Hand, foot and mouth disease

[elm26]

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Hand, foot and mouth advice needed please 🙏🏻

My 17 month old has come out in blisters today in her mouth, all over her bottom and feet. A couple on her hands. I’ve been giving calpol and nurofen alternately.

She’s beside herself, crying randomly throughout the day, she’s normally a happy giggly girl and I hate seeing her like this. I’ve been wondering why she hasn’t had an appetite the last couple of days thinking it might be teething but it must have been this brewing.

She refused breakfast, had about 3 spoons of spaghetti bolognese for lunch and I just made her scrambled eggs and put toast underneath so it went soggy and was soft and easy for her to eat. She ate probably the equivalent of one slice of toast (plus scrambled eggs but didn’t finish them). I also make my own frozen smoothie lollies which she had after. She is drinking but not as much as usual.

Gave her a cool bath, didn’t use soap on the blisters and after I put sudocrem on the blisters over her bum and had some virasoothe gel from chickenpox that I put on the bad areas of her feet.

She is in a babygrow and 1.5 tog but feels clammy, no heating on, I’ve opened both of her windows but now I’m worried she’ll be cold in the night, she will let me know if she’s cold right? It’s better to be cold than too hot when it comes to babies/toddlers is that correct?

Is there anything I should/shouldn’t be doing?

I hate all these childhood illnesses, it’s one thing after another and makes my anxiety so bad 😪

The ulcers in her mouth will be the worst

a lot of what you’ve listed will be acidic and painful tomatoes in the spag Bol fruit in the smoothie etc plain plain foods for a while as in memory the mouth ulcers lasted a while

My daughter (16 months) had hfm last week when we were on holiday in menorca and i now have it.

I gave her a lot of ice cream over the days, which obviously I wouldn't normally but she devoured it whereas she wouldn't touch many other things. She also enjoyed licking the ice cubes in my drink though I was worried about her holding it due to choking - maybe make some plain ice lollies with just water?

Having now had it myself I've been surprised that lots of things have been painful/tingly on the tongue - most fruits, tomatoes, condiments etc. Plain, cold and soft definitely the way to go.

She may also have blisters on her tonsils which will make it hard to swallow.

Apparently the skin blisters don't bother babies as much as they bother adults.

Hope it passes quickly now. My little one was miserable for about 2 days before she started getting happier.

The pharmacist gave us some difflam spray for DS when he had it. It definitely helped although he still wasn’t massively keen on eating. He ate lots of yoghurt, ice cream and milky cereal. We also spent most of the day cuddled on the sofa as his little feet were so painful. Lots of extra naps too.
With DS it peaked at days 3 and 4 and got steadily better.

Let her eat and drink whatever she is comfortable with. Even if it’s just chocolate and apple juice, it’s only going to be a couple of days. Watching a small child hungry but sobbing when they eat is heartbreaking so if you find something she can cope with then go with it.
HFM is a really horrible illness, there’s just nothing you can do for them and it’s super contagious. I had it as an adult and couldn’t imagine my young child having to deal with that and not understanding what was going on.

You are doing everything right, ice cream, yogurt, jelly, melon, bland stuff that soothe and goes down easy for a few days to get fluids in.

Pain relief is also a help as it is painful.

Just one really weird thing might happen, it happened to mine when she had it, about 6 weeks after HFM symptoms had all gone, every finger and toe nail fell off. It’s a thing apparently! Who knew? The oddest thing!!
Wasn’t particularly painful, they all just fell off.

When our son had it we let him have milkshakes, ice cream everything he wanted. As long as he was eating we were not too fussed what it was. Avoid juices as they are really not kind to their blisters. We used calamine if he said he was hurting and dosed up on calpol and nurofen as you are too. Good luck, once the blisters ease off in the mouth, she will be all over food, it is like a switch (it was with him).

Oh and I also got it too! Avoid picking at the blisters if you can, they can get more infected and that is a whole different kettle of fish to be dealing with. Drink lots of water, avoid alcohol and use the calamine is does help relieve the itch.