Stephanie McPhail's baby daughter is recovering from a bout of bronchiolitis, which saw her needing oxygen and tube feeding.

Mrs McPhail is urging parents to be aware of the illness, saying other children could contract the bug this winter.

She knew of of bronchiolitis and the sometimes related respiratory syncytial virus for a while through an Australia-wide parents' Facebook group.

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Mrs McPhail remembers thinking how much she would hate for her newborn Eloise to suffer from the illness.

A while later, her two-year-old daughter contracted her first real cold.

A self-confessed worrywart, Mrs McPhail said she did everything to prevent Eloise catching the same bug.

But after four days the baby was also sick. It was just a chesty cough and a snotty nose at first, so they were going okay, Mrs McPhail said.

Her doctor told her to keep up the paracetamol if the baby was feverish and look out for certain signs.

But the next day Eloise didn't feed for nearly eight hours.

Mrs McPhail was getting worried, because she could see the baby's breathing was laboured. Her head was bobbing and saliva was bubbling at her mouth.

Feeling uneasy, she called the Bendigo emergency department. When she described Eloise's symptoms, the nurse told her to call an ambulance straight away.

"Your heart just drops. It was so bloody petrifying, it was terrifying," Mrs McPhail said.

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Eloise was admitted to the children's ward, put on oxygen and given a nasal gastric tube to feed, because she wouldn't take a bottle. She spent four days in hospital.

Just over a week after being discharged, Mrs McPhail said the infant was recovering well, but still not 100 per cent.

She said it had been a difficult time at hospital, but the nurses and medical staff had been amazing.

After her family's experience, Mrs McPhail was urging parents to be aware, both of bronchiolitis and RSV, and their baby's health more generally.

She urged parents to listen to their gut, and get help if they were concerned, suggesting Nurse on Call as an option.

"Even after five weeks of life, you do know your baby, you know their little quirks, when they're healthy, when they're not, and how they're feeling," Mrs McPhail said.

"If I'd disregarded my feelings, I genuinely don't know whether she would still be here."

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Bronchiolitis is a chest infection caused by a virus, affecting the small breathing tubes in the lungs. It usually starts as a cold, with a cough and rapid, wheezy breathing.

Victorian government health advice urges parents to seek medical help if they are worried, if their baby is breathing rapidly and or irregularly, refuses food and drink, turns blue, or seems tired, pale, sweaty or irritable.

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