I survived hand, foot, and mouth disease, and this is my story.
They always tell you that adding kids to any equation means getting sick more often. “They” do not lie.
Growing up I had my share of illnesses. Obviously I started out as a kid as well! But as a teen and beyond, I didn’t get sick much. I would get maybe one cold a year, and I got either a stomach bug or food poisoning on the first day of senior year. Fun stuff.
In college I started dating Joey when his sister was only 5 months old. A year or two later I got the flu. For the first time in years. Kids 😛
Having been a part of mom’s groups for some time and had learned a LOT through those interactions and time spent lurking. I had heard of hand, foot, and mouth. Enough to freak out when Little Man got fire ant bites ALL OVER his hands and feet, because I was afraid people would think I was toting around a kiddo with hand, foot, and mouth, when I wasn’t.
That’s why when Itty Bitty started getting raised red spots, I started to take note.
Please don’t be hand, foot, and mouth! I thought.
It was hand, foot, and mouth.
If you didn’t already know, hand, foot, and mouth is a virus that causes sores in and around the mouth and often the hands and feet (legs and butt are also common…so basically everywhere!) There’s nothing to take other than pain meds to help sooth. You simply let it run its course while you breakdown inside as a parent watching your kid in so much discomfort. I hated it. Once exposed it takes about 3-6 days for fever to begin and then the sores/spots show up. You’re already contagious before you show symptoms, so we probably exposed multiple people without realizing it, but we definitely quarantined ourselves rather quickly.
Covered in blisters but still wants to go outside and play. That’s good.
When Itty Bitty came down with a low grade fever, I assumed teeth…as it turns out a lot of people assume teeth at the beginning stages of hand, foot, and mouth. A few days later I noticed some redness and bumps around his mouth. I thought it was a rash from drooling. Then he started getting bumps elsewhere. Eventually those bumps grew in volume and congregated around his hands, feet, mouth, and diaper area. By the end of the week I was pretty positive it was hand, foot, and mouth and was bummed about missing church and Sunday school!
Saturday evening his leg broke out alarmingly fast. Like maybe a few spots to his whole lower half being covered in blisters. That rapid onset set off the parent radar and we took him into urgent care (because everything happens when the doctor’s office is closed.) We knew it was probably hand, foot, and mouth and that there was nothing they could do other than say exactly that, but we needed some reassurance.
They took one look and said, “Yep! It’s hand, foot, and mouth!” The doctor talked about how horrible it was when he got it himself. Thanks. I needed to hear that. Then they went on to basically tell me it’s super contagious, contagious for weeks after, but different people have different ideas as to when you can socialize again. Thanks again. That was also really helpful.
Different advise you will get about when it’s okay to live your life again:
– 24 hours after fever breaks
– 24 hours after the last NEW blister appears
– After ALL blisters have dried up and disappeared (it took over a month for this to happen for us)
– Never (or so it feels)
That gash looking thing on his cheek is multiple HFM spots that came in a line. He looked rough.
A big sign a toddler doesn’t feel well: He stops moving for more than a second.
So I was all but quarantined with a high energy toddler and a cranky baby. I decided to go with the “24 hours after the last new blister appeared,” as my sign that I could see the sun again. I made sure to cover him well…in the Texas summer heat. It took over a month for his sores to go away and at first I thought the red spots would never go away.
Thankfully Little Man only got a very mild case. I think he had a fever for 24 hours, then got a few spots on his feet and tush as well. They didn’t take long to disappear at all.
Eventually we came out of hiding and rejoined the real world.
Ah, the joys of mom life.
Leave a Reply