Hand Foot and Mouth

There have been various learnings since my last post, both for myself and the little man. 

The tunes

He’s been picking up the words to various songs and nursery rhymes at a steady rate lately. A couple of his current favourites are Baa Baa Black Sheep (“baa baa baaaaaa”) and Row, Row, Row the Boat (“rooo rooo roooooo”). 

He’s also picked up some bits and bobs of Twinkle Twinkle and he knows most of the actions to The Wheels on the Bus. But one that he has not quite got to grips with just yet is Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes….partly because half way through his attempts at learning it, he developed a bout of a horrendous and little-known disease.

Hand, foot and – indeed – mouth

If you don’t already know about Hand Foot & Mouth disease, it’s most likely because you either a) had a mild case of this as a child but were too young to remember, or b) you managed to escape it’s cruel and evil clutches.

Until now, at least…because it turns out, this is NOT just a baby disease. 

It is important to point out that this is NOT the same disease made famous by the 2001 outbreak of Foot & Mouth, despite what some people may try and have us believe….

How it happened

The outbreak all began during a work trip to Berlin at the end of October. (work trip for me, not Marley).

I received a photo message while there, which showed a few spots on his little hands. He’d had some trouble eating that day and seemed to have a bit of pain in his mouth. 

Hand foot and mouth, my wife was told. Stay away from nursery. 

Day One

I returned home a few days later, and Marley seemed fairly happy. The spots were disappearing, he’d got his appetite back. Everything was getting back to normal. 

 

Or so we thought.

Day two

I notice a couple of dry spots on my hand. What’s that?

Must be the cold weather coming in, I think. Nothing to worry about.

Day Three

They have got worse. Red spots. On my feet as well. And what is that by my mouth? Some small, red patches…..oh, God…..

Day Four

The itching has begun. When I look back now, I don’t remember it being that bad. But then my wife reminds me of what I said during the night of Day Four:

“I want to cut my hands and feet off”. 

Day Five

My mouth is on fire. I can’t eat. 

Day Six

On Day Six, thankfully things started to get better. So by Day 7 I had my appetite back and things began to gradually improve. It was another full week before the skin on my hands and feet healed and I was able to actually see other people without risking giving them a bout of this horrific disease. 

Speaking to a friend who is a GP, he advised that the disease can often be much worse in adults than in children. He also said that in some cases, the disease can return (please God no) but this is very unusual.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you hear of ANYONE with Hand, Foot & Mouth disease, whether they are children or adults, stay the hell away from them!

In the meantime, we’ll go back to teaching Marley some more nursery rhymes. 

Here goes, Marley:

“Heads, shoulders, hand foot and mouth…..hand foot and mouth……”