admitted with oxygen and a feeding tube.
In Babies and more This is the reason why no one should kiss a baby on the mouth: his daughter was close to not telling herEight days after fighting for his life, the doctor explained what his baby had: a neonatal herpes, a virus that can be spread to a baby if a person with herpes kisses or touches the little one. "They are very contagious, even after being cured," he explains.
Twenty-one days later they were able to return home, but the baby should receive antibiotic treatment for six months and continue to visit the hospital.
The mother adds that both she and her partner are free of the herpes virus and that none kiss the child.
Herpes simplex virus
He Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is very contagious and causes palpable ulcers or blisters around the mouth or other parts of the face, although there may be asymptomatic people who do not have wounds. Transmission is through direct contact with herpes or by contact with the saliva of a person with the infection, for example, through a kiss.
Some people do not have symptoms of the infection, that is, wounds on the lips or near the mouth do not always manifest. However, others develop painful and unpleasant sores. Cold sores usually appear outside the mouth, on the lips or around. When they are inside the mouth, it is usually in the gums or on the palate.
It is spread by direct contact with the wounds or with the saliva contained in the virus, so when you kiss the baby at that time contagion is very easy if there is contact between lips or near the mouth.
Herpes simplex viruses can also, rarely cause meningitis (Fortunately it was not the case of this little girl). Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges (thin tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) that reaches the central nervous system. Symptoms usually appear quickly and involve vital organs in a few hours.
Let no one kiss your baby
The mother emphasizes that if it had taken a couple more hours to go to the hospital, the story would have been different. And it is an extremely contagious virus that in an adult is not serious, but it can be very dangerous for a newborn baby, with his immune system still immature, in which an infection can spread quickly and affect vital organs.
And even if it is not this particular virus, any other virus or bacterium could be spread to the baby without wanting it by a carrier adult, so as a precaution it is best to Let no one kiss your newborn baby, and never in the mouth or near the mouth.
In Babies and more A mother warns about the danger of kissing babies, after her son became seriously ill from the herpes simplex virusBabies who were not so lucky
Although they are not frequent cases, we know some terrible stories linked to this infection: that of a baby who died 18 days after birth when she contracted meningitis because of a kiss, that of an Australian baby who died within 24 days or even of a baby, which as in the case of Oliver, was about not to tell.
Thus, "don't kiss my baby" There should be a very large sign when people go to visit a newborn.
