An Australian mom Sandra Tee, took to social media to share her infant daughter's experience with whooping cough, also known as pertussis.
She shared that her 5-week-old baby often chokes and stops breathing, and thus requires constant care. "The scary symptom for babies is when they don't cough but silently choke and turn blue/purple from lack of oxygen. If we weren't in hospital and sitting watching our baby 24/7 the outcome would be fatal."
She goes on to say, "This may distress some people but I'm sharing to show just how scary and dangerous whooping cough is to babies who are too young to be vaccinated."
Frighteningly, her baby girl only exhibited a slight cough at the onset of her battle with whooping cough. Tee implores other parents not to ignore the warning signs. If you've never heard a child with pertussis cough, this is what it sounds like.
The desperate mom continues, "Babies rely on herd immunity to keep them safe and unfortunately we cannot achieve that without high vaccination rates." Tee also asks those who read her post to, "Please share this to educate more people on the importance of vaccinations."
The Mayo Clinic shares a video on their YouTube page of an infant with whooping cough to show parents what this intense cough sounds like.
If you are like me, that video is enough to convince me that we should follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' childhood vaccination schedule. What about you?
Melissa Willets is a writer/blogger and a mom. Follow her on Twitter (@Spitupnsuburbs), where she chronicles her love of exercising and drinking coffee, but never simultaneously.
