'It was scary': Valley mother shares 3-month-old son's experience with RSV

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Coarsegold mom is sharing an important message after her baby was hospitalized with RSV.

Shelby Fields had to take 3-month-old Tucker, her youngest of three, to Valley Children's Hospital when she noticed he was struggling to breathe Monday.

"You never think your kid is going to get that sick in order to be in the hospital," said Fields. "It was scary. It put us into a panic, for sure."

Fields and her husband Rod noticed a change when Tucker came down with a cold.

"I thought it was getting better, and then he developed a little bit of a cough, which he hadn't really had much of. Then my husband was changing him early in the morning and noticed his breathing," Fields recalled.

"When I looked at it, it reminded me of a baby I saw on the news that they showed with RSV"

It was at that point she knew to take him to the hospital.

Now that is Tucker improving, Fields hopes no other family has to experience this.

"If your kids are sick and you can, keep them home. Because this is spreading like wildfire and for the babies, it's serious," said Fields.

Though the number of cases are trending downward at Valley Children's Hospital, last week alone, it saw 112 cases of RSV with 46 admitted to the hospital.

In-patient pediatrician Dr. Nicole Webb says though they're exceeding capacity it's not because of RSV alone.

"They might have flu. They might have para influenza, virus, or rhino virus. There's there's a lot of things that cause the same symptoms. And again, kind of why we're so full is that we're seeing all of those at once rather than staggered," said Dr. Webb.

Whether it's fear of taking a child to the hospital or fear of the virus itself, Webb says it's important as a parent to trust your gut.

"You can trust your parental instinct. RSV was around way before Covid, and there's not a pediatrician alive that doesn't know how to handle it ourselves, included," Dr. Webb explained. "So, that means it's not the virus itself that needs to be feared it's really if there are concerning symptoms.