Hand, Foot and Mouth

At Eliza's 6 month check up the doctor discovered she had an ear infection.  She was put on antibiotics and we went about our business.

6 days later she started coming down with a  low-grade fever and was unusually fussy.  That night she was up ALL night long, still slightly feverish.

Fearing that her ear infection had not improved, I took her back to the doctor.  Her ears were fine, but he did discover a tooth bud just barely poking through.

Boy did I feel silly for not catching that.  Shouldn't I know better by now, the second time around?

However she did not improve the rest of the day and had another awful night's sleep.  

Examining her gums for further teeth, I noticed one gum on the top was slightly sunken (NOT a sign of a tooth poking through).  Stan said it reminded him of a cold sore.

I also noticed two pus-filled blisters on her thumb.  

At first I thought it was because she had been gnawing on her thumb due to teething.  Beginning late afternoon, she would not eat anything.  By bedtime that evening we force fed her 2 oz. of milk with a dropper and she cried the whole time.  She wouldn't even suck on her pacifier.

 I was really worried about her getting dehydrated, so the next morning when she still wouldn't eat, I did 2 more oz. with a dropper.   After that, I called my sister-in-law Anne, who has 3 children of her own and is also a nurse, and talked to her about what might be going on.  I described the sores that I thought were unrelated, and she asked if Eliza had any on her feet.  I checked and she did.  She suggested something called "Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease."  I looked it up on the internet and she had all the symptoms it described.  It can also cause a sore throat, which might have been why she cried even while eating with a dropper.

 Thankfully she started eating again later that morning and started feeling better after that.  It's a virus, nothing you can really do, so we didn't return to the unhelpful doctor (although part of me would have liked someone who knows to look and tell me for sure that is what she had).

It's also really contagious, so we layed low for a week to make sure we didn't pass it onto anyone else.  Eliza didn't get very many more sores, so I think it was probably a mild case.  And even more thankfully, Miriam didn't get it from her.

So they are both well and happy now, and so is Mom!