How to Survive Hand, Foot, and Mouth

My son started daycare in September of this year and oh man has it been tough. I thought I was semi prepared for all the trials that would come along with enrolling him in a school. Which I really was except for one smallish aka HUGE piece, the cesspool of disgusting germs that is a room full of toddlers. My son started daycare 82 days ago and since then he has been healthy for only 13 days. I’ll repeat myself he has been sick 69 of 82 days… that I was not prepared for let me tell you. The crying at drop off, (the almost worse) no crying indifferent drop off, the newly found independence, all of it I was prepared for but not the illness. From Influenza A to hand, foot and mouth (HFMD) my kid has gotten it all. The worst by far has been hand, foot and mouth. Here is how my family survived hand, foot and mouth (when my husband got it as well).

What is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?

So for anyone that doesn’t know hand, foot and mouth is, it is an extremely contagious virus. The Mayo Clinic defines hand, food and mouth disease as “a mild, contagious viral infection common in young children — is characterized by sores in the mouth and a rash on the hands and feet. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is most commonly caused by a coxsackievirus” (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hand-foot-and-mouth-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353035). Which I am not sure how the word mild can be in the same sentence as sores in your mouth, and on your hands and feet. Well, I suppose it is mild because it is a self-contained virus which is very lucky but while you or your child is suffering from the sores for a week or two I promise it doesn’t feel mild.

What is the typical progression of HFMD?

So I tried to find the typical progression of HFMD and I looked on tons of websites and couldn’t find a very good day by day guide to what HFMD looks like. So here is how it presented for my family.

Day 1: My son was fussy and didn’t want to drink or eat much. Which is not like him he is a great eater and loves milk. Then that night he wasn’t sleeping because his cough was so bad.

Day 2: We took him into the doctor on call at our family doctor’s office. He didn’t have a fever, he had a sore throat and runny nose and since he had been sick on and off for so long already the doctor prescribed antibiotics to try and help him kick whatever he was fighting. Which although it didn’t treat his HFMD since it is a virus, it was needed for his cough and helped clear that up in a few days.

Day 3: My son woke up with a 101°F fever which spiked to 103°F later in the day. I called the emergency on-call pediatrician who told us to treat with Tylenol as long as William was acting like himself, still having wet diapers and didn’t look too sickly we didn’t need to go in but if it went any higher or his overall appearance/attitude changed to bring him into the ER.

 Day 4: His fever broke but he woke up with sores on his chin (see pic) and I assume he had sores in his mouth because he wouldn’t let me look in it.

Day 5: The sores were worse on his chin with several large blisters and they also started to show up on his hands and a few on his poor little bottom.

Day 6: This was the peak for the pain, fussiness and overall terribleness that comes along with HFMD. The blisters on his chin started to burst and dry up, the blisters on his hands grew and also a couple showed up on his feet.

Day 7: My son woke up with a smile on his face! I couldn’t believe it. After sleeping on the floor with him for the past 5 nights (Oh and I’m 7 months pregnant…) and not sleeping at all because he was waking up crying every hour or so having him wake up with a smile and a “hi momma” was top 5 best moments of my life. His chin wasn’t hurting at all anymore and the blisters were peeling. The blisters on his hands were starting to dry up. His appetite was back and there weren’t any new blisters anywhere.

Day 8: My son was back to his charming self. He actually slept through the night. Asked to eat first thing in the morning and wanted to play all day long.

Day 9+: He was back to his normal self and his blisters and sores are slowly healing. I think by day 14 they will be all healed up.

**My husband had the exact same presentation day by day. Started with a sore throat, then a fever, and finally the sores and blisters. His symptoms seemed to be worse than my sons with so many sores on his hands but very little large blisters.

How to treat the symptoms of HFMD

Treat the mouth sores and avoid dehydration

So unfortunately since HFMD is a virus antibiotics won’t help to clear it up. There is no cure or vaccine for it but, you can treat the symptoms to make anyone suffering from it as comfortable as possible. My son is only 21 months old and he has had a pretty strict diet. We don’t give him a lot of sugar so he has never had a popsicle so he wouldn’t even try it but from all of my mom friends and websites I read those are supposed to help a lot with the mouth pain and staying hydrated. Pedialyte even makes popsicles which is the best of both worlds.

Treat the overall pain

After talking with my son’s doctor he said we could alternate infant Tylenol and Infant Motrin every six hours. So he could get a dose of pain relief every three hours. Which was not easy since my son didn’t want to take the medicine. But, it really does help with the pain so much especially at night and everyone can get an hour or two of sleep.

Treat the loss of appetite

Foods that my son would at least try to eat were yogurt, muffins and cold bananas. He liked ice cold Pedialyte and would drink that enough to stay hydrated. Basically if my son actually wanted to eat anything I let him. Which meant he ate basically only muffins so I made him organic corn muffins which are his favorite) and added zucchini and carrots to them.    

Prevention

The best way to prevent the spread of HFMD is through proper and consistent hand washing and trying to have your child cover their mouth when the cough. Which if you have or know a toddler then you know this is much harder than it sounds.

What to look out for with HFMD

Fever

HFMD can cause a pretty high fever in some cases so keep an eye on your child’s (or a parent) temperature. I only had a forehead thermometer but since my son already had a 103.4 fever and I wanted to have the most accurate reading that he would allow I went out and bought an underarm thermometer.

Infection

As the blisters begin to pop and dry up they can become infected. So, you have to keep an eye out for yellow or greenish colored discharge or skin near the blisters. If you notice anything that has a strange color call your doctor to see if you need antibiotics.

This too shall pass

HFMD is terrible but this too shall pass. You need to keep your children out of daycare/school and adults out of work until there is no longer a fever and all of the blisters are no longer weeping aka oozing aka gross. It takes about 14 days for the blisters to heal but my husband was able to go back to work after about week.