A few questions about hand, foot and mouth disease if anyone can help?

[WhatsUpPidge]

My 18 month old has just been diagnosed by theGP with hand, foot and mouth disease. He has the blisters on his hands and feet and also some sores in his mouth.

The sores are making it quite difficult for him to eat and drink and he has lost his appetite for both food and milk, although he will drink water (thankfully - trial and error found a cup he could drink from comfortably)

He has developed diarrohea this evening - he has had three bouts in the last two hours. Im a little worried about dehydration although he is still drinking little and often, I would say he has had about 9oz of fluid today is that enough?

I dont have any dioralyte sachets in the house either, ds has never really suffered with diarrohea before. I have some isotonic drinks in the house, do you think one of those would help? I have tried to google but can only find information that you shouldnt give to children because of the high sugar content. I dont mind that in this instance would rather him be hydrated enough.

One last question if youre still reading, the rash has spread to his legs and blisters are starting to form on his bum and the tops of his legs (I have done the glass test - phew) If this normal with hfm?

Thankyou for any help or info

Yep normal around nappy areas ESP when diarrhoea.

How old is he?

I wouldn't give isotonic drinks. I'd just give plenty water / weak squash and keep an eye out for signs of dehydration .

I can't remember if dd2 had a rash with it, I think she just had blisters on her hands and feet. It could be a post viral rash which mine get after a bad cough or cold etc. if you're worried ring your GP just to check.

With regard to drinking enough, as long as he's still having wet nappies then he's getting enough fluids. None of mine (including DH) have had dioryalite as they refused after the first taste.

It might be worth using a medicine syringe to get water into your DS if he's finding drinking difficult. It's the only way ds2 could keep water down when he had gastroenteritis.

Thanks both, he is still having wet nappies so thats reassuring. I think it may be a viral rash, he was just recovering from another viral infection when he caught this I think his immunity must have been low.

Will try the syringe idea thankyou.

My DS had it really bad all over the nappy area, poor little guy.
I found metatasin (something like that) really helped as apparently it protects the rash from getting wet or dirty as well as healing it.
It's a thick yellow paste for happy rash and I can never remember the right name!

Metanium! Nothing like what I said before!

We had this between three of us. Dd1 had an enormous mouth ulcer, dd2 had blisters on her hands and I had them on my feet. The doctor said it was most unusual to see it in an adult.

Icecream is best for mouth ulcers. Nice and soothing and plenty of liquid. I wish we'd known that at the time, poor little dd1 kept asking for it and we kept saying no she couldn't keep having icecream.

Thanks all, got him some metanium for the rash and stocked up on ice cream! His mouth seems a bit better today he managed some toast this morning

On the other hand my mouth felt a bit sore, noticed some blisters on the inside of my lip. Uh oh...

Oh dear! How are your hands and feet?

Well at least you're prepared.

DD had this- then I got it. DD loves her food so that was the worst bit for her. Definitely had a nappy rash which came on after a fever and some spots on her fingers and toes. I didn't think it was too bad actually. We've had worse colds and she was only feeling poorly for a couple of days. Nurofen/calpol at bedtime was the only thing I did.
I was pretty much fine with it after a fever. Minging bits of old blistery skin for 2 weeks were not very glam though...