how we treated hand foot mouth.
I’m sure you’ve heard the line —
“It’s viral. There’s nothing we can do but let it run its course”.
What a defeating statement when you just want to help your child feel better. There’s fewer things worse than watching your child suffer. There are plenty of things you can try to help support your childs body and immune system during a viral infection. Here’s some things we did during our first stint of hand foot mouth disease last month.
Disclaimer: *this is not intended to be medical advice, just our story of what we did to help our boys.*
Here was our timeline:
(counting day 1 as the day fever hit, not incubation period, but the day before their fevers came they both had clear runny noses and they both already had a rash on their booties)
Day 1: high fever + low appetite + poor sleep
Day 2: fever gone & sores seen in back of throat + rash on body (started on hands first) + low appetite + poor sleep
Day 3-4: rash spread to other parts of body
Day 5: rash gone on oldest son
Day 7: rash diminishing on youngest son
Day 10: peeling of skin on hands + feet
Day 14: all clear for both
For reference, this is what my kids ‘spots’ looked like over the course of a few days. The virus presented itself very different in both of my boys. Neither of them had any on their faces and overall it was very minimal even though my youngest son had it worse. The rash on my oldest (seen in the first picture) was the worst it ever got and this was after playing outside in the 80 degree weather where it flared up. His rash was truly just a rash that wasn’t raised spots with fluid at all anywhere on his body. My youngest never had a rash like this, but instead had raised spots of no more than six in an area. His areas were bottom of feet, thigh, back of knee, hands. I truly believe that since we caught it early for both of them. I was able to support their bodies before the worst could have happened. I’ve heard horror stories of this virus and while I still do not want to re-live it, we truly had such mild cases. Here’s what we did and used below.
Nutrition:
COLD! If it’s cold, they wanted it. homemade popsicles, frozen organic gogurts, ice water, milk, cheese,
nothing acidic
pasta cooked in bone broth for nutritious benefit
applesauce
potatoes
anything that was soft and mushy similar to the BRAT diet was what they loved for the first few days then their appetites went back to normal
Meds:
homeopathic meds: MercSol for mouth sores, RhusTox or Sulphur for rash/blisters, Belladonna for fever
sovereign silver sprayed in back of throat for my oldest, added to my littlest bottles and sprayed on spots/rashes too
beekeepers propolis immune support spray in back of throat + added to bottles
vitamins: young living mightyvites + mightypro, Mary Ruths liquid multivitamin + zinc (zinc inhibits the replication of HFM cells so definitely add this!)
homemade popsicles: young living ningxia, strawberries, honey, chia seeds, lemon juice + coconut water
young living tender tush ointment for spots on bottoms
young living lavender lotion nightly to moisturize skin
We used the essential oil rollers on them every few hours. The immune rollers up their spines and on the soles of their feet. We bathed them nightly in a warm bath with epsom salt and lavender oil. We gave the Genexa meds on an as needed basis for pain and uncomfortability. We spent our mornings outside before the heat got too hot which inevitably flared up their rash /spots. We used our thieves cleaner every single night to spray down all surfaces and toys that were touched just so my husband + I could avoid getting it. We washed our hands with thieves soap after anything we touched and left our thieves sanitizer pump on the counter to use more quickly.
