Bronchiolitis in Infants

Your baby is struggling for air. The smallest airways — the bronchioles, fine branches deep in the lungs — are inflamed, swollen, filled with mucus. Medically, bronchiolitis is a viral infection that primarily affects infants in the first months of life. The body reacts intensely because the immune system is still immature and the tiny airways can become almost completely blocked even with slight swelling. This is serious. It requires medical attention. Without exception.

And at the same time, a question may be asked — one that changes nothing about the medical urgency: what might this tiny being be sensing, that is affecting its airways so severely? And what might the atmosphere be, into which it is breathing?

Bronchiolitis is not an accusation. It is an invitation — to parents, to the whole family — to look closely. Not with guilt, but with curiosity.