Primary herpes infection in 18 month old....when will this hell end?

[LackaDAISYcal]

DS started with a temp last Monday, stopped eating on Thursday. We put it down to a combo of teething and viral, and saw doc for swollen gums on Friday and prescribed ABs for a gum infection.

Saw emergency dentist over the weekend as he had stopped eating and drinking and his gums were covering his teeth and bleeding at the slightest knock and were referred to the dental hospital on Monday.

they confirmed primary herpes which had attacked his gums due to them being open through the teething (oh, yes on top of this he is cutting top and bottom molars and his top canines at the same time) and tols to stop the ABs and not doing any good.

Been swabbing him twice a day with corsodyl gel and shovelling as much calpol and ibuprofen in as we can get away with, but he is still sooo miserable. I also noticed a few lesions on his tongue today, so a new level of discomfort for him. We haven't had a full night's sleep since it started and DH and I doing shifts to sit up with him, as he can't lie down as it's so uncomfortable. And although his temp has calmed down he is still struggling to eat and drink and is just beside himself with misery.

I had no idea cold sores could be this bad; even though my DS1 had a primary attack at about the same age (his limited to a few lesions on his tongue and inside of his lips. And I am secretly blaming my MIL who has ocular herpes which flares up on a regular basis!

Gah, sorry for the long post, but am at the end of my rope with it and on the verge of tears just thinking about how ill and misereable my normally sunny little man is.

that sounds utterly horrendous, your poor ds and poor you. can your gp not prescribe antivirals for it?

massive sympathies here, Im so sorry, this sounds terrible. I cant think of any helpful advice, would he be able to stomach ice cream or jelly? Might the coldness be soothing?

You have my sympathy.

Ds had this last summer - he was 6 at the time. His gums were grossly inflamed, almost covering his teeth, he had sores all over his tongue, and he was very unwell - high temp, lethargic etc.

All in all it lasted for about 2 weeks altogether.
Good luck with it.

thanks

he has a love/hate relationship with ice-cream even when well (too many brain freeze incidents) so won't have it near him, and although he did well with jelly the other day when he was happy to be spoon fed, because he now won't put cutlery anywhere near his mouth he just got really frustrated and upset as jelly isn't the easiest thing to eat by hand

Ouch tiredlady, your poor DS; the end is in sight for us then hopefully...,roll on next weeek.

nightmare for you it will pass though. (small comfort)

Aha, the MN parenting mantra....This too shall pass; This too shall pass; This too shall pass

the red wine (for me, lol) is helping

lol - I did try and bite my tongue on that one but it is the one crumb of comfort in these kind of circs.
wine is very good.

my friend's dd lived on fromage frais/youghurt when she endured the initial bout

Oh bless him it is awful when they are ill and in a lot of pain isn't it. What about milkshake, through a straw, quite filling and nutritious? And also not likely to sting his mouth. sorry, keep suggesting random food as I want to say something helpful and thats all I can think of!

Been there done that.

DD3 was about approx 15m at the time.

Exactly as you describe. She stopped eating, stopped drinking. Almost ended up in hosp on IV fluids for dehydration - thankfully we avoided that. Our big saviour was yoghurt on a soft weaning spoon.

Mouth started getting better about 7-10days after fever spike. She then infected her thumb (so watch out if she is a thumb sucker).

You have my sympathies. It is a horrific condition which I think is difficult to appreciate until you have been through it.

Oh Love!

I have been tormented with herpes since I was 5, so you all have my utter sympathy.

was on antivirals for about 2 years, off and on, but mainly on. This was in my 20's. I took a low dose daily. It did damped the virus and I get hardly any coldsores now.

It is fecking agony - I get temps, bone pan, my skin hurts. If he suffers very badly ask them to consider anti virals.

Oh little lamb I hope he improves soon. x

Baby bonjela is supposed to be good too but DD wouldn't tolerate the initial stinging so we didn't persevere with it.

scary with the infecting other places; not a thumb sucker, but a slave to his dummy so a lovely ring of sores round his mouth in the shape of the dummy!

he keeps rubbing his eyes and am paranoid about him infecting his eyes....

I have read stuff on here about how serious a primary infection can be, but had no real idea until this.

waves to tree ...will catch up on nappies soon I hope; not been MNing for aaaaaaages it seems.

right off to get some kip while I can

thanks for listening xx

Oh poor little guy, I have some idea what its like after ds had hand foot and mouth disease, he had terrible sores in his mouth and wouldn't eat and barely drank for days. I'm paranoid about herpes anyway, but god sounds horrific. This too will pass, at least you know it will never be this bad again, bloody horrible virus though

FWIW it think that Flameboy infected his penis....

really feel for you, dd had herpatic gingivitis when she was 23 months, and it was horrific, drs didn't know what was wrong, in the end i was at the end of my tether and thought maybe it was worth talking to my dentist (was on maternity leave from dental receptionist job at the time) and it was them who diagnosed over the phone without even seeing them, rushed her straight back to the drs as she hadn't eaten/drank or had a wet nappy in over 24 hours, was rushed to hospital, and like YMKM nearly ended up on IV fluids, eventually managed to get her to drink through a straw in the nick of time. It lasted about 2 weeks, antibiotics did help with our situation as she had a mouth infection, too. I was worried she would never look the same and her teeth would be ruined (they were black and mouldy looking!)but the dentist told me in no uncertain terms to leave her mouth alone, 3 weeks without brushing at that age wasn't going to leave her with any long lasting problems. We found the best things to get down her were cold custard (only way we could get the antibiotics in her) milkshakes, milk, youghurt/fromage frais and mushed jelly though one of those wide straws, and using a plastic spoon rather than silverware, remembering to sterilise afterwards. On the plus point it did mean she gave up the dummy as her mouth was just too sore.
It has left her permanently prone to coldsores and suffers a bout approximatley once a month and is on permanent repeat prescription for aciclovir, I feel for her as they are unsightly, they always spread down the side of her face, and having just started school and knowing how cruel kids can be to each other, however she doesn't really let it bother her. The dentist did say that the younger the chid is the worse the illness will seem for that 1st bout, and affects them much worse than it would an adult.

Poor thing my ds had coldsore virus in his mouth last year started outwith what looked like an ulcer and ended up with loads all over his mouth again front teeth gums babdly affected GP perscribed oral zorirax cleared up within afew days just kept dosing him with calpol and nurofen till it was better - poor things so painful

Poor thing my ds had coldsore virus in his mouth last year started outwith what looked like an ulcer and ended up with loads all over his mouth again front teeth gums babdly affected GP perscribed oral zorirax cleared up within afew days just kept dosing him with calpol and nurofen till it was better - poor things so painful

sorry posted twice !!!!

I remember having primary infection around age four. It was horrible.
Why are adults so bloody selfish passing on Herpes to babies?
Is it so important to give a baby a kiss, is it worth it?

Poor baby boy. I feel for you all.