So my son spent the night in the hospital last night. Sunday night/Monday morning he had a rough night and woke up every hour. He was struggling for breath, which is something we are well acquainted with in my house. Since he was a preemie he is more susceptible to RSV and pneumonia than other kids are. Last year he got pneumonia in December and RSV in January.

So it shouldn't have been surprising that he started sucking for air, except for one thing. He had no cold-like symptoms, no fever, nothing. My wife took him into his doctor Monday morning and she chose to admit him into the hospital for observation over night, since at night is when its the worst. They did a chest x-ray, and monitored his blood oxygen periodically. I took the girls to see him in the hospital and he was his normal happy playing self. In fact the Pediatrics Ward had a lot of cool toys, so he was in heaven playing with all the toys.

This morning the doctor talked to my wife about it. The chest x-ray showed some bronchial buildup in the lungs, but it was definitely not RSV or pneumonia. They put him on steroids and albuterol (breathing treatments), (we keep a stock of albuterol on hand anyway) and discharged him about an hour ago.

My wife and I were just discussing it, and we think we figured out the cause. Last Thursday a friend of ours had taken him for 2 hours to give my wife some relief while she was sick with the Flu strain B. Unfortunately this friend smokes. She promises us she doesn't do it in the house when our kids are there (which isn't often anyway), and so far we've believe her. However I think she does still smoke in the car with the window cracked open. I'd be willing to bet that the second hand smoke was the major factor in Daniels breathing problems Sunday night.

Now that I think about it my 5 yr old, who is very susceptible to croupe in spite of her age, was having trouble breathing Thursday night as well. She was the only other member of the family that caught the flu strain B (she even had the flu shot for it a few months ago) and with it she got a bit croupy at nights. Now I'm more suspicious of the smoke bringing on the symptoms than the flu.

Anybody that says second hand smoke is harmless is full of it. Were going to be more careful with this friend from now on. I have little sympathy for smokers. If they need the nicotine that bad, throw on a freaking patch or 2.