Here’s why you shouldn’t let people kiss your newborn infants

A new mum has issued a warning to all pregnant and postnatal women about the dangers of letting visitors kiss their newborns, after her daughter ended up in hospital.

Brooke is now recovering well and all her tests for brain and liver damage have come back clear.

Henderson was lucky that she was able to rush her baby to the hospital early enough, and doctors could attend to Brooke before the virus spread.

The NHS advise that if you have a cold sore you should avoid close contact and you should never kiss a newborn baby if there is even the slightest possibility that you may have one. Some present with a fever and cold sores before becoming “very sick” with seizures.

However, for an infant under 6 weeks old, it can cause permanent damage to the brain and liver if it gets into the bloodstream, with the potential to turn into a fatal strand of meningitis.

She wrote: “I know this sounds like I am scaremongering but if my friend had not told me about this my baby girl could have been very seriously ill, ‘ she wrote in a Facebook status”. Claire Henderson learned that the hard way.

“I’ve read other stories where there have been babies who die from the herpes virus”.

Neonatal herpes, which can also be transmitted by infected mothers during childbirth, is rare but can be fatal. Estimations put cases of untreated neonatal herpes infections as being 60 percent fatal, while usually older children and adults just get an embarrassing lip sore.

It is very important that parents be extremely vigil during their child’s first few months of life, be careful of any kiss they receive and kept out of public spaces for at least a month.

Since posting her story on 16th September, Claire’s message has been shared more than 35,000 times, with many parents thanking her for raising awareness of a condition that not many new mothers are warned about.

[Photos Courtesy of Claire Henderson’s Facebook].