3.5 year old with very sore mouth

[daphaneee]

Hi. Anyone had any experience of lo's with mouth ulcers? I'm assuming this is what it is, he won't open his mouth enough for me to have a good look. It's painful for him to eat, although he finds it easier after some paracetamol. He has a cough at the moment too, so I put it down to him just being a bit unwell, and getting a mouth ulcer, as I sometimes do. But this morning his cheek looks slightly swollen, and I'm wondering if I should take him to have it looked at or just wait and see if it gets better?

go the gp hun

Take him to the doctor. You need to check his teeth and make sure it's not a tooth infection or abscess.

Hand foot and mouth is a virus that can cause a lot of nasty mouth ulcers and cold symptoms but doesn't explain the swollen cheek.

I was going to mention Hand foot and Mouth (not as bad as it sounds, and nothing to worry about). DD's started with a mouth full of ulcers.

I'd book a GP's appointment and check to see if he develops any spots on his hands and feet. Like little blisters.

Thanks ladies. I'll be very lucky to get an appointment, but have rung the surgery and am waiting for a doctor to ring me back, thanks for your advice, hope it's nothing serious.

We had this with my DD who is 2. She started off with a swollen cheek which I put down to teething but took her to the dr's and he prescribed some calpol after ruling out abscess.

She then got loads of ulcers and was in real pain so I took her back. The dr prescribed us some Difflam spray and that seemed to make a real difference to the pain in her mouth.

I think she prob had hand foot and mouth as had other virus symptoms too. She's much better now btw but the difflam spray really seemed to help (can be bought over the counter too tho I think it may need to be prescribed for LOs)

Hope he feels better soon.

When my DS had hand foot and mouth I used teething gel on his dummy before feeds - that way he got enough anaesthetic to tolerate bf - I recognise that your DS is alot older but if in discomfort you may be able to get hold of some teething gel before you see GP?

Well, eventually got my gp to see him, left the house at 5.15 and just got back. We are staying with my parents at the moment due to seperation, so still registered with gp, 1/2 hour drive away. Went to see him, he couldn't say for sure what was wrong so wanted a second opinion, sent us to the childrens unit at the nearest hospital, another 1/2 hours drive, in the opposite direction to my parents house. Spent some time waiting to see a doctor, who couldn't really see anything wrong, and reckons it's just an ulcer, so checked him out, told us to keep an eye on him and sent us home. phew...what a bloody evening! The joys of parenthood huh?
Thanks for you advice though ladies, better safe than sorry. And I've never heard of hand foot and mouth before today either, so you I've learned something today too.