Hi all, I recently played with my 16-month-old nephew, who's an adorable little pea. His parents assured us that his Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD) was no longer contagious. Unfortunately, as I write this, my fingertips feel like needles are going through them every time I hit a key, my feet feel like they've permanently fallen asleep and won't wake up, my nose and ears are developing crusts, more blisters are starting to form across my entire body and inside my mouth, and worst of all, it feels like there's a mixture of sandpaper and glass in my throat. I'd rather keep starving myself than have to swallow anything at the moment. I am 28 and this is incredibly uncomfortable and disruptive. I just had covid for the third time earlier this month, and after day 3 I can say this far worse.

There was barely anything on Google for adults that get HFMD and honestly Reddit seemed like the best places for seeking remedies so I scoured a few threads and wanted to try and make a short compilation of what I was able to find. These are in no particular order.

1. Lots of Tylenol and Ibuprofen

2. Cold or lukewarm baths

3. Hydroxyzine (if your skin is itchy)

4. Daily saltwater rinses or numbing spray (if your mouth/throat is sore)

5. Lavender oil (to calm the pain and itchiness)

6. It can be painful, but try to drink close to a gallon of water a day. You can easily get dehydrated.

7. If your nose or ears get crusty use petroleum jelly

8. If your itch is really bad you can ask your doctor for steroid cream ( like hydrocortisone )

9. If your throat is really bad you can ask you doctor for oral steroids. Some seem to even get a steroid shot.

The best advice I found was in this thread, so I figured this would be the best place to post in hopes that those that have gone through can share their remedies they figured out and those that get it in the future can quickly find the answers that they're looking for. HFMD in adults truly sucks.

My one year old caught Hand foot mouth disease a few days before her birthday and it was brutal but we survived. I found a lot of useful tips on this sub so I thought I would share some tips on what worked for us as well.

1. Alternating tylenol and Motrin for pain and fever. But I would try and schedule it in such a way that Motrin was given as her last dose before sleep. I was told Motrin is stronger as a painkiller so she was doing longer stretches at night without needing painkillers when I started doing this.

2. Oatmeal baths- I powdered oatmeal in the blender and would soak it in the bath tub in hot water and let the water become luke warm before putting her in. Then I would let her soak for 10-15 minutes in the oatmeal bath

3. Calamine and zinc oxide- I applied calamine these generously on all her sores and I also applied zinc oxide (desitin) and the combo helped dry up the blisters quickly

4. Aquaphor- once the blisters scabbed I applied aquaphor and that’s really reduced scarring and restored the moisture in her skin from all the calamine . I’m still doing this

5. Food- my LO had bad blisters in her mouth and throat and she was refusing everything even popsicles so to try and get some nutrition in her I was blending avocado or banana with breast milk. Everything was hurting her tongue even her normal straw cup but I found her honey bear straw cup was the softest and easiest for her so we went back to that. Her food refusal was the hardest. She’s lost a ton of weight.

6. Lots and lots of cuddling and throwing out her regular routine out the window to just respond to her needs- sleep when she wants, eat when she wants etc etc. I’m still breastfeeding and she did a lot of comfort sucking which I just let her.

HFMD is horrible and I wish all the parents who are dealing with it lots of strength. It took us about eight days before she started to feel better (which for me was when she started to eat again). It’ll get better in time. Hang in there.

Edited to change HFMD To hand foot mouth disease