8-year-old girl left with brain damage after being kissed on the mouth when she was 2 days old
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Special Books by Special Kids via YouTube
A mom has issued a stark warning about kissing young children in light of what happened to her daughter.
Eight-year-old Breelyn was born a healthy and happy baby, but she fell seriously unwell after someone kissed her on the mouth when she was just two days old.
It turned out the person who kissed her had a cold sore, sparking Breelyn to get HSV encephalitis.
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Because Breelyn's immune system wasn't developed at the time, the virus went on to cause brain damage as the encephalitis spread.
Speaking about Breelyn and the experience that led to her disability, her mom explained in a video shared to the Special Books by Special Kids' YouTube channel: "When parents say not to kiss your children, this is one of the reasons for sure.
"[Breelyn] was born healthy. She was fine. And at two days old, somebody was so excited to see her that they kissed her on the mouth, and two weeks later we started having seizures."
The seizures went to cause 'a lot of brain damage' for Breelyn, as well the Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE).
The illness is extremely rare and only effects one in 500,000 individuals per year.
The interviewer went on to ask how the kiss caused Breelyn's brain injury, to which her mom said: "The infection got into her brain fluid and it attacked her brain.
"It attack the left side of her brain mostly. It had just started moving over to the right side when we caught it."
"More or less, the encephalitis ate away at her brain tissue," she added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Breelyn's mom revealed that 60 percent of her left part of the young girl's brain was left damaged, while 10 percent of the right side was.
While the youngster is doing better than hoped with the extent of her brain damage in mind, sadly she isn't expected to live into adulthood.
Despite Breelyn being left with life-changing injuries from the kiss, her mom says she's forgiven the person who did it.
"You know, it was an accident and they didn't truly mean it," she said.
Many people have since commented on the video sharing their surprise at the detrimental affects it can have on a baby if you kiss them.
One person said: "I never knew a baby could get so sick from a kiss, totally shocking."
Another added: "I had no idea the dangers of kissing a baby until I saw this. I'm almost 30."
"Kissing is unsanitary by nature, but I never thought that this was possible," a third added. "That's heartbreaking."
With people's lack of knowledge on the matter in mind, many have called for more awareness to be raised about the dangers of kissing babies.