Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease?

[Logan Sapphire]

It seems like someone is always sick at my house and this week is no exception. Both my kids (20 months and 3.5) have an issue going on. My son has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and my daughter has some variation of it- sores all over the roof of her mouth, insides of her cheeks, lips, and tongue, but no red dots on her hands and feet like my son has. I guess she just has Mouth disease! The dr. said to paint his tongue with a mix of Benadryl and Mylanta, but for my daughter, to just paint it with Mylanta and skip the Benadryl, since her mouth is basically one big sore and she'd become very sleepy from the Benadryl otherwise.

As expected, they're both refusing to eat, even popsicles. I'm worried about him b/c he's so skinny and can't afford to lose any weight.

Anyone have any experience with HFM and other treatments for the sores?

 

[SapphireLover]

I vaguely remember having this as a child. I can't remember what the treatment was but it didn't last more than a couple of weeks!

 

[Lottie]

Logan Sapphire both of mine have had this very recently. H (17months) had all the symptoms - rashes etc, although it didn't seem to bother him other than a very slight decrease in appetite. N (nearly 4) had no symptoms at all for a few days - she complained of gum pain and I thought she might have an abscess, but the next day came out with sores in her mouth including one very bad one on her tongue.

She wouldn't let me put anything on her tongue nor would she take any Calpol, was very low and had very little energy with it but it does pass - is there anything that your son will eat? Bananas mashed with Honey, yoghurt, porridge and ice cream were all turned down but she did spend a few days only eating custard!

Sorry I can't suggest anything for the sores, I hope they feel better soon.

 

[Dreamer_D]

My older son had it too. He had terrible sores in his mouth, and one really nasty one on his tongue. It was a sad time, we did not treat it at all because there was no recommendation, and just waited it out Took bout 3-4 days for the pain in his mouth to go away, and in that time he just drank milk and ate apple sauce.

We did think that ibuprophen/advil seemed to help him feel better, perhaps because it took the swelling down? Otherwise, wait it out.

I think my 6 month old got a mild case too because I saw a couple little dots of blister on his heel and lip. But he was otherwise not affected, presumably because he is EBF and got all my immunities.

ETA: November was hell for us, HUnter was sick for about 6 weeks with back to back illness, then DH then I got sick too. I commisserate!

 

[Mara]

My 23mo old had this about 2 months ago, poor thing...it seems so miserable for them. He had it pretty much mostly only in his mouth and we assume in his throat because he would cry anytime he tried to eat something, but he wouldn't let us see in his mouth very well to confirm. He had 2 tiny tiny blisters on his hands and one largeish one on his foot. That was it. He also had the characteristic fever and the only way we KNEW it was HFM was because his little friend had it a few days earlier and they had just spent time together before the other little boy was diagnosed. We just gave him soft foods and liquids to eat, I made him shakes, and gave him the fruit pouches. Runny cream of wheat or oatmeal with brown sugar. He also LOVES soft cinnamon toast so I just barely toasted it and put lots of butter on it since it was super soft to eat. He doesn't drink a ton of milk but I tried to get more into him those days, just anything with calories since he was not eating very much. Morning he'd eat the most so I'd just feed him whatever he would eat then. Oh and tylenol or pain medicine almost continuously for his pain. Poor things...can't even imagine, we get ONE cold sore or something and it kills, can't imagine having like 10 of them in your mouth and throat!! Oh and J's foot blister took like a month to entirely go away, it was a blood blister which was so bizarre, I assume from his shoe rubbing it. Hang in there!