Is This Hand Foot & Mouth?

[GeorginaA]

I have done a search on old threads, I'm just not sure if this particular circumstance is covered

We know that we were exposed to HFM last Wednesday, so it's a likely suspect anyway. I have gone down with what feels like a very heavy cold and a load of mouth ulcers - so I'm 95% certain I have it (fortunately, it seems, mildly). I have no temperature.

Ds1 has been a bit grumpy for the last few days in retrospect and now ONE spot for the last 24+ hrs, but not on his hands feet or mouth - just on the side of his bottom. It's red, a couple of mms across, slightly grey in the centre if I look closely (but may be imagining that - the light isn't great today). No temperature.

Ds2 has been sleeping particularly well the last couple of days (unusually) and been a bit more clingy than usual, so I'm guessing he's probably under the weather. Again no temperature. I'm hoping the fact that I've got it means he's getting lots of lovely antibodies and he'll avoid the whole spotty grotty stage.

My question is - does ds1 spot sound like the same thing? Or does it sound like he's incubating a whole new mystery illness? I haven't sent him to nursery today just in case, but don't know if I'm being a bit overly...

Thoughts? Pisstakes? Complete random asides?

hi georgina my dd had hand foot and mouth and had ulcers on her hand feet and mouth but also her bottom (but actually around the bum bit under the nappy) she had a temp as well tho. was really clingy for 2 days pre spots. hope you all keep well xxx

My DS had this last week. Spots in mouth first then on bottom (GP said this is quite usual). He did get some on his arms and legs too but not on his body (just a couple on hands and feet!). No temp. Off food and v. miserable.

I can't see any spots in ds1's mouth (but not that he's especially cooperative) and he's not off his food (at least not of the chocolate biscuit variety... sigh)

Perhaps we'll see more in the next couple of days?

bump... any thoughts from the evening crowd?

yesyesyeysyeysyeys
it is linked to bad sleeping
we had it over the holidays

Oh and ds3 ate throughout

and hradly any spots on hand and feet and two monsters in mouth

Was just about to post advice on this along the 'what a coincidence!' line, then saw it was a thread by you, Georgina !!!

My name is NDP and I am the evil witch who exposed the A family to HF&M....

Sorry the DSs and you are a bit rough, Georgina . Found a cpl of blisters on DD's left foot in Tesco this evening (she took her shoes off in the trolley to show me that her feet were sore). Weirdly, the blisters seem to just be on her left side !

Dd had this a couple of months ago - she only had blisters on her feet. I asked doctor if ds would catch it - she said it is extremely contagious and that he almost certainly would, unless he'd already had it. I said he hadn't but she replied that lots of kids have it without their parents even noticing any blisters. He didn't develop any, so I'm assuming he had it without me picking it up at some stage.

my elder sons didnt get it

Don't be silly NdP!! I've already told you it's just one of those things, SEVERAL times You just owe me a few drinks on the next night out

Okay, does sound like the list of symptoms is a "you may get one / some / none of the above" kind of thing, which would explain it. Quite relieved actually, because it does seem like we've all escaped very lightly (well, apart from the infecting all of ds2's naming ceremony guests in the process ... oops!)

Re, nursery. Nursery doesn't seem that fussed if it is HFM and said to let him back as soon as he's feeling better. Well, as he's not particularly that ill (no temp, only a bit quick to whiny but mostly "normal") what do I do? Was thinking about keeping him off tomorrow just to check no further spots suddenly appear to make him feel rotten then see how he is Wednesday? Does this seem sane or should I just keep him off all week?

Sorry if I'm asking the really obvious - hadn't really heard of it before we all came down with it!

It's very contagious before you even know they have it, so it's a bit of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted if you keep kids at home once you've noticed it.
My dd got the mouthfulof ulcers, but no spots anywhere else. My ds didn't get it at all that we noticed either from my dd or from his best mate at the childminders last year when he had it.

Georgina, I also told dd2's nursery to be on the look out when I dropped her off this morning but they didn't seem too bothered about it either.

Hope your dd2 escapes it, Ailsa. Sorry

Okay, will keep ds1 off today (more because I'm feeling grotty enough to feel quite grateful to not have to walk to nursery and back, but not grotty enough for constant Cbeebies to drive me insane) but he's going in tomorrow. There's only so much Boogie Babies I can survive

Yep me thinks that its h,f & m too. Dd had it last year. Hope that Georgina clan is better soon

Don't worry about it Georgina, if she gets it she gets it, at least I wouldn't have to worry about it again. I'd rather she got it now while she's little.

I hate to tell you this, but HFM has several different viruses responsible for it ... she'd be immune to the variety she got, but not immune to another variant of it... I was a bit gutted when I found that out!

Hey ho! She still hasn't got any symptoms yet, but it's only been 3 days, nothing yet but keep playing the paranoid mum - checking hands, feet and bum, and getting her to scream (playfully) so that I can look in her mouth.

LOL... I'm impressed you can get in her mouth - neither of my two will let me see... but neither are they wincing much, so I'm assuming their mouths are fine. Ds1 still only has one spot. Sending him to nursery tomorrow...

Thank you so much for posting about this, as I had never heard of it. I was reading it last night and you described perfectly my DDs symptoms.

She's been very dribbly and clearly had a pain in her mouth, off her food, bit of a temp, not sleeping (shock to me when she's normally 13 hours a night!), and a rash on her knee and in her nappy. I put it down to a particularly bad bout of teething, and was about to post for some teething advice!

I hadn't seen any spots in her mouth - although it's impossible to get an 18m old with a sore mouth to let you look anyway - but this morning when I looked she had ulcers on her tongue.

When I phoned to cancel coffee with some other mums, one of the others in the toddler group has it, she was the 4th to casualty at the weekend, and her mum too thought it was teething. Apparently there's a mini-epidemic going on.

Doc wanted to see her just to confirm, and by the time we got there it was all over her hands and feet too.

For anyone else reading this, his advice was fluids and Calpol/Neurofen (thankfully what we had been doing anyway) and that she'd be contagious for up to 10 days. He also said you can only get it once.

Thanks again, as if I hadn't read it I would have taken her along this morning and infected a whole load of others (although Doc did say it's better they get it as toddlers as its milder).