Spotty Baby

It started with a fever just before my parents' birthday party. Coco had been perfectly happy all day--playing at the park with Zuzu and David in the morning while my mom and I did party prep stuff and ran to the store. She didn't want much lunch, which was weird, and she was definitely ready for a nap, but I figured she was just worn out from a relatively late night on Friday and all the outside play time. She took a good nap and woke up pleasant.

Shortly after Coco got up from her nap, I actually dozed off myself. I'd been sick Thursday with a low grade fever, still not feeling normal on Friday, and probably wasn't in top form on Saturday, either. David entertained and refereed the girls while I napped, and then I gave Zuzu a shower, got her dressed, and got in the shower myself.

David brought Coco up to get rinsed off in the shower with me, and commented that she was feeling warm. When he handed her to me, I gasped. She was burning up.

Her fever was 101.5 under her arm, so David made a run to the store for baby tylenol and my mom and I took turns cuddling her while also getting ready for the party--the little sweetie just wanted to be held and rocked.

I knew she wasn't going to be up for much at the party, but once the tylenol kicked in, she seemed to be feeling better, so we got her dressed and ready to go.

She did the cling-to-mama and hide her face thing when anyone greeted her, which I expected, but more troubling was the fact that the tylenol didn't seem to actually help her fever. We left early to take her home (putting her pajamas on before we left) and picked up children's motrin on the way. She was asleep when we got home, so I just put her to bed. David offered to stay with her, so I headed back up to the party.

Shortly after I returned home, she woke up crying. When I went upstairs to get her, she felt so hot. I stripped off her pjs and took her temperature--102.5 under her arm. We gave her Motrin and I rocked her back to sleep, but then kept her in bed with me.

The next day, she seemed to be feeling better. I'd woken up several times in the night to check on her, and around 4:00am, it was obvious that she no longer had a fever. She was a bit cranky in the morning, but nothing out of the ordinary. As I was putting her shoes on her, I noticed a little spot on her big toe and pointed it out to my mom: "Look at this! Is this a bug bite?" It sort of looked like a bite--a tiny little blister, but it didn't seem to itch or bother her.

I also noticed one--just one--on the side of her finger and wondered what kind of bugs were eating her up outside.

We drove home on Sunday--Coco was a bit fussy, but not feverish. She did seem out of sorts, though, once we were home. She was a barnacle, wanting me to hold her constantly, and I felt myself getting frustrated because I had so much unpacking and laundry to do, on top of getting organized for the week ahead.

She told me that her mouth was "owie," and I could see that she has teeth coming in, so while I didn't think that teething would cause such a high fever, I couldn't figure out what else was going on since she didn't have any other symptoms. I gave her some motrin  put her to bed early Sunday night--she went to sleep quickly--and I told David that if she had a fever in the morning, we'd need to keep her home.

The next morning she didn't have a fever. She had spots.

Sores. Blisters. Grossness. All over her little mouth. I gasped when I saw her in the crib. Then I looked at her hands. And her feet. And then--FINALLY--all the pieces came together in my head. Her hands. Her feet. Her mouth. Hand Foot Mouth Disease. (Worst name for a disease ever.)

The spots actually look better here than they do in real life. Also, she's not crying about her spots here. She's throwing a fit because I won't let her hold my phone.

Sure enough, another kid in her room at daycare picked up Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease at a birthday party and ended up spreading it at school. Evidently it's high contagious! But you can have the virus 3-6 days BEFORE you break out in spots.

Now that her fever is gone, she's no longer contagious, unless the spots are oozing (gag gag gag). But I'm still freaking out about Zuzu getting it and spreading it around HER school. I'm trying to be vigilant with the girls at home--NO KISSING! No sharing drinks! Don't hold hands!--and we notified Zuzu's school so they can keep an eye on her.

It's relatively harmless, so says everything I read, but it's obviously been causing Coco some real discomfort. She mostly ate yogurt for dinner last night and I gave her a popsicle afterward, which she seemed to enjoy but didn't finish.

Of course I googled "Can adults get hand-foot-mouth disease" and OF COURSE it's possible (but rare!).

So now we just wait it out. It can take a week for the spots to go away, and there are tiny spots spread over her legs and arms and back as well as the big yucky ones around her mouth and the not-quite-as-big but definitely noticeable ones on her hands. She's basically the most pitiful baby ever. Last night she was EXTREMELY fussy, but she was cheerful this morning, although the first thing she said to me was "owie," gesturing toward her mouth. Poor little nugget.

I had heard of Hand-Foot-Mouth before, but honestly I thought it was something that grubby people got--like ringworm. (So judgy, I know.) And really I guess that all toddlers ARE grubby people, so there you go.