A mum has warned parents not to kiss their babies after her newborn son died from an infection.
Dakota Elizabeth Goss shared her heartbreaking story on TikTok this week in a video seen by more than 1.4 million people.
The mental health advocate, from Mount Airy, North Carolina, welcomed her son Emmitt on February 26, 2019, but he died just 11 days later.
At six days old, the little tot was taken to hospital where it was found he had herpes simplex virus.
Dakota, a professional photographer and podcast host, captioned the video: "No matter [how] hard I tried, I couldn’t protect him.
"But please wash your hands, don’t touch their mouths, or kiss them…. They can’t fight it."
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In the emotional clip, which shows a collection of photos of Dakota and her son, the mum wrote: "Babies have no immune system and they can't fight your germs."
Responding to people in the comments, she added: "Emmitt wasn't kissed and he still got sick.
"He was just touched. It happens. It's real."
"My heart goes out to you," one person replied. "Thank you for spreading awareness."
"I'm so conflicted," another wrote. "Everyone is going to want to see my newborn when he's born but how do I keep him safe? I'm so sorry for your loss."
Dakota didn't make clear how Emmitt contracted the infection, but believes it was while he was in hospital.
However, she did move to respond to people who implied it could have been from the family dog seen in the video.
"It's not from the damn dog," she wrote. "Did people not see that the dog never came into contact?"
Herpes simplex virus can be easily spread from mouth to mouth even if the adult isn't aware they're carrying the cold sore virus.
Some experts advise not to kiss babies on the lips and to wash your hands before touching them, especially if you've been in contact with an animal to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria.
In 2020, Dakota and her partner welcomed their second son Everritt, but the mum revealed both parents didn't feel comfortable kissing him until he was four months old.
They now appear to be expecting twins, with Dakota posting on Facebook this week about dealing with sickness.
"People don’t often talk about the bad parts of pregnancy," she said.
"The past two weeks plus has been the absolute hardest for me.
"Barley keeping anything down, no energy, barley can move, lightheadedness, can’t stand to smell anything, busting headaches … I can’t even ride in a car without getting extremely sick. I am at 0. I don’t think I have ever felt this bad in my entire life.
"But, growing babies is the hardest yet most rewarding thing you could ever do."
She added that expectant mums don't seem to talk about the issues during pregnancy out of fear society will say: "Shouldn’t have gotten pregnant if you can’t handle the sickness."
For more information about the risks associated with Neonatal Herpes visit here.
