Hand, foot & mouth disease

Burrberrymum

I noticed some of your LOs had it and I had a couple questions..

DD has been fighting a fever of 101.9 for 3 ish days and she's been absolutely miserable. I've never seen her like this, she's been screaming all night long, restless and irritated. Today is the first day that her fever is gone and she seemed content all day until now, she's back to being completely irritated. Nothing is making her happy., I'm paranoid that she has hand foot and mouth because we have a huge outbreak of it right now.

So basically I was wondering how long after the fever subsides does the rash break out? Does it look as intense as the images on google? Was your LO acting as if in pain?

krose0713

My LO had the rash first for about 2days, then only 1 day of fever. The pedi said to expect fever off and on for a week. I actually don't think it's the norm to get a full body rash like DD did. My mom, who has been doing daycare for 30 years, said she had never seen a child with HFM get a rash all over their body like DD. The rash is just clearing up and scabbing over now (1 week since it appeared). To be honest, she was only slightly fussier than usual, and I think that was only because she cut a tooth mid-week. She did not act like she was in pain. This is the norm for her though, the only reason we knew she had her 2 ear infections was when we got her wet cough checked out, otherwise she was acting fine.

Eta- no, the rash didn't look as intense as it does on google. Hers looked like a heat rash. The sores in her mouth looked like red spots about the size of pencil erasers. I also couldn't see the sores in her mouth initially, pedi pointed them out and they became more apparent later in the week.

Burrberrymum

DD also has bad eczema so it's hard to tell if she's getting any rash or scabs or anything since it's pretty normal for her to have scratches from the eczema..

Hmm now I'm wondering if it could be an ear infection.. I have to wait until Monday to be able to get into her doctors office though.

She's also cutting her 2 first teeth so it's really hard to say if the fever isn't from that., (everyone keeps telling me it's a myth though)

krose0713

If it makes you feel any better, they can't do anything for HFM anyway, just Tylenol/Motrin for pain and fever, which you are doing already. So even if it is that, your course of treatment won't change.

zanephoebe

Mabel had it and it was really no big deal. Slight fever then just a small rash on her face. Ran its course in a few days. Just make sure she is staying hydrated- I know that is one of the concerns with it. Hope her fever passes soon!

Burrberrymum

krose0713 said:

If it makes you feel any better, they can't do anything for HFM anyway, just Tylenol/Motrin for pain and fever, which you are doing already. So even if it is that, your course of treatment won't change.

I forgot to ask that question so thank you, that does make me feel a lot better!

HoolyGo

I don't usually post here, so hello! My LO had roseola, another common childhood illness. He had a fever for 3 days with no other symptoms, then a day or two after the fever broke he had a full body rash that looked similar to heat rash eczema. Our pedi said there is nothing you can do but treat pain or discomfort with Tylenol or ibuprofenband wait for it to pass.

egsquared

DS had HFM last week and it sounds like what your LO has. He had a fever for 3 days that was 101-102 and around that third day, he was just screaming all night long. It was screaming like I've never seen. He would get exhausted and fall asleep for about 10 minutes and then would wake up again and scream.

I took him to the pedi and she saw the HFM blisters in the back of his mouth. He never got blisters on his hands or feet. The doc said with HFM, the fever comes on all of a sudden, but with and ear infection, there are usually cold like symptoms/congestion before the fever develops.

Hope your LO feels better soon!