Mild HFMD?

As most of you would know that my girl contracted HFMD and we found out on Saturday 28th May when she complained of mouth pain and refused dinner. There were no early warning as she didn't get any sort of blisters/rash on the hands or feet or buttock or even fever. It started with only ulcers in the mouth.

We took her to the doctor on Sunday morning and the doctor said HFMD usually will have blisters/rashes and told us that although there were none, she very likely contracted HFMD as there were quite a number of ulcers in the mouth (tongue, sides of the cheek and even the top). She sent us home with some painkiller and oral gel.

I've heard a lot of scary stories about how kids will refuse food, milk or even water because of the pain. My sister's 3 year old had it few months back and it was terrible. My sister had to force the 'watermelon frost' into her mouth to numb the pain so she could eat/drink something. I panicked. My girl is known to be very picky with food (very 'siu ceh' and 'yim chim') and I was worried on how to get food into her mouth if she's going to be in such pain.

Thankfully it was pretty smooth for us. On Sunday itself I got her to gargle with salt water a few times a day and the ulcers were bearable as she could still eat and drink and even brushes her teeth. She complained of pain from time to time but she still managed to eat (mainly porridge) and finished up her milk. She continued the salt water routine for the following few days.

Apart from the pain caused by the ulcers she was fine. She was quite her normal self. However, we still tried to keep her away from her brother as much as we can. We sent the boy to the babysitter after confirming that he was fine during daytime. I also did a lot of cleaning, disinfecting and wiping at home. The home smelt like Dettol all the time :-)

After being confined at home for 4 days, we sent her back to the babysitter on Wed so I could go back to work. On Thurs I found out that the other baby (Jovin who is 10 months old) at the babysitter contracted the same thing. She didn't have blisters/rashes as well but only ulcers in the mouth. Could she have contracted it from Hayley? If she did then I would feel really bad. But then why didn't my boy get it? He spent more time with Hayley than Jovin did. Anyway, Jovin also got better after a few days. I am starting to feel that this isn't really HFMD, it may be a new type of disease or a mutated one that is going around town. Apparently the doctor Jovin visited told her mom that he has seen 3 kids with the same symptoms just on that morning itself. So parents out there beware!

The next thing which I will need to do would be to change her toothbrush, cups, teats, drinking bottle etc to get rid of the germs once and for all...