Five week old Sawyer and his mother made a trip to Children's Hospital Central California in the middle of the night.
“He just had a hard time breathing just really bad breathing like he is right now and a lot of phlegm,” said mother, Janeen Durant.
Little Saywer was diagnosed with Respiratory Syncytial Virus or better known as RSV.
It's an upper respiratory tract infection that causes flu like symptoms and is passed through contact.
“We're concerned with small children where it goes down into their chest, they get that nasty chest cold which is very overwhelming for the small, small babies,” said Dr. Robert Kezirian with Children’s Hospital.
Within the last three weeks, doctors have seen a dramatic increase in children with RSV and colds.
A heated tent near the hospital was even put up around Christmas time to accommodate the overflow of sick patients.
“We're seeing well over 300 a day which is a record for us. All of last year we never saw 300 on a single day,” said Jill Wagner with Children’s Hospital.
In fact, the hospital's seeing so much foot traffic from sick children, they recently hit an all time high of 381 patients in one day.
Doctors say you can help prevent the spread of germs by washing your hands frequently, covering your cough, getting proper immunizations, and minimizing the time you take your child out in large crowds.
Although RSV only causes death in few cases, Sawyers mother is just glad she recognized the symptoms early on.
“The time I think was key for us,” said Durant.
The hospital expects to see fewer cases once temperatures start to heat up.
