Surviving COVID: Colorado Springs family shares 2-year-old’s story as more kids test positive

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- Children's Hospital Colorado says they're starting to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases in children. That includes 2-year-old Cecelia Pittman.

Ten days ago, Cecelia's parents say they started to notice a change in her energy.

"You see all these symptoms and then all of a sudden the personality goes away, the energy goes away, then you really know something's wrong," said Jerry Pittman, her dad.

Cecelia had a slight cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.

"For little kiddos, that’s the nasal flaring -- kind of using their chest and belly muscles to take deep breaths -- and that’s when we took her to the children’s ER in Colorado Springs," said Tiffany Pittman, her mom.

Cecelia tested positive for COVID-19 and a day later was admitted to the hospital.

"To see her in with the nasal cannula on, and an IV and on the monitors, to see her so unwell was really hard as parents," said Tiffany.

Cecelia isn't alone, according to the Children's Colorado COVID cases in kids are becoming more common. Young patients are testing positive for COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses.

We have been seeing for the past several weeks a number of the other respiratory viruses we would normally see during our respiratory virus season, but things are just a little bit out wack this year," said Dr. Sara Saporta-Keating, an infectious disease expert with Children's Colorado.

According to the El Paso County Health Department, 50 kids under the age of nine have been hospitalized with COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, but more than half of those hospitalizations happened this year.

"We do know that the delta variant is more easily spread or transmitted between people and just with kids the majority of kids not being vaccinated just yet because they’re not eligible we think that they may be at greater risk for getting that variant or any of the COVID variants that exist," said Saporta-Keating.

Cecelias parents say she's getting better every day. While vaccine approval is still pending for kids under 12, they say they hope their situation shows the importance of getting vaccinated.

"COVID 19 is still very much out there, and it can infect our children. They can still get very ill and the best way to protect is to get vaccinated especially because our young children can’t," said Tiffany.

Children's Colorado is hosting a vaccine clinic on Aug. 26. You can find more information here.