Is this HF&M and AIBU to send DD to school?

[CuriousKK]

DD has some symptoms of hand foot and mouth disease. It’s mainly blisters in her mouth with look really painful. She’s had them since Friday, and although she’s well in herself, she is only able to eat ice cream, yoghurts, cucumber and a very limited amount of other foods that aren’t hurting her. She has about 3 spots on her hands and nothing on her feet.

The only thing throwing me off is that the surface of her tongue has a white coating on it too. Any ideas what that could be?

So my question is two fold - firstly, does this sound like HF&M, particularly with the white tongue? And also, am I able to send her to school as soon as her eating improves, or should I keep her home until the blisters heal?

YABU. Home until the spots have blistered over. Same as with C'pox.

My son's tongue was coated white with HF&M and he had few blisters like you mention.

YABU to knowingly send her to school to infect others. It makes other children ill and puts pressure on parents to take time off work. For some, this could be unpaid leave and out then in a tough position financially before Christmas. I'd keep her home.

@theydontspeakforus that’s not correct. Children with HF&M can go back to school/nursery as soon as they are no longer feeling unwell. They are actually infectious for weeks/months - the virus is excreted in their stools.

This is what the NHS website states:

Staying off school or nursery

Keep your child off school or nursery while they're feeling unwell.

But as soon as they're feeling better, they can go back to school or nursery. There's no need to wait until all the blisters have healed.

Keeping your child away from other children for longer is unlikely to stop the illness spreading.

Thanks all.

The guidelines are a little vague. If she’s eating but still has ulcers, would you say it’s okay to send her? She’s currently not feeling unwell as such, but is obviously having issues that make eating difficult. Should I keep her home until her eating is back to normal? Or do I need to keep her home until the mouth blisters heal?

@TokenGinger thats useful to know your sons tongue was the same. Sounds as though it’s a possible side effect, although I couldn’t find any mention of it online.

My kids had the same symptoms. It's infectious a very long time and PPs have pointed out there is no exclusion required or recommended by PHE. My sister caught it from my DS six weeks later from changing a nappy. If she's well enough to learn she's ok to go to school.

It's really only a decision you can make. My DS had it recently. He had spots but was showing no signs of feeling unwell and appetite was fine, so I sent him to nursery after having checked that was in line with their policy. I had no other choice as I don't have any days of annual leave left and no one to look after him.

The thing is, if she does have it then it's likely it's already been spread as you're most contagious before symptoms appear I believe. And so it will already be going round the class whether she is there or not.

But if she is struggling to eat, I guess there's an argument to say that qualifies as feeling unwell. If she says she feels well enough to go, I'd be tempted to send her in.

Thanks @PurplePetalPip. I work too and so I would want to send her if at all possible, but I don’t want to look like a bad mum for sending her when she can’t really eat. 🙈 I’m confident she is otherwise fine. But I’ve had her at home and so she’s just been chilling out all weekend. I don’t know if school will take it out of her too much since she’s not been eating much since Friday.

Check the NHS website. This is not official advice. You can go to school/work/nursery as long as you feel well.

Thanks @Skinnermarink

Still struggling to decide if I can send DD…

Buy some difflam to numb her mouth so she can eat.

They all catch HFM, you can't keep her off for months so don't worry about going back in once she's well.

Send her with a lunch box of things she can eat. Yogurt. Cucumber. A carton of UHT milk if she’ll drink it. A boring sandwich if you think she’ll take a few bites or the school lunchbox police require it.
Give her a filling breakfast she’ll manage - yogurt and banana smoothie maybe? Bung a scoop of icecream in if it will help get some calories in after a weekend on very little food.

Re the white tongue you might need to rule out scarlet fever. My DD got it a few years ago after a separate infection. The coating appeared suddenly after she seemed to have recovered, it was very distinctive though, then came away a few days later leaving a bright red tongue.

Buy some difflam to numb her mouth so she can eat.
Difflam is only suitable for children aged 12 and above.
Hand, foot and mouth mostly occurs symptomatically in children aged 5 and under.

Okay, I think I’ll do as @TeaAndJaffacakes suggests and give her a packed lunch of things she should manage to eat. Hopefully they’ll heal up soon 🤞🏻

There is a spray for young children. You could do a quick Google before correcting people next time?

There is a spray for young children. You could do a quick Google before correcting people next time?

I did do a quick Google, where do you think I found the information? Alas it was too quick as I only found the mouthwash - it’s great to know there’s a spray for kids and personally I don’t see ‘corrections’ as problematic - that’s one of the ways we learn after all.

Agree with @Tabletoppot scarlet fever has nhs warnings all over Scotland just now,

Very rife.

I would keep her off until she can eat normally. I would count being unable to eat as being too unwell to attend school. If she is very keen to go to school then I would let her but otherwise have a day off. Sending her in when unwell is just going to make her susceptible to every other bug going.

You mean "sorry, I was wrong".

You mean "sorry, I was wrong".

Sure and here’s a to go with my apology