The Moore Tales: HFM Drama

It is the note you see taped to every cubby as you walk down the hallway at the boy's daycare. Your heart skips a beat because you're wondering what the note says. Is it a teacher that is leaving, is it another case of head lice, or is it a virus. Thankfully it wasn't anything tragic or life threatening to any children or teachers but it was to let us know that they had the first case of Chickenpox in the Toddler room. At first I took a sigh of relief that we were in the clear--it was in the toddler room...not the infant or the 3's room. It was only a little sigh when two days later we got word that one of the infant's in Preston's class had been confirmed with the pox. I stressed over this for days thinking OMGAH what am I going to do if P gets the pox?!

His room at school after we were notified was very scarce. They took everything out and washed all the toys, cleaned everything from the floor up. I guess some parents kept their children home to prevent further exposure, etc. The pox does have a 2-3 week incubation period so here we are thinking every baby will eventually get it at some point with an incubation period that long. We decided to keep P with his normal routine and it looked like we were going to be in the clear until I picked him up Thursday afternoon. His teachers mentioned he was really fussy all day long which is not his norm. He really hadn't slept well all week as he was sort of whiney and would whimper during the night making for many sleepless nights. He never would fully wake up though just kind of acting irritated because of something. We just chalked it up to teething. Friday I took him to daycare as usual but called to check on him around 1030AM. He had just went down for a nap and said they'd call me when he woke up. Well, the nap was short lived because they called at 1045AM to tell me that he seemed fine. We went on for a good part of the day going back and forth between him acting fine and then doing a 180 and being completely unconsolable. I ended up getting him an appointment at the dr. late that afternoon just in case he might have an ear infection. He didn't have any symptoms of the pox or any other virus that made me think would be contributing to his fussiness. The only thing we could think was maybe his ears were bothering him.

The dr. looked in his ears and all was clear. She looked in his mouth and saw the culprit. Our poor baby had the worst mouth sores on the back of his throat. The dr. said if we had them we would also be rolling on the bed miserable. These sores were part of the good ole Hand Foot and Mouth virus. He wasn't displaying the red spots on his hands or feet as he only had the mouth part but it was really bad. These sores on the back of his throat contributed to his fussiness, whimpering, and down right unhappy attitude he has had the past week. No medicine will help the virus so we just have been giving him motrin for the pain. Baker had HFM several times when he was younger so we definitely know how rough it can be. Baker never had the mouth sores part of it so this was whole new territory for us!

He seems to be doing better but last night woke up completely congested and sounding like he could barely breath. He's got a nasty cough but Baker is displaying similar symptoms. I did a breathing treatment on both of them which seemed to help. I'm hoping its just allergies from the nonstop rain.

Here's to healthier days ahead!!