Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease
Who knew it was such a thing! Recently Dreux “found her feet”. And as I watched her suck on her precious little toes my mind began to wander… Should I let her do this? I told my mother that Dreux has a large fascination with her feet and her response was “wash her feet so she doesn’t get Foot in Mouth Disease”. I thought this was another one of my mother’s pharmaceutical scare tactics and I blew it off. Until this morning, the thought of my child having any disease scares me. So I Googled it. And low and behold, there is such a thing and it is prominent in children under the age of 5, specifically in infants. It’s a viral infection that can easily be prevented through sanitary methods. For example, wash the hands and feet of infants who are prone to putting those little toes in their mouths. Through it is contagious, there isn’t much treatment for it and doctors would suggest you let the virus “run its course”. The disease can be passed from child to child through contact with saliva, mucus, or fecal matter of an infected person.
I noticed yesterday when I picked Dreux up from daycare, that the socks I sent her to school in were no longer on her feet. For me, I’m going to make sure I stress the importance of washing hands, surfaces, and toys at her daycare and KEEPING HER SOCKS ON; although Dreux has a tendency to kick them off and lose them –hence the lime green sock that we never did find.
Mommies, Daddies, and caregivers please take head to this. It is real! While I thought GiGi, my mother whom doesn’t want to be referred by as “Grandma”, was being overly dramatic, I’m a bit concerned about this now. Call me an overprotected mom, I don’t care. But my daughter won’t get “Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease”. As common as it may be, I think we’ll pass on this one!
Click Here To Learn More About Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease
Danai, being an overprotected mom is sooo much better than not...it says a lot about you as a mommy. I always have to hold my breath when people have something negative to say about me being like that about EVERYTHING when it comes to my toddler.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. This disease is the #1 reason Caleb is no longer at his previous daycare facility. He contracted it along with every infant in the center's infant room. We were pissed and pulled him out IMMEDIATELY!
It started with a terrible fever the weekend before his first bday, and we had no idea why his body temperature was so high all weekend. Then 30 minutes after we dropped him off the following Monday (his temp was down to normal) we were called to pick him up because another infant's mom had called crying hysterically because her child had it and has possibly spread it.
You sound just like me when I first had CJ! It was crucial to me that before people even contemplated touching him, hand hygiene was in order! It is natural with your first child to be overprotective (so I've heard) so embrace it!
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