Hand foot mouth

wishiwaspreggo

Heyo - this board used to be so active back in the olden days. I wish everyone would come back!

Anyway... I have a question. I'm hosting a baby shower for a friend next week (on the 3rd) and the location is at another friend's house whose kid has hand-foot-mouth (just diagnosed yesterday) and I'm wondering if it would be advisable to change locations now or if I'm just being paranoid. There will be a gaggle of preschoolers there (ours included) plus a pregnant lady whose immune system is probably not fabulous. I don't know much about HFM myself and when I asked Google I get a very nebulous "individuals with HFMD can be contagious during the incubation (about three to six days) before symptoms develop and may remain contagious for days or weeks after the symptoms and signs abate." Then other websites say it's fine to let your kid go back to school after the first few days of the illness to prevent spread.

So... any advice? What would you do?

meggyme

@wishiwaspreggo Personally, I would probably change locations. HFM is highly contagious and extremely unpleasant. And while the child has it now, the mother could easily get it as well and might not feel up to hosting, as well as dragging out that incubation period to even closer to the shower.

My husband got a very mild case and he was still irritable and in pain for a full week. With good handwashing and sanitation, it can be kept at bay but that's much harder to do when dealing with a child in their own home. They'll have touched everything and you can't really say with much confidence that you got everything clean.

BTW, I still check these boards even though I feel like I'm the only one posting here sometimes. Work has been super slow...

wishiwaspreggo

Thanks, @meggyme - we've never had it in our household but it sounds dreadful and I'm worried about our pregnant friend. When I was KU I caught every germ under the sun and was so sick I lost my voice for a week. I would hate for our friend to catch it, too. Blech. I suppose we'll look into other places to host! We may just go to a park shelter or something.

I appreciate the response! I'm happy to chat about parenting anytime. The TFAS ladies may want to come to the Parenting board since it's easier to talk about our kids over here and ask specific questions. Plus those of us who are benched and don't really fit into the TTC threads that well benefit too

meggyme

@wishiwaspreggo YES! I wish more people participated on the other boards. We'll have to think about a way to do more regular threads. Like funny things your kid did this week.

wishiwaspreggo

Oh, that's a good one! Yeah, let's get the party started again this board used to be so much fun. We can make it fun again if enough people participate.

prpl11butterfly

Change location!!! HFM is pure h$&%! The ground rule here is kids cannot go back to daycare until all blisters are gone.

persnickity

Late to this, but change locations! Adults night not have symptoms and can still be active with it. Definitely don't want the pregnant lady to catch it.

wishiwaspreggo

We changed locations to a pizza place there as no hand-foot-mouth to be spread to the kids so that was good. Thanks to everyone for the input!