This Baby Died of Herpes Meningitis After a Kiss

Friends and family come to visit you after you’ve just had your baby. They ask to hold the little one and then coo and fawn all over the newborn. Some kisses are thrown in as well. It’s just the way things are done.

Yet a baby contacted herpes meningitis and died when she was just 18 days old. Both parents tested negative for herpes meningitis, so it most likely was as a result of a kiss the baby got from someone who was already infected.

It’s just scary.

Most parents do their best to keep their children safe and to protect them from harm. As a parent, I try to make sure that my kids wash their hands, and stay clean. I keep the environment safe from sharp objects and don’t let them speak to strangers.

I will do all I can to keep my children safe.

But how do you protect your child from a danger you are not even aware of? Do we impose mandatory tests for everyone who comes in contact with our babies? How does one even know to test for something like herpes meningitis? It’s just not something that’s on your radar. And anyway, you can’t force people to take tests neither can you keep them from cooing over your baby…not in my part of the world.

It’s troubling…

Reading the article on cnn.com about the baby who died from this disease really got me thinking.

We do so much and try so hard to be all we can for our children; to protect them. However, there is just so much that we can do. It is not possible to keep them safe from everything that could pose a possible threat.

And that is humbling.

This is where the Divine comes in. If you believe in God, then it becomes imperative to trust Him in this because when the chips are down, we can’t keep them safe. Not really.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from all this? Don’t let anyone kiss your baby!