Doctor says chicken pox but is this really HFM??

[Highlandmama]

13 month old started with a nasty blotchy rash in the nappy area - thought nothing of it. The previous 2 days he had been pretty unsettled - cough, cold, slight temp, a bit miserable really. The next day the rash was on his legs, red pimples, shoulders, chest and face. Took him to a doctor who said it was classic chicken pox rash. The rash then spread to his hands, and the nappy area and hands and palms are the worst by far. Lots of little blisters. So I’ve been caring for him at home, away from nursery and then on Friday, I started to get a bad sore throat and painful blisters on my hands and feet! So classic HFM! IS THERE ANY WAY the baby could have chicken pox if I have HFM? He only had a bout of HFM 6 weeks ago so can’t believe that’s it again, and that time it was only his mouth, hands and feet! He’s recently started nursery - tell me it gets better!!

IS THERE ANY WAY the baby could have chicken pox if I have HFM?

Yes, in short. It is possible to have both diseases simultaneously.

Or you might have HFM even though baby is immune to the particular bacteria causing the symptoms in you, while you're immune to chickenpox.

Any variation is possible unfortunately. If the babies blisters start to crust over you will know he's got chicken pox, that usually starts to happen about 3 days after the fluid filled blisters appear. HFM ones don't crust.

You can get a sore throat and cold symptoms with chicken pox too, my ds had a cold a few days before the chicken pox appeared, he was a toddler at the time. My bosses daughter had a sore throat for 2 days before chicken pox arrived she was 9 so able to voice that.

My friends baby had a similar sounding rash which was diagnosed as chicken pox, her toddler then came down with chicken pox (classic case, no mistaking it), then a week later the baby also got chicken pox, with hindsight she thinks the first was hfm as the blisters were different to the chicken pox and the skin peeled on her fingers and toes, as sometimes happens with hfm.
So, long story short, it is possible for hfm to be misdiagnosed as chicken pox.