hand, foot and mouth disease.
Today T783 spent the greater part of the morning at the doctor’s office getting swabbed for every possible ailment under the sun — all sorts of different kinds of flus and strep throat. Final decision? Hand, foot and mouth disease which is otherwise known as HFMD to those who’d not like to make it sound so extraordinarily disgusting.
He basically woke up with a low-grade fever (that I let go for a while, thinking he was just hot from sleep) and developed a headache. I gave him some Motrin and half an hour later felt him burning up. 100.4 degrees. So I called his pediatrician who wanted him to come immediately. And the rest is history.
Here are some lovely bits of information I picked up from the Centers for Disease Control website:
One or 2 days after fever onset, painful sores usually develop in the mouth. They begin as small red spots that blister and then often become ulcers. The sores are usually located on the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheeks.
The virus is most often spread by persons with unwashed, virus-contaminated hands and by contact with virus-contaminated surfaces. Gross [my commentary].
Infected persons are most contagious during the first week of the illness.
The viruses that cause HFMD can remain in the body for weeks after a patient’s symptoms have gone away. This means that the infected person can still pass the infection to other people even though he/she appears well.
And with that lovely image, I will leave you for today.
we had a bout of this in the Infant Toddler room- five kids got it in all. it seemed to go away pretty quickly. i hope he feels much better soon.
Poor kid! Hope he gets to feeling better soon. And you? You (I’m sorry to say) need to hit Costco for their Super Duper Ginormous size of antibacterial wipes.
Oh, and wine. It’s alcohol, it’ll kill the germs, right? 
oh my hell. That poor baby! I assume you immediately called his summer camp. I hope he doesn’t suffer too much when the ULCERS develop!!!
Oh, yes, the dreaded foot and mouth. Both of my boys had it — just steel yourself for screaming. I remember my friend and I thinking that there must have been a central nervous system component to the virus because our two children acted so crazy when they had it.
My son had it last summer-I think he caught it from an area water park. I felt so sorry for him, with the blisters all over his mouth. He ate alot of yogurt, which seemed to soothe his mouth. I had him gargle with hydrogen peroxide about 3 days after he broke out, and that helped them start healing in his mouth.