What is hand, foot & mouth disease?

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common viral illness that usually affects infants and children younger than 5 years old. However, it can sometimes occur in adults, I know because I've caught it once and let me tell you, it's extremely painful as an adult. Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease include fever, blister-like sores in the mouth, and a skin rash.

Blisters on R-man's chin. 

There are no specific treatment for hand, foot and mouth disease. However, some things can be done to relieve symptoms, such as:

• Taking over the counter medications to reduce the pain and fever
• Take a bath in baking soda water to dry up the skin rash
• Use calamine lotion to dry up the blisters, make sure the skin is dry before applying
• Apply a thin layer of  lotrimin antifungal cream then Boudreaux's butt paste (to keep the moisture out) 

The virus can be spread through:

• close personal contact
• the air (through coughing or sneezing)
• contact with feces
• contaminated objects and surfaces

R-man recent caught hand, foot and mouth for the second time. His symptoms started off with a low grade fever, around 100.3. We gave him children's motrin and it broke his fever. We had to keep giving him motrin every 6 hours to keep his fever down. However, we could tell that he was uncomfortable all weekend but we couldn't quite figure it out until late yesterday afternoon, he had some blisters that showed up on his face.

Blisters on his hands and back of his legs.

This morning, I noticed some on his hands and the backs of his legs. It quickly spreads but the blisters only last for a day or two then they are gone but new ones seem to appear every hour. Rest is the key and keeping the blisters clean so they dry out quickly.

This is the second time R-man has had hand, foot and mouth but it can come in different strains. He didn't have it bad when he was 3-months old so hopefully it isn't bad this time either.

Let's hope no one else in the family catches this again!