WWYD?

Throw3ks

Seeking advice from preemie moms. I have spoke with the doctor but I want opinions from moms who have been thru this.
With the holidays coming up are you taking your LO around family?
My LO was born at 30w. (She is now 35w and getting ready to head home from the NICU within the next 2 weeks) She was vented for 4 hours then on half liter cannula low flow for 3 weeks and has been room air and great since. No episodes. But due to her being vented she is considered having RDS. She will be getting the synagis shot as she is eligible all season and by the time thanksgiving and Christmas are here she will have recieved all her other shots. So given this would you bring your LO around family for the holidays? I will make sure no one is/has been sick prior to going and will be strict with hand washing/sanitizing.
Your opinion counts as this is new to us and since some of you may be debating the same thing and some have gone thru this I thought it could help everyone.
...her doc says its fine...

direy25

We will be but we have small families so it will most likely just be parents, and possibly SIL, BIL and 16yo nephew. No young children in our family. But same as you, we'll be diligent about hand washing, sanitizer, no sickness, etc.

DrRx

I can't stress enough how important it is to avoid small children or families with small children during this time of the year.  We had my daughter around family, but we have a small family and only 1 older child.   We were given the ok to be around family and in September last year (she was 7 months old, 4.5 adjusted) we visited DH's family in another state.  Her little cousins arrived sick and, regardless of our diligent avoidance of letting them play together, handwashing, wiping down, etc, our daughter still got sick.  Looking back, DH and I see it as one of our biggest regrets.  We should've just left when the cousins showed up with snot coming out of their nose!

In the grand scheme of things, missing big holiday events for 1 year isn't worth a potential sickness.  Even a little cold will have you freaking out--which it did for us.  You worry that you will have to put them in the hospital, etc, and imo, it is totally not worth it.  Plus, I felt so guilty.  IMO, I would avoid large get togethers, or get togethers with a lot of little kids. 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

staceymack

We are not attending any holiday events and have informed our families. Next year is questionable. They've been through so much I just don't want them to catch something and end up back in the hospital. I would never forgive myself. My husband and I feel that since they're so young they won't remember this year so it's not like they're missing anything. We might have the grandparents over for a small get together, but that's it. I'm so scared of them catching something so we're on serious lock down.

Throw3ks

Thanks all. Luckily for us our LO is the the only one in the family under 18. I feel confident my small family will listen to our directions if they plan on seeing us. My H is from AZ and were in NY so that alleviates any issues there!

jbranden12

Yes, but there are no other small children in the family. 

PhillyGal34

If there are no small children I would feel better. We went to a few things last year but he was not passed around and I was crazy with the sanitizer. Our doctor said we didn't need lock down so we were ok'ed to go but we were still extra careful. If I heard a sniffle we left the room. People got it and respected it for the most part. Mil was a pain but whatever. She got over it.

elizacb

I was just talking to a nurse about this yesterday, because our son was born at 31 weeks and is now 34 and we're hoping to get him home in the next three or four weeks.  Literally ALL of our family lives back in Michigan and we're in Texas and we decided we're just not going to risk it.  My husband and I have family members that smoke, there are lots of little kids in the family and we would have flown home and I have NO control over who gets on that plane - so we're going to just focus on the three of us for the holidays.  It's possible my parents might visit and maybe the in -laws, but everybody else is just going to have to wait until March or April before they meet him.  

OMGTree

We will be with family for the holidays. My husband is an only so it's just his parents. My side I have an older brother and my sister and BIL. They have 2 kids, one is 26 hours older then our girl and the other is 5. I have told my parents and sister if I hear so much as a sniffle we are out of there. Thankfully my sister totally understands and promised if the 5 year old is sick she will let us know so we can make a decision.