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Monday 9 October 2017

Health | Dealing with Hand Foot and Mouth


At the beginning of September, we packed up our car and headed across the country with two babies, the four hour journey to Skegness was a success and we arrived in Butlins. A fab week was had by all (more on that in another blog post) and was over in a flash. Typically, both boys were ill the week we were away, just a cold, but none the less it wasn't nice for either of them, but it didn't stop them having an amazing time. During the four hour journey home, we got stuck in traffic on the M62 (worst motorway ever) and had a very grizzly baby. I put it down to his cold and him teething, we had a quick pit stop at a service station, I got Henry out of the car for some fresh air, we had a bite to eat and continued on.

The next day, Henry cried none stop all day and he clung to me, which, even though he is a mummy's boy, was completely out of the ordinary for him. I was in my mum's at the time so she sent me for a bath and I had half an hour of peace and quiet. Bliss. On the Sunday I went downstairs and was greeted with Pete telling me Henry had spots on his face. "So? He always gets spots on his face when he's teething" was my reply. Until he went on to tell me he had spots on his hands as well, I looked at Henry's face and his spots looked really aggrevated and sore. "Hand, foot and mouth" I thought rationally. Irrationally, I was googling symtpoms of Sepsis, you know just to be on the safe side. When I told my mum about his spots, she confirmed hand, foot and mouth. She also warned me it was highly contagious, it's viral and I just had to ride it out. Great, just what I need with George starting school.. was my initial reaction. Anyway, a quick trip to the out of hours confirmed it, we were sent away with a spray for his mouth to numb any pain so he could eat and drink, and unexpectedly some antibiotics (which I believe is to stop it turning into impetigo).

I knew Henry would be okay with his medicine and regulated ibuprofen and paracetemol two hourly, but my main fear was George catching it. I thought there was no way to stop it, I had so many people telling me horror stories about them catching it from their kids, nails falling off so I was expecting the worst. Henry was attached to me so I figured it was inevitible I too would be diseased, but I was going to do everything in my power to stop George catching it, sharing is caring and all but that was something I could do without.

I told George that Henry had germs and he couldn't share his dummy, luckily he actually listened (first and only time). I ensured that the boys had different coloured dummies to ensure there were no mix ups and I also washed every toy Henry went near/ slobbered all over. 

Within five days we were clear and nobody else caught it! It was a mircale. I guess you can call us lucky but boy am I glad! 

Has your little one had hand, foot and mouth?

Rachael xo

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