Hand, foot and mouth..

As exam week is over, I thot I could chill out this weekend with the kids. But we can only plan and Allah grants it..

Since Friday afternoon Omar showed great discomfort in eating or drinking and he would suddely screamed in pain while playing, pointing to his mouth. At first I thought he had toothache. Then I start telling him (hoping that he'd understood) how he should not take too much sweets and all. Then I start looking into his mouth and tried to brush his teeth. Then I saw it .. he had a few ulcers in his mouth. Ohh no wonder. Must be the heat, I thought. And how he lacked drinking water. He was quite OK for the rest of the evening but he drink very little milk and eat with great pain on his face. By bedtime he had very mild fever but begining to wail and wail until he fell asleep. At 2am, he screamed in pain with eyes closed. Gave him paracetamol as painkiller and he was asleep again after 40 mins.

By morning I checked his foot and hands. Yup.. some blisters has appeared. He refused to drink, eat or even talk! Brought him to see the paedic and he confirmed it's HFM. Highly contagious and will last for at least 5 days. Oh boy! 5 days! There's no specific medication for this except for painkiller or paracetamol if he has fever. And something to sooth his ulcer which is almost impossible to drop in his mouth since he refused to open his mouth altogether. The dr also said ice cream is actually a good remedy for this as it will cool the mouth.

Yesterday he only had half bottle of iced lemon tea which later he vomitted all on me. Then a bottle of milk. We offered him ice cream, he took it but he just held the spoon in front of his mouth.. Oh poor boy! Later in the evening he must be really hungry that he tolerated the pain and had some porridge and a whole can of isotonic drink. No wailing in the middle of the nite as I've given him some painkillers before sleep.

Today however is a different story. I thought he's getting better. I was wrong. He refused everything except the isotonic drink, he used sign language to talk and refused to eat any medication. This is day 3. Ohoh.. I hope he will ge better sooner than 5 days because I can see him losing weight already.

HFM is not really dangerous but still it's a virus. If not treated well and control, it will spread and becomes an outbreak. It's normally contracted via saliva or mucus of another person who's had it. This is what puzzled me since Omar is most at the time at home. I didn't bring him to any public places for the past week. Unlike his siblings who's had this before from school last year or so.

It's nothing to be panic about only great hassle in caring the infected ones. And I have to be extra cautious handling the rest of the kids so that they won't get it.

You can read all about HFM here.

Ear Infection

Ear infection is something common among children, and even sometimes adults. But not all children will get it. And I think some kids are more prone to it as compared to others. I will write this based on my own experience.. not as a doctor as I'm definitely not one.

The symptoms are just high fever and ear-ache. This is easier detected if your child can explain where the pain is. But for babies or toddlers who can barely speak, you can suspect through the high fever and a non-stop screaming and wailing! From the pediatrician's explaination, this infection is very very painful for kids. Thus the screaming and wailing.

The treatment for the fever and pain is simple, paracetamol or any pain killers for kids. But for the infection, probably antibiotics as prescribed by your pediatrician. Though I read in one website about ear infection which says antibiotics is not always required for it, believe me.. the doctor always prescribed one.

I had to face a few rounds of ear infection with my kids. Irsyad had one when he was three.. he had high fever and was screaming in pain. Being first time mother, I had no idea what to do except to bring him to an emergency at the wee hour of the morning. Only to be told he had ear infection. The doctor inserted "the bullet" into his anus.. and prescribed some antibiotics. He was OK the very next day.

Eussuv had it worst at 2 years old. His fever was really high that he was babbling nonsense. I panicked.. brought him to an emergency and this time at a Government hospital because it was a Sunday nite and that was the nearest hospital. They admitted him.. stayed there for 3 nites with very little improvement on his fever. Only the fourth day they found out that it was JUST ear infection. My usual pediatrician could have detected it in seconds!!! Not to say anything about government hospitals, but really... 3-4 days to detect an ear infection??

Eussuv had another round of the infection just recently at the age of 8! So I was wrong to think that it could only happened to babies and toddlers. I suspected it could be ear infection when he complained of ear pain just before he went to sleep and followed by fever the very next day. Brought him to a GP and this is the exact words of the GP - "Ear infection is very dangerous. It's in the middle ear. Rather close to the brain. There's only one thin line separating it from the brain. So we have to be very careful. We don't want to the infection goes to the brain.. you know what it means!".. Boy, was I scared!! And for that he gave me one "good" antibiotic (his words again.. GOOD ANTIBIOTIC). We've had this antibiotic before for other infection, you only take it once a day for three days. So I was satisfied.
But Eussuv did not recover for the next three days. He was tired, sleepy, no apetite and still feverish. So I had to bring him to our usual pediatrician. His ear infection is still there. I told the doctor that he already finished a round of antibiotic (I mentioned the name of this GOOD antibiotic). And guess what the doctor said. "Oh that antibiotic is not suitable for ear infection.." HAH" What can I say.. we learn something new everyday? He is fully recovered after a few days. I hope he won't get infected again.

Oh.. and what's the cause of the infection? Both doctors said it's due to a backflow of cold into your ears. When you blow your nose too hard, the mucus goes into the ears and stay here, thus causing the bacteria to develop. So .. next time you or your kids have cold, don't blow too hard.

I hope Syasya and Omar will not experience the pain of ear infection. It will be painful for them.. and sleepless nites for me!!

You can read more, official information on Ear infection here. http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068797/