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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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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