My son (9) started out with a fever friday night with no other symptoms then being achy. Then Sunday morning he woke up with what I thought was a fever blister on his lip. He still continued with a fever even though I was giving him tylenol. Today I took him to the doctor who showed me that he had sores in his mouth and then diagnosed him with Hand, Foot & Mouth.
He had never had this before. In fact neither of my kids had it before, so I have never dealt with it before. Later this afternoon he was just miserable. He was crying and was having a hard time swallowing. I had some throat spray, which I thought may help ease some of the pain, but wasn't sure so I decided to call the pharmasist just to see if that was safe. She asked me his symptoms and then said that she was worried that it was more then just Hand Foot & Mouth. She said that she has never heard of a child his age getting it. He only has mouth issues and nothing on the hands and feet, which she thought was "weird" too. Now I am scared. Is this really what he has? Has anyone seen this in an older child? And if so how can I ease his pain.
An older child absolutely can get it - my son was almost 4, older than the norm. And so can adults, because I caught it from my son when I was in my early 30s. Oddly enough, neither my son nor I had mouth sores. He only had blisters on his feet, and I only had them on my hands.
The good news is that it tends to pass pretty quickly. Hang in there!
My son had it around age 5 or 6.
I don't think they are immune by 2.
I think it can even occur in adults (more rarely though).
I know of kids who had NO hand or foot blisters, only mouth pain.
And vice-versa.
The doc took O. look at the roof of my sons mouth and said it was "textbook HF&M" because of the mirror mosaic pattern or something.
Can your ped give him the Magic Swizzle numbing mouth rinse? The upside--he's old enough there's no danger of swallowing it.
Do you trust your pediatrician?
No carbonated stuff, soft, cold foods.
Hope he's better fast.
It IS painful. But by day 3 or so mine was asking for a chipotle wrap!
My daughter got it in the summer when she was 18 months old. Started as little blisters around her mouth and some on her hands. She got over it pretty quick and then my 4 y.o. son got it something AWFUL! He has eczema so it made an insane mess of his hands (especially since he gets eczema on his hands). He looked like a burn victim. Was told by the doctor that since it's a virus, it will work it's way out of his system like a cold. Took a quite a while in his case, but it eventually went away. It is very contagious so I washed my hands a lot, plus things the kids touched. I read that adults can get it too but it mainly effects children. Google it and you can get more info. It will go away though. How quickly depends on how bad your boy has it. Do you have an idea of where he may have caught it? For me, the only place that they could have gotten it at was a children's museum in Philadelphia called The Please Touch Museum. I remember there was an Alice In Wonderland play area to explore and there was some tea sets around and my daughter was putting them to her mouth faster than I could yank them away from her. Needless to say, I am hesitant to go back there anytime soon, although I know we will at some point. Knowing where it came from will help ease your mind a bit.
Usually by 2 kids are immune to Hand Foot & Mouth. I would find a different doctor for him.
It sounds more like strep to me.
