I was just wondering if any of you have babies who have had the swine flu. If so, what were the symptoms and/or complications? You always hear the worst about infants getting the flu, and it would be nice to hear some actual accounts of the illness.

I heard from a friend of mine that her 10 month old son had febrile seizures that landed him in the hospital, then he couldn't breathe on his own, so he was in the PICU for 3 days. He's fine now. I don't know if this experience is common, or if this was an extreme case.

Thanks for any input!

My friend's son just turned three and he had it.
Its the flu....so he just had regular flu symptoms. Diarrhea, vomiting, headache, congestion, etc.
They put him on antibiotics and he's now fine.
However, he also passed it on to his brother, who is 18 months old, and the younger boy had the same symptoms, same cure.
I know another girl whose daughter had it, she's four years old, and her only symptoms were diarrhea and fatigue. She was also medicated and is fine.

I realize it's a strain of influenza. I guess any accounts of the regular seasonal flu would be helpful as well in putting some of my anxieties to rest. Since my daughter is only 5 months old, I don't think she can receive Tamiflu or other related remedies.

Thanks for the response.

Febrile seizures are common in infants when they have high fevers. The main thing to remember is that if your child's temperature is not responding to the regular Tylenol (acetaminophen) treatment for fever, take them to the hospital. If the fever lowers after a dose of Tylenol, keep monitoring.

H1N1 or any virus (flu or not) cannot be treated by antibiotics that is why we have vaccines to prevent the illness. Bacterial infections are they type treated with antibiotics. They may have been given Tamiflu or had caught a secondary infection which needed antibitics which is also very common with H1N1 - pneumonia, strep, staph infections which all mirror the flu.

In our town, we are currently at 20% absenteeism from schools with the H1N1 and from all the accounts that I have heard, the severity depends on the person, healthy or in an at risk group.

The most susceptible at risk group appears to be pregnant women in 2nd and 3rd trimesters with 10% needing to be hospitalized.

As you would with any illness, monitor and treat your child accordingly and if you are worried, call your doctor.

I just took my son to the doctor yesterday because he was experiencing a lot of the flu/cold type symptoms (fever, cough, congestion & some difficulty breathing.) The doctor told us they were pretty sure he has a severe sinus infection and not the flu, but if the antibiotic didn't mostly clear it by Monday they want to do a swine flu test.

He told us they delay doing the swine flu test on children younger than 2 because it is rather difficult to administer on someone so young and there isn't much they can do for them even if they have it (they are too young for treatments with Tamiflu or even decongestants). The part that scares me most about it is that I am 28 weeks pregnant and have not been able to get a H1N1 shot because they were saving them for women over 30 weeks.