Dr not sure what this is, anyone’s LO had similar?

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Hi all, looking for advice…

On Monday my LO (14mo) had a seizure that lasted 20 minutes he was taken to hospital and they kept him in ran tests and said it was a febrial seizure caused by a upper resp tract infection. I mentioned at the time that he had an ulcer in his mouth but thought it may be due to teething, literally over night he had the sores as in the pics come up. I pointed it out to the nurse doing his obs that night but she just said yeah that’ll be the infection. In the morning his tongue was covered in ulcers. The consultant seemed more focused on the seizure than the sores and ulcers so when we got discharged I took him to our GP, he wasn’t eating or drinking, hardly any wet nappies etc. The dr took some swabs as she wasn’t sure what it was, but thinks is could possibly be herpes. He has been given medication but I have since noticed two of these sores on his legs, two on his neck and one near his ear.

No one in my family suffer from them and we are always so cautious of people kissing the children, he started nursery 4 weeks ago but we do go to soft play areas etc so wonder if he picked it up there. He is so miserable and is hardly sleeping. Has anyone had any experience of herpes and does it spread to these places?

Hand foot and mouth disease? Nasty little childhood virus which causes blisters in those places. Clears up on its own for the most part after a week or two.

Adults can catch it too - I did from my toddler - and it makes you feel rotten. The blisters are very painful. Poor little mite.

@LegleEagle yes I thought that too, he had HFM back in March and it was awful bless him.
when I mentioned it to GP she seemed fairly confident it wasn’t (no rash/spots on hands or feet)

i didn’t realise that adults could catch it too! I bet you felt rotten!! These viruses are awful aren’t they?!

There are quite a few types of enterovirus (family that causes hand foot and mouth - annoyingly means you can catch it more than once!). But some of those types can also cause seizures. I am really surprised that the hospital didn't do a mouth or nose swab for HFM, a local hospital usually can't test for enterovirus but regional NHS public health labs can, the hospital just has to request it. HSV/herpes a local hospital really SHOULD be able to test for and if they are worried it's that they definitely should give you the result back because they could treat with acyclovir tablets or cream.

Tbh it looks infected with bacteria around his mouth! Poor thing, 14 months, how horrible for him and stressful for you. My baby is the same age and caught HFM at the very first nursery settling session, but fortunately only had it mildly (I also caught it a couple of days later). Perhaps the pharmacist can advise? Sometimes they are able to prescribe antibiotic cream without the GP being involved.

HFM and chickenpox are herpes viruses, so I think they are suggesting something in that family rather than what you think of as herpes.

It looks as though the sores are infected, he clearly has a snotty nose as well, so it's a double whammy for him to deal with. I'd take him to a pharmacy, even if all they can give you is a barrier cream to keep as much snot as possible out of the sores, it'll help. I'd also get calamine cream for them, if the pharmacy recommends it. The best thing we found for chickenpox and HFM was liquid piriton, so ask about that as well.

It's short term so don't worry about giving him medications, anything that helps him sleep is absolutely in his best interests just now, poor wee thing (and you).

HFM isn't a herpes virus, it's an enterovirus or Coxsackie virus (depending on which strain is circulating) @LadyQuackBeth . Whereas roseola IS a herpes virus (HHV 6 or 7), and monkey pox is no relation to chickenpox and HFM is no relation to Foot and Mouth Disease virus - honestly they all need better names.

Thanks you for your responses. Had the results back from our GP today and positive for the coldsore virus. We have liquid aciclovir for him so going to finish the course and just hope he recovers quickly. Poor little love, we have been wracking our brains trying to think where he has picked it up from the dr said it has a 3 week incubation period so it’s highly possible it was nursery that he caught it.

Calamine lotion has been great for drying out the blisters and I will ask about piriton too. Now starts the mammoth task of making sure my 3yo doesn’t catch it too. Thanks so much for your messages ladies