Friday, May 21, 2010

Hand, Foot and Mouth- Oh My!

This week has been quite eventful (read crazy and exhausting). Monday morning Carter went off to school feeling and acting absolutely fine. We got a call in the early afternoon that he was a little warm (about 100.5) and acting lethargic. Wes went to pick him up and took him to the pediatrician, as we are fairly paranoid (ok I am fairly paranoid) about the fluid behind his ear and him developing an ear infection. After examining him and finally looking into his mouth, the doctor declared that Carter had hand, foot and mouth disease. He only had a fever once and the sores remained only in his throat. The sores tend to spread to other parts of the body, mostly hands and feet, in younger babies and toddlers because they tend to put their hands and feet in their mouth and then touch other parts of their body, which spreads the sores. Since it is a viral illness there is no medication to treat it. Just treat the symptoms. Of course HFMD is highly contagious. Translation: Owen is going to soon have HFMD also. Owen had a routine follow-up ear check at the pediatrician on Thursday to make sure that the ear infection that he had two weeks ago was gone. He had been extremely fussy so I was worried that the ear infection had lingered or he was starting to exhibit symptoms of HFMD. The pediatrician (not the one we normally see, his partner) examined him and said that he was fine. Fussiness was chalked up to teething. Last night at around 10 Owen woke up screaming with at 101.9 degree fever. This morning Wes looked into his throat with a flashlight and discovered... you guessed it, white spots. Owen now also has HFMD. Here's hoping that his sores don't spread either and it is short-lived.

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