Your friends at KidsStreet are here to share all the information you’re looking for about Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, including symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
What is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?
The word “disease” sounds scary, but hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is actually a very common viral childhood illness.
The viruses that cause HFMD can be found in the digestive and respiratory tracts, including the nose, mouth, throat, stomach, intestines, and rectum. The virus is also in the fluid-filled blisters caused by HFMD. It is spread easily by:
- Contact with an infected person’s blisters.
- Contact with surfaces that have been exposed to the virus and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
- Contact with bodily fluids such as mucus, saliva, or stool and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
- Respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Although they sound similar, HFMD is different from foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease. Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus that only affects animals with hooves, such as cows, goats, and pigs. Humans can’t spread HFMD to animals, and animals are unable to spread foot-and-mouth to humans.
Who Gets Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?
Anyone can get HFMD if they are exposed to the virus. However, it is much more common in children under the age of seven. Most cases are seen in the late summer and early fall in daycares and early elementary schools. It spreads quickly among young children in groups who often share toys and school supplies.
If you are pregnant and exposed to HFMD, you should contact your healthcare provider. Although very rare, HFMD can cause complications that your healthcare provider will want to review.
What Are Symptoms of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?
HFMD usually starts with mild flu-like symptoms. Your child may have:
- Decreased appetite
- Feeling tired
- Headache
- Low-grade fever
- Runny or stuffy nose
- Sore throat
- Tummy ache
These initial symptoms usually last a few days and then clear up. As the initial symptoms are getting better, new symptoms start, including:
- A skin rash that starts on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. It may spread to other parts of their body, such as the arms, buttocks, genitals, and legs. The rash usually looks like flat, red spots, but some of the spots may become fluid-filled blisters. The rash may be itchy, or your child may say it burns.
- Mouth sores develop around, on, and inside your child’s mouth, including on the tongue, gums, and roof of the mouth. These sores begin as pink spots but become painful blisters that may make it difficult for your little one to eat or drink.
- Swollen lymph nodes will develop in your child’s neck. This is a sign that your kiddo’s immune system is fighting off the virus.
HFMD symptoms usually clear up in seven to 10 days.
How is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease Diagnosed?
Most healthcare providers will diagnose HFMD by reviewing your child’s symptoms and examining the characteristic mouth sores and rash.
Your child’s healthcare provider may send a throat swab or a stool sample to the lab to confirm the diagnosis of HFMD and rule out other possible causes of your kiddo’s symptoms.
KidsStreet Urgent Care is here to help if you are concerned your child has hand, foot, and mouth disease!
How is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease Treated?
HFMD is usually treated at home. It is a viral infection, so antibiotics will not help treat HFMD, and there are currently no effective antivirals for HFMD.
Home treatment focuses on preventing dehydration and relieving itching and pain. We recommend you:
- Administer over-the-counter Benadryl® for itching if your little one’s rash is itchy.
- Administer over-the-counter Tylenol® or ibuprofen for mouth sore and sore throat pain relief and fever relief.
- Apply calamine lotion to the rash to relieve itching.
- Apply ice packs to your kiddo’s hands and feet if the rash burns.
- Avoid giving acidic, salty, or spicy foods that can irritate mouth sores.
- Encourage your kiddo to drink cold drinks such as milk, Pedialyte®, and water to prevent dehydration.
- Give cold treats such as ice cream, popsicles, smoothies, and yogurt to numb and soothe painful mouth sores while getting in more fluids.
- Give your child salt water for sore throat relief if they are old enough to gargle.
HFMD usually clears up in seven to 10 days. You should call your child’s healthcare provider if your child:
- Develops a high fever, neck stiffness, and backache.
- Has difficulty drinking and has symptoms of dehydration, such as a dry mouth or urinating less frequently.
- Is not getting better after 10 days.
- Is younger than six months old.
How is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease Prevented?
Once your child gets HFMD, they usually develop an immunity to the virus that caused it. However, 16 different known viruses cause HFMD, so it is possible to get it again from a different virus. There is currently no approved vaccine for HFMD.
Here are our top tips to help prevent the spread of HFMD:
- Avoid close contact with a person infected with HFMD.
- Avoid sharing eating or drinking utensils with a person infected with HFMD.
- Clean surfaces touched by a person with HFMD frequently, such as cell phones, countertops, doorknobs, keys, and toys.
- Cough and sneeze into your elbow and teach your child to do the same.
- Don’t touch your face (especially eyes, nose, and mouth) after changing a dirty diaper or helping your child blow their nose until you have washed your hands.
- Keep your child home from school or daycare and away from other children while they are contagious. They are most contagious in the first few days, often before the rash develops, and usually no longer contagious once the fever is gone and blisters have crusted over.
- Wash your child’s bedding, clothing, stuffed animals, and towels.
- Wash your hands with warm soap and water frequently and teach your child to do the same.
Turn to KidsStreet Urgent Care
KidsStreet Urgent Care is here for all of life’s little emergencies, including hand, foot, and mouth disease. Visit one of our clinics near you to get them healing and feeling better fast!
Register online to visit a clinic near you. You and your child can wait in the convenience of your home or vehicle until we are ready to see you. We’ll text you when it’s time to head to the clinic.
KidsStreet loves walk-ins too! However, we recommend registering online before your visit to reduce in-clinic wait times. Walk-ins join the same queue as those who register online.