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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) — A Colorado toddler is recovering from a serious case of COVID-19.

“About 10 days ago, it really just started off with a cough. And then the next day she started to develop a fever. We decided to get her tested and she came back positive for COVID-19,” Tiffany Pittman told FOX31.

Pittman is a physician assistant and said she noticed her daughter’s symptoms quickly getting worse.

“For young kiddos, it’s really like the nasal flaring, using their muscles, their chest and abdomen muscles to breathe, and that’s when I brought her to Children’s emergency department,” she said.

Cecelia, 2, was admitted to the hospital, where she stayed for six days because of low oxygen levels.

Tiffany Pittman’s 2-year-old daughter, Cecelia, was admitted to the hospital as she struggled to breathe because of COVID-19.

“Sometimes it’s hard to have a medical background, because you know the worst case scenarios. But you also know the best case scenarios, and she is young and healthy. But it was hard to see her — someone who is so healthy and vibrant with no underlying medical conditions at all — to go through something like this,” Pittman said.

Children make up about 18% of Colorado COVID-19 cases

Cecelia has since been released from the hospital. Now, her parents are sharing her story in hopes of reminding others that the pandemic is not over.

“We’re both fully vaccinated, my husband and I. We take a lot of precautions, and it was just kind of a bummer,” Pittman said. “We don’t have a known contact, which is kind of scary.”

According to data from the state of Colorado, children made up about 18% of all cases reported. Hospitalizations are much more rare.

“Our young children, they can still get very sick and they can’t get vaccinated, so really the only way we can protect them is to get vaccinated as adults,” Pittman said.

She said her goal is to help prevent other children from ending up as sick as Cecelia.

“I think that there’s this misconception that children aren’t affected by COVID-19, so I just wanted to share our story so that people can see that yes, this is serious, and there’s something we can do to prevent this,” she said.