Hand Foot and Mouth

[Judith1]

Hello. Has anyone had a toddler with hand foot and mouth? It is going around playgroups at the moment. How do you recognize it and when is it infectious? What do you do to treat it?

[tufty]

Hello I reckon most kids get it at sometime and don't realsie unless its a bad case.. it looks like tiny blisters in the mouth and on hands and feet but not necesaarily many or all at once in each place. I believ its a virus and theres not much to do or worry about it except that it can get uncomfortable ... I'm sure that others know more than me on this but...

[charliesmummy]

Judith1, my little boy had it at 10 months old and it is horrible to look at. If you go on to Google and look up hands foot and mouth in children there are pages and pages of information which I found so helpful. It developed on the hands first, I cannot stress enough that it is passed on through saliva and not washing hands after anything from feeding to nappy changing etc. I Dettoxed wiped the changing mat after every nappy change. I am no expert but I think that it is infectious - full stop. I contacted the Doctor and as it is a virus there was nothing he could do, we just had to sweat is out, mine went off his food as there were lost of blisters in the mouth, so easy swallowing stuff is good,the doc offered me antibiotics but said they would not touch it, so it was cuddling non stop and milk and water. Good luck. I became infected but no blisters just the same virus strain which in me came out as (stand by for spelling) viral tonsilitis - the worst I have ever had in my life!!

[Pupuce]

Hi Judith1,

Have a look here, we recently talked about it and I found some websites on it :
www.mumsnet.com/s/Talk?topicid=138&threadid=806&stamp=010606002344

My son had it... so did I. It's quite infectious but it isn't serious....

[MBB]

I had hand foot and mouth about 8 years ago at the age of 22. I'd had blisters round my mouth which I picked at and then became infected and caused my whole head to swell up - the worst pain I've ever experienced. The doctors diagnosis was based on a picture in a text book that showed the blisters to have a slight 'dimple' in the centre. It took about a week before I could lift my head off the pillow and then about 2 months for the huge solid black scab which had formed to eventually drop off and the vivid pink scarring to fade. So don't pick the blisters!!!!