Hand Foot Mouth - WWYD?

AlejandraN2

We just came back from a mini 3-4 day vacation to find out that there were 2 kids diagnosed with hand foot mouth in baby girl's daycare. (from reading previous posts seems like a national outbreak - argh). They had another outbreak in March and we kept her home for the week and she avoided getting it. I'm debating keeping her home this week to try to avoid it again but we're low on options for care. My hubby and I would have to alternate staying home tomorrow-thurs (i already work from home Fridays). Thoughts? What would you do? Would you send her in or keep her home to avoid being exposed?

Burrberrymum

Personally I would keep my DD home. My sister works in the daycare and said it's so awful when it hits there all the kids usually get it.

If it's not going to put your job on the line I would take that route to avoid it.

Salemkitty13

I know hand, foot mouth causes a rash and a fever and that frequently by the time it's diagnosed the contagion has spread. Do you think if she did get it that it would affect her in other ways. (Weaken her immune causing her to get other viruses/infections, bother any health conditions etc.) being she was sick a lot over the winter, I would probably at least keep her out tomorrow. See if anyone else gets it and call her pedi to see if she's at an extra risk. I hope she stays well. Good Luck!

AlejandraN2

Thanks ladies - I think i'll follow your advice. We'll keep her home tomorrow and see if there are any more cases tomorrow. And I'm trying to see if we can get a sitter/nanny for Wednesday. 

krose0713

LO has it for the first time, and pedi said by the time the rash and blisters appear, she's no longer contagious. So like pp said, by the time the kids are daycare were diagnosed the other kiddos had already been exposed. That's not to say that more kids aren't carrying the virus now and just haven't shown symptoms yet. Its a tough call, bc unfortunately, being at daycare she will probably end up with it anyway at some point, so how long do you try to avoid it? But going through it now, had I known anyone at LOs daycare had it I would have done the same as you.

KMD1106

I haven't been active in here in some time, but I still lurk from time to time. DD had HFMD and I took her in. The dr said that the incubation period is up to 2 weeks, so she could already be infected. They said we could take her back to dc right away because the kids there had already been exposed. That being said, there's definitely no harm in keeping her home for a few days!

RedDDD

Yea I agree....she likely was already exposed.  The period they are contagious is typically beofre a lot of the symptoms start 

AlejandraN2

Thanks ladies. I know we can't always keep her home but we're trying to keep her healthy for a few doctors' follow up appointments that are coming up so we'll try. I'm hoping and praying she doesn't get it. I feel so bad for all these poor babies - seems like a miserable disease.