I am terrified - we have hand foot and mouth disease in our house UPDATE

vszapp

DD (27 mos) has a high fever, and we just found out she was exposed to HFMD 5 days ago. I am so scared that DS (5 weeks tomorrow) will get it. It is so contagious, I think there's pretty much no way he hasn't been exposed - she wipes her nose on my shirt and gets in his face in spite of out best efforts. Anyone have any experience with this? I am going to lose it....

Update: she has it for sure. Hand and foot sores started appearing today. DH and I have both had mild sore throats for a few days too, so I'm guessing we both got it. Now the waiting game begins. Yikes.

usernewname

HFMD is luckily one that looks worse than what it is. I always notice it doesn't bug them that much just looks awful. I don't think their is any complications but that's for a tot not a little babe.

Maybe google or pedi?

I'm sure though LO will be fine just limit the contact and cover any open sores with a bandaid or clothes.

haylo33

DH and I both got it a few years back. I didn't feel too miserable but like PP said, it looked terrible. We had sores all through our mouths and I had it on my feet. It was like having a cold except with the sores. I think it is pretty common and complications are rare. I freaked out when I had it cause I thought I had leprosy or something because it looked so much worse than it was

rainydayluck

Ug, I hate HF&M. DD1 had it and it was awful. The throat sores are what make it bad. We had to do both tylenol and advil to help the pain and still she woke up every couple hours from the pain. DD1 had had a "cold" since baby and we just had her not touch of breathe on DD2, we got through with no issues. Once the fever is gone, they aren't supposed to be contagious anymore. Good luck!

danabsd

In my experiance 5 days is early to show symptoms. HFM takes about 10 to start showing its face. The first few days are miserable but after that it looks much worse than it feels.
Also, once symtoms start to show it's actually less contagious than early on. After an outbreak kids with sores are fine to go back to daycare because they are no longer contagious and anyone who's going to be exposed has been.

jenb_99

DS (2.5) was just diagnosed with this today. Ugh. I had it in college, so um hoping that means DD and I have some immunity. Coxsackievirus is one of the scarier things a newborn can be exposed to. HFM is only one of the diseases it causes.

usernewname

Ugh that sucks! Hope though he's on the mend and LO stays healthy!

vszapp

jenb_99 said:

DS (2.5) was just diagnosed with this today. Ugh. I had it in college, so um hoping that means DD and I have some immunity. Coxsackievirus is one of the scarier things a newborn can be exposed to. HFM is only one of the diseases it causes.

DD just had it in February!! I can't believe she got it again. There are a bunch of strains that cause it, unfortunately.