hand, foot and mouth disease, sounds serious but is not

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Jul 14, 2004

Don't feel bad, Oramar !

My neighbor and I were hanging out clothes the other day, and she and her mom were telling me about H, F &M and how her two little ones had it... and that they now had it as well..... the fevers, the blisters in the mouth and mucous membranes... feeling quite ill. ALl of them. And my neighbor, the mom of the two babes, is a dental hygienist, wondering if she even needed to go to work at all.. not that she felt like it as bad as she was feeling.

And until that day, I had never heard of this, either, but supposedly it is running rampant in this area as well ! And here I was.. the nurse... who felt like crawling under a rock 'cuz I had never heard of it ! :imbar

kids · Jul 14, 2004

I understand your surprise oramar.

In 24 years of raising kids who went to daycare & public schools & 14+ years as a nurse I never heard of Hand, Foot & Mouth until I went to work in a Peds office. We saw probably 25 kids a week with it.

Same with Fifths...I had at heard of but never saw it until the clinic.

Both are now considered common childhood illnesses.

What comes to mind is keep the blisters clean & dry if they pop and watch for secondary infection.

Feed soothing foods (popcicles are great), if the mouth sores are painful or interfere with eating a bit of Baby Oragel applied with a Q-Tip helps.

NO asprin, give Tylenol or Ibuprophen and good handwashing by all who come in contact with body fluids.

Have you seen the CDC fact sheet? http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm

camay1221_RN · Jul 15, 2004

Hand, foot and mouth, aka...Coxsackie virus.

Coxsackie sounds almost as ominous, don't you think?

oramar · Jul 15, 2004

I understand your surprise oramar.
In 24 years of raising kids who went to daycare & public schools & 14+ years as a nurse I never heard of Hand, Foot & Mouth until I went to work in a Peds office. We saw probably 25 kids a week with it.
Same with Fifths...I had at heard of but never saw it until the clinic.
Both are now considered common childhood illnesses.
What comes to mind is keep the blisters clean & dry if they pop and watch for secondary infection.
Feed soothing foods (popcicles are great), if the mouth sores are painful or interfere with eating a bit of Baby Oragel applied with a Q-Tip helps.
NO asprin, give Tylenol or Ibuprophen and good handwashing by all who come in contact with body fluids.
Have you seen the CDC fact sheet? http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm

A bout your grandson, what a cutie! Nice webside CDC, should have thought to go there myself.

rnmi2004 · Jul 16, 2004

My sister & I had H, F, &M when we were children. My mom called it "Hoof and Mouth Disease." :rotfl: I don't remember it bothering us too much, although it seems like we were somewhat itchy.

Destinystar · Jul 17, 2004

my son had it when he was 3 years old. looked like small blisters on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. i freaked out. but he did not appear to be ill, or feeling bad in anyway. several years earlier i had a neighbor telling me about the disease and b/c i never saw it or heard of it i thought she didnt know what she was talking about. :uhoh3:

now i have been to the web sites and read the standard things written about this disease. i just wonder if the ped nurses here have anything to add. would you believe i have been nurse for 35 years and a mother for 30 and never heard those terms before today when my grandbaby was diagnosed with it. :uhoh21:

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Jul 19, 2004

My friend (who's a nurse too) has a son who has gotten it for the past 3 summers (he's only 3 1/2!!). Same s/s as mentioned. Always in the summer. Rumor has it that it spreads in pools too. Funny thing (well not funny but ironic) is that she is soooo paranoid about cleanliness and hygiene, it's ridiculous! Guess it really doesn't matter. :confused:

kids · Jul 20, 2004

My friend (who's a nurse too) has a son who has gotten it for the past 3 summers (he's only 3 1/2!!). Same s/s as mentioned. Always in the summer. Rumor has it that it spreads in pools too. Funny thing (well not funny but ironic) is that she is soooo paranoid about cleanliness and hygiene, it's ridiculous! Guess it really doesn't matter.

Poor kiddo! the CDC says several different enteroviruses (the most commonly coxsackievirus A16) cause H/F&M but that infection creates an immunity. Poor little guy must be picking up a new bug every year.

Sharon · Aug 5, 2004

I work in the mid Atlantic area where it is endemic and has been for about 10 years. I don't know of a day care that does not have a substantial outbreak each year. Five years ago I dealt with a workplace adult outbreak when some employees brought ill children to work when they could not send them to daycare. Out of the adults who contracted coxsacki: two contracted meningitis (including myself) four developed cardiomyopathy (two required interventional cardiology), 20 developed infectious costrochondritis that lasted at least six months. For four years coxsacki had been the third highest cause of medical loss workdays in this corporation of 30,000 employees. This was ten times the number of loss workdays due to influenza for the same time period.

Shed13911 · Aug 5, 2004

I am a pedi telephone triage nurse in San Antonio, TX and we get calls about this all the time. It is more common in children 6 months to 4 years of age. 99% will have the mouth ulcers and others may or may not have for 1-5 blisters per hand and foot. They may also have a low grade temp usually less than 102. The mouth ulcers usually last up to 7 days and the blisters on the hands and feet can last up to 10 days. The mouth ulcers can be very painful and the children can end up dehydrated from refusing to drink. That is usually the reason they are sent into the ER. We see if fairly freq and more so for children in daycare due to the close proximety. It is spread like any other viruses are. I don't think they really diagnossed it as hand-foot- and mouth disease until the last few years. That is why many long term medical people have never heard of it. I hope the information helps explain it a little more clearly.

oramar · Aug 5, 2004

The dear little thing is all better from the above. However, she has since had a stomach flu and now an ear infection. Since she started day care it is one bug after another.