Hand, Foot and Mouth disease

None of this information should be taken as medical advice. Please see your doctor if you or your baby are sick.

She got a low grade fever one night and the next day she refused to nurse and kept chewing her fingers. She barely drank water and just ate a couple of pieces of fruit. I knew something was up because she always nurses several times a day and eats a bit more than what she ate that day.

That night I changed her diaper and saw a few bumps on her bottom. It didn’t look like a regular diaper rash. I monitored her temperature and she didn’t get a fever but she was definitively uncomfortable. She kept waking up to nurse and as soon as she would try to latch she would cry. It was terrible!

The next morning I took her to the doctor and turns out she had hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). I would have never guessed since she had such a mild rash: just a few dots in her feet and hand and a bit more on her bum. The doctor explained to me that the worst part of HFMD is the rash they get in the mouth – it makes it really painful to eat or drink – that explained why my daughter was not nursing.

For the first time in her life I gave her ibuprofen (baby motrin). I don’t like medicines but I didn’t want a miserable baby and was worried about her not eating/drinking enough. She took ibuprofen for about 36 hours (one dose every 8 hours) and this helped her to eat and nurse. Luckily HFMD didn’t last long – only 4 days. But it was though.

Apparently HFMD is very very common amongst children under 5 and highly contagious. Most adults have build up immunity for it and that’s why they don’t get it. To be honest, I didn’t even know much about this. In case you also haven’t heard much about, here’s some info (from webmd.com):

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is an illness that causes sores in or on the mouth and on the hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks and legs. The sores may be painful. The illness usually doesn’t last more than a week or so. The virus spreads easily through coughing and sneezing. It can also spread through infected stool, such as when you change a diaper or when a young child gets stool on his or her hands and then touches objects that other children put in their mouths. It usually takes 3 to 6 days for a person to get symptoms of hand-foot-and-mouth disease after being exposed to the virus.

What are the symptoms?
At first your child may feel tired, get a sore throat, or have a fever of around 101°F (38°C) to 103°F (39°C). Then in a day or two, sores or blisters may appear in or on the mouth and on the hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks. In some cases a skin rash may appear before the blisters do. The blisters may break open and crust over. The sores and blisters usually go away in a week or so.

What to expect?

My daughter was miserable for about 2 days. Eating and drinking seemed to be the worst part and very painful for her. Dehydration is a serious issue that can develop during the time they have HFMD. It is very important to make sure they’re drinking. Cold things feel good in their mouth so you can try giving them cold drinks, like coconut water, frozen pops, frozen fruit, like grapes and watermelon and you could even give them ice cream to help numb the pain a little bit.  My doctor told me not to worry about getting her to eat but to make sure she was drinking, at least a bit every hour.  I offered her water frequently and monitored her diapers to make sure she was making them wet.

My daughter felt miserable, which meant I had to be with her and not do much of anything else for about 3 days. We watched TV – which we rarely do but it really helped to keep her mind off how she was feeling. We had 2 rough nights where she would wake up about every 2 hours from the pain in her mouth. It was a short lived disease but one that made both of us tired.

Your kid might develop a low grade fever that won’t really need medication. However, if they are in too much pain they might need ibuprofen to deal with the worst part of it and to make sure they are drinking enough fluids. Watch your kid, you will easily see if they’re too miserable or not. The roughest part of it last for about 1-2 days.

Unfortunately, here’s not much you can do when your child gets HFMD. You have to wait it out and let it run its course, which for us was 4 days (the bumps disappeared in a week). You can give them some pain reliever to help them eat and drink but always consult with your doctor before giving anything to your child.
I really hope you never have to go through this but if you do, remember that in about 4 days you’ll have your baby back in a happy mood.

Has your child been sick HFMD?

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