Exposed to cocksackie

[teachma]

On Sat. night, my 15-month old played, and possibly shared food with, a 3 year old who developed a fever a day later. I'm assuming he will prove to have cocksackie virus, as it's rampant in our area (and in his preschool circle specifically). Other than breastfeeding, which we do 24/7, anything else I can do retroactively to prevent my son from developing the virus? It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world, but with upcoming travel plans, avoidance would be best.

[ASusan]

Vitamin C and L-lysine

and this, if she gets it --

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...h#post14770896

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

My little guy had that when he was about 6 moths old. Then when he was 1, he had a GI bug that last almost a month, complete with vommitting and diarrhea. I always joke that I will take HFM over that GI bug any day of the week.

[ASusan]

And, oh, DS's bout of HFM turned out to be very mild, and we WERE traveling through it. (We didn't know it was HFM until we returned and got the notice - belatedly - through daycare that he was exposed.) He ran a mild fever at night, and had a few bumps on his hand. OTOH, one of his daycare friends was rushed 1-hour via ambulance to the Children's Hospital in the city because her mouth/throat was so swollen they thought her airway would be cut off. No one thought "HFM" because the daycare notice was delayed.

[teachma]

Thanks for the suggestions and shared experiences. My daughter had it at a similar age to my son's current age, and it was not so mild (nor severe enough to require emergent care). Often, I find the worrying/concern leading up to the posible illness to be worse than the illness itself, when it finally strikes.

[serenbat]

I know of a brother & sister- the sister was so sick she was sent to two different hosps. and the brother never got it. They shared - so you maybe in the clear.

[poppan]

Glad I came across this thread... wondering if this sounds like HFM to you mamas? Our symptoms seem to match, except no sores (yet?). But you can get it without exhibiting sores, is that right? It is a little different than other illnesses they've had, and if not this, then any other ideas what it could be?

DD (who has the more robust immune system) came down with "it" (whatever it is) first. She started by being tired during the day and not eating anything. She had a fever all night (low grade, 100-101F) and seemed uncomfortable. The low grade fever continued into the next day and she would not eat or drink anything much and was very tired and slept a lot. Then it was kind of done and she was acting normally again--so overall lasted a day and a half.

DS came down with it next. Also had the low grade fever, was tired/lethargic, and he threw up several times. He said his mouth hurt. Low grade fever for half the night, woke up this morning and seems totally fine.

The only other thing I noticed was that they were both passing very strong smelling gas! But no diarrhea. Anyway it seems to be over now but I'm wondering what they had... they seemed so bothered by it, but then it was over relatively quickly.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Originally Posted by poppan

But you can get it without exhibiting sores, is that right?

My little guy only had sores in his mouth that I was completlly unaware of. The doctor found them.

I didnt know he had been exposed until after I had been up with him and noticed he was very hot with a fever. I just nursed and nursed, and by morning, no fever. Call daycare, and OH, yea, we had a child go home the other day and the parents called yesterday, HFM. So I had my mom take him to the doc, and sure enough..............He was fine in another day, and really, I barely noticed he was sick at all.

[VillageMom6]

Teachma, are you by any chance pregnant?

We had Coxsackie run through our household last month and while the children were miserable, they recovered quickly.

It hit me like a ton of bricks and I ended up in an ambulance for the first time in my life. The good news is that baby and I were fine but it sure was no fun.

Good luck to your family!

[Mamacitac]

Just wanted to mention that it's spelled coxsackie

Good luck

[teachma]

Not pregnant...and everyone's healthy so far! The boy in question recovered quickly from the fever, and his mom never found any sores, so who knows what kind of virus is was.

[LowFlyingAnimals]

You must live near me. . I have two bigger kids, and I never remember so Many little ones sick with hfm at the same time.

Everyone under 3 that I know has had it in the last few weeks. My ds got it Friday. No sores that I could find, but he did have mouth soreness. Fever for 2 days, small amount of vomiting, lethargy, then he recovered completely within a few days. I think this is one of those things that bf might really help.