Hand, Foot & Mouth?

I'm not going to get into how much I HATE whichever parent at DD's daycare decided to send their sick child in, which the carers picked up very quickly was ill, called parents to pick them up and take them to doctors, which apparently happened - "it's just a virus". Yes, hand foot & f%$^ing mouth!!! I know, I know, they probably didn't know......but DD got a blister, then seemed to have a bit of a fever a few hours later, and I knew something was wrong then. I'm fairly certain they didn't know what was actually wrong and just sent in their child because they were only a bit sick at the time, but I won't send DD in if she has anything worse than a barely runny nose....

Since Sunday morning when DD got a single blister on her foot, to today where she is just starting to show signs of recovery, she has barely eaten, and is crying constantly through the day because her mouth is so painful. She will literally take a mouthful or two then burst into tears and refuse to eat anything else. She was (up until last night) still drinking plenty of cold water and milk, but she's barely eaten. We've tried jelly, custard, soups, cheesy pops (her favourite treat in the world, and she's still asking for them but only has one little bite before the inevitable), soft pasta, biscuits that we've dunked in milk, and probably more but I am SO sleep deprived I can't think, but she can't eat any of it.

The spots on her legs seemed to have improved this morning, they're beginning to fade, and I'm sure her mouth is probably going to get better too, but has anyone else had a child suffer this, and have some ideas on soft food?

The last 3.5 days have been absolute hell, DP and I have been tag teaming trying to comfort her, and I can't find any helpful information. All the doctor said to do was give her panadol to help with the pain and fever. She is literally crying all day on and off, and getting no more than an hours sleep at a time.

Also, her breath stinks!! I'm assuming it's from the ulcers, but I've been brushing her teeth at least twice a day (gently, but I know I have to do it) and within 10 minutes its back to this weird icky smell.

Help me!!!

Oh you poor thing! And your poor DD sad i remember when my DS had it he seemed to take ages to recover but had it no where near as bad as your DD. I dont really have any advice as my DS didnt suffer very bad when he had it but i hope she improves very quickly and hope some other posters have some tips for you! Good luck xx

Hand foot an mouth is nasty an looks disgusting.

DS had it a few months ago an I didn't take him out of the house it looked so bad an I remember the pain he was in he was so misserable. He picked it up from the girls daycare centre I usually don't take him in with me but this day I had to so I put him down with the kids for a play an I over heard a mother an a worker discussing that this mothers son had just been to the Dr's cause hes got Hand Foot an mouth an the daycare worker said 'Oh I'm sure he'll be fine here for the day'.... Then what do you know DS got it within 3 days an had it for almost 2 weeks. An the Dr's said the same thing to me 'just give him panadol'

Not much you can do for her. I hope she gets better real soon.

i don't remember but i thought they had anti biotics... im pretty sure ds1 did but this is going back about 6.5yrs when he had it...

he was sick for about a week from memory

i don't remember but i thought they had anti biotics... im pretty sure ds1 did but this is going back about 6.5yrs when he had it...

he was sick for about a week from memory

There is antibiotics but only for extreme cases, well thats what the DR I seen told me

It's terrible the way some parents send their kids in sick... however a lot of parents are under pressure by their employers to NOT have sick days... I know a lot of parents find the balance between it difficult.

My boy has had Hand Foot and Mouth 3 times and I know it's not pleasant for kids... the only positive thing is that it's not the worst thing they can pick up.

Good luck and I hope your daughter feels better soon smile

A few months ago, i had BOTH my children with a really bad case of it, it was a nightmare, so I really empathise with you. I think our bout of it lasted about a week.


heres what we found worked, we used sudocreme on the blisters/spots, we gave them 2 dettol baths a day, she wont be able to eat, so stock up on iceblocks, and i read that difflam mouth spray can be used to ease the blisters/sores that will probably appear in her mouth. lots of handwashing on your behalf too, because I believe it's the weeping part of the blisters that is contagious.

Regarding food, I wouldn't be too concerned, as long as she is drinking. Plenty of iceblocks worked for us. It is too painful for her to eat , and as soon as she is able to, she will chow down the food again!

I'm sorry your going through this, it was a nightmare of a time for me, as i'm sure it is for you. Nothing worse than seeing your kids suffering.

Poor bubba

DS has had it & he was given antibiotics which helped clear them up pretty quick. The GP recommended giving him phenergan (sp?).

Thanks everyone smile We had another night of hell, waking up every hour, but she wasn't so hard to settle down each time, except during the night she's refusing to drink (I assume because she's so out of it with the sleep/non sleep and her mouth hurts she doesn't want to put anything else in there) so I resorted to dunking her dummy in cold water and giving that to her.

She seemed alright yesterday afternoon foodwise though, she managed to eat some pasta, jelly and soft bikkies, so that kind of relieved my stress a bit. Then she demanded to sit up on my knee while I ate my dinner, and I sectioned off some carrots and peas and she ate those....go figure lol

Then this morning she asked for a fruit bar (one of those things with pureed fruit in the middle and a soft biscuity/doughy outer) for brekkie, and ate the whole thing. Yay!! Probably not the best breakfast in the world, but right now I couldn't care less lol

I think we're over the worst of it now, and her breath is smelling better too, so that's a relief!!

Does anyone know much about the blisters though? Mostly she's just got spots, but she ended up with some big blisters on her fingers, can we pierce them and dettol and bandaid them, or do we have to wait for them to go down on their own? For fear of infection we've left them, but they look awful and she won't let us go near them, so we haven't pushed it.

DD had it about 2 months ago- she only got a single ulcer on her tongue and a couple of blisters on the top of her thigh inside her nappy.

She ate a bit less for a couple of days but that was as far as it went- you wouldn't have even known she was unwell- it was only that our daycare provider informed us of a case and we were checking her mouth daily for the 5 days after her contact with the sick child.

DD didn't have antibiotics and didn't even need to take panadol. There are different strains of hand foot and mouth though so I'm assuming she just got a "good" one!

I definitely wouldn't be piercing the blisters. We didn't do anything to the ones on DD's thigh- they took about 5 days to clear up.