Hand Foot & Mouth Disease In My Own Kids - Close?

[MG&Lsmom]

So DD2 was diagnosed with Hand, Foot & Mouth disease today. She's been running high fevers (103+) since Tuesday. I have not had any DCKs this week. She was in camp last week and one DCK had been here for 2 hours Thurs and Fri last week. Dr. says she's contagious until her fever is gone for 24 hours and she needs to be seen immediately if it's not gone on Monday. My question, should I plan to close on Monday? My house isn't really big enough to keep her isolated. And while I plan on sanitizing all the toys, it would mean she can't play with anything Sunday morning through whenever she's better. I won't have time to sanitize everything Sunday night after bedtime. My daycare space is practically my whole house. I also have 2 other kids of my own, whom I'm suspecting will start up with the fever soon too given how contagious it is. UGH!

And sorry, I did a search on 'hand foot mouth disease' and it returned almost 2000 threads, most of them from today??? Wierd.

[daycare]

how severe is her case? If its not a bad case of it, I would keep playing it by ear until saturday. At least you still have some time to decide if it would be wise or not to open. I would say that if she still has fever on Saturday afternoon, that you should inform all of the parents By Saturday night or Sunday morn to give them time to find alternate care.

[SilverSabre25]

I like what daycare said

[MG&Lsmom]

how severe is her case? If its not a bad case of it, I would keep playing it by ear until saturday. At least you still have some time to decide if it would be wise or not to open. I would say that if she still has fever on Saturday afternoon, that you should inform all of the parents By Saturday night or Sunday morn to give them time to find alternate care.

the Dr said her throat is covered in blisters, but she only has one sore on her hand, none on her feet. I'm still hoping the strep test comes back positive.

[daycare]

I had only one child have this at my DC. she came here with it and I sent her home. She was the yongest one in my DC at age 19mo. She was covered all over the place. The parents were just CLUELESS!! She put everything in her mouth all the time. When mom called me to confirm that it was HFM I freaked out. I cleaned everything and srubbed for a full day. Lucky for my DC no one else got it. Including her own sister.

For the rest of the weekend can you possibly put most of the DC toys away that should could posisbly infect? I was so in over my head with toys that I had to put some in my garage in buckets of bleach for a few days.

[sharlan]

I've had it go through my daycare 3 or 4 times now. I just tell all the parents and leave it up to them. I've never had a parent keep their kids home.

[MG&Lsmom]

I was so in over my head with toys that I had to put some in my garage in buckets of bleach for a few days.

This is where I'm at right now. I will have to have buckets and buckets and buckets soaking. She's been playing with everything in the house this past week since its so hot we haven't been outside barely at all.

[MG&Lsmom]

My daughter is almost 5, she doesn't mouth toys at all. I'm sure she could have touched her mouth and then the toys. And obviously there's spittle from talking. Still wash everything?

[daycare]

This is where I'm at right now. I will have to have buckets and buckets and buckets soaking. She's been playing with everything in the house this past week since its so hot we haven't been outside barely at all.

Yup same here! Lucky I had these huge buckets from a party we had that held drinks in.
I filled them with 1/3 water and The rest bleach.

Every night after DC was over I went out and cleaned one full bucket.
They all sat for at least two plus days.

[TBird]

My girls had that at the same time but I wasn't doing daycare at the time. They had the sores and were miserable....I would have had to close.

[nannyde]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/han...ION=prevention

Isolate contagious people. Because hand-foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious, people with the illness should limit their exposure to others while they have active signs and symptoms. Keep children with hand-foot-and-mouth disease out of child care or school until fever is gone and mouth sores have healed. If you have the illness, stay home from work.

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is usually a minor illness causing only a few days of fever and relatively mild signs and symptoms. However, a rare and sometimes serious form of the coxsackievirus can involve the brain and cause other complications:

Viral meningitis. This is an infection and inflammation of the membranes (meninges) and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Viral meningitis is usually mild and often clears on its own.Encephalitis. This severe and potentially life-threatening disease involves brain inflammation caused by a virus. Encephalitis is rare.

Children usually develop immunity to hand-foot-and-mouth disease as they get older by building antibodies after exposure to the virus that causes the disease. However, it's possible for adolescents and adults to get the disease.

[MG&Lsmom]

Thanks Nan, I had already been on the Mayo Clinic site. I'm guessing I can't be open, since I can't isolate her enough, if she still has a fever come Sunday morning. We had a very busy weekend of birthday parties and a water park trip with our Autism Resource Center. Poor kiddo.

I have toy soup in the bath tub right now. It's quite a sight. And not even a 1/4 of it.

Does anyone know if Barbie hair will melt in bleach? That is my biggest problem, the Barbie collection. Ugh!

[daycare]

Thanks Nan, I had already been on the Mayo Clinic site. I'm guessing I can't be open, since I can't isolate her enough, if she still has a fever come Sunday morning. We had a very busy weekend of birthday parties and a water park trip with our Autism Resource Center. Poor kiddo.

I have toy soup in the bath tub right now. It's quite a sight. And not even a 1/4 of it.

Does anyone know if Barbie hair will melt in bleach? That is my biggest problem, the Barbie collection. Ugh!

..... sorry your barbie comment made me laugh... Thats a google question.....I am interested to know too, but we don't have any barbies... I might start a collection next year....

[Unregistered]

barbie will be fine

I'm sorry kiddo is sick. I would close though and stock up on ice cream. Maybe a craft weekend? Movies?

[nannyde]

Thanks Nan, I had already been on the Mayo Clinic site. I'm guessing I can't be open, since I can't isolate her enough, if she still has a fever come Sunday morning. We had a very busy weekend of birthday parties and a water park trip with our Autism Resource Center. Poor kiddo.

I have toy soup in the bath tub right now. It's quite a sight. And not even a 1/4 of it.

Does anyone know if Barbie hair will melt in bleach? That is my biggest problem, the Barbie collection. Ugh!

Bag em and store them for a month. I've heard of people putting them in the deep freeze too. Can't verify that works... just an idea.