Our family enjoys Fall when it arrives each year. Melanie and my mom enjoyed taking Whitney and Liam to the local pumpkin patch this past week to have some fun. But with Fall also comes cooler weather and illnesses that affect my medically fragile little girl.The headlines are all about H1N1 flu and we're concerned about Whitney catching it so we're trying to track down vaccinations for her and little brother Liam. And Melanie and I were worried when Whitney started with a fever yesterday morning. Could it be this dreaded new strain of flu?
When Melanie called Whit's kindergarten teacher to let her know Whit would be staying home yesterday, the teacher mentioned that Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease has been going around Whitney's elementary school. This type of intestinal infection can also begin with a fever. And sure enough, this morning, Whitney has other Hand, Foot and Mouth symptoms.
So we're safe from the dreaded Swine Flu for the time being, but Whitney has some very painful sores in her mouth and elsewhere. I feel pretty bad for her because she's miserable and refuses to eat anything. It hurts just to have food in her mouth. So she's getting lots of cool drinks and Melanie is going to try and get some yogurt into her. Luckily the initial fever does seem to have subsided.
Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease is spread by direct contact with saliva. And as much as Whit puts her hands in people's faces and then in her mouth, I can easily see how she caught this. Now the trick is to get her well again. All in good time, I'm sure. Hopefully she'll be able to enjoy some more healthy Fall days soon.
2 comments:
Zoe had hand, foot, and mouth a few months ago. We too wondered what her sudden fever was about and worried it was another chest infection. But sure enough, the other symptoms showed up quickly. Weird thing is that I came down with it too (apparently it is very uncommon for adults to get it). I think I acted more miserable than her! I found she did great at eating plain high fat yogurt with fruit and baby cereal mixed in. And she did a great job drinking cold milk. Good luck and I hope she feels better soon. Zoe recovered quicker than I did.
And I was laughing when you said you can imagine how easily she picked this virus up. Yup- our kids are definitely orally fixated and more likely to pick up germs.
Thanks for the well wishes. I saw your recent post in the Yahoo forums. I hope you all get feeling better too. Hang in there!
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