There's no specific treatment for hand-foot-and-mouth disease. You can reduce your child's risk of infection from hand-foot-and-mouth disease by practicing good hygiene and teaching your child how to keep clean.
Causes--The most common cause of hand-foot-and-mouth disease is infection with the coxsackievirus A16. The coxsackievirus belongs to a group of viruses called nonpolio enteroviruses. Other types of enteroviruses sometimes cause hand-foot-and-mouth disease.
Oral ingestion is the main source of coxsackievirus infection and hand-foot-and-mouth disease. The illness spreads by person-to-person contact with an infected person's:
· Nasal secretions or throat discharge
· Saliva
· Fluid from blisters
· Stool
· Respiratory droplets sprayed into the air after a cough or sneeze
Common in child care setting
· Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is most common in children in child care settings because of frequent diaper changes and potty training, and because little children often put their hands in their mouths.
· Although your child is most contagious with hand-foot-and-mouth disease during the first week of the illness, the virus can remain in his or her body for weeks after the signs and symptoms are gone. That means your child still can infect others.
· Some people, particularly adults, can pass the virus without showing any signs or symptoms of the disease.
· Outbreaks of the disease are more common in summer and autumn in the United States and other temperate climates. In tropical climates, outbreaks occur year-round.
Different from foot-and-mouth disease
· Hand-foot-and-mouth disease isn't related to foot-and-mouth disease (sometimes called hoof-and-mouth disease), which is an infectious viral disease found in farm animals. You can't contract hand-foot-and-mouth disease from pets or other animals, and you can't transmit it to them
Symptoms--Hand-foot-and-mouth disease may cause all of the following signs and symptoms or just some of them. They include:
· Fever
· Sore throat
· Feeling of being unwell (malaise)
· Painful, red, blister-like lesions on the tongue, gums and inside of the cheeks
· A red rash, without itching but sometimes with blistering, on the palms, soles and sometimes the buttocks
· Irritability in infants and toddlers
· Loss of appetite
The usual period from initial infection to the onset of signs and symptoms (incubation period) is three to six days. A fever is often the first sign of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, followed by a sore throat and sometimes a poor appetite and malaise.
One or two days after the fever begins, painful sores may develop in the mouth or throat. A rash on the hands and feet and possibly on the buttocks can follow within one or two days.
HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES
MERCURIUS SOL 30- Merc sol is one of the leading remedies for hand foot and mouth disease . Here mouth sores can be very severe and the person is very sensitive to heat and cold. There may have a fever before getting the blisters and may alternate between getting too hot with perspiration and becoming chilled at night. Becoming too hot or too cold makes the patient worse in general. The blisters tend to be more painful at night. One of the characteristic symptoms of Mercurius is the tendency to drool or to have an excess of saliva in the mouth. The breath of the patient may be quite offensive with pus visible on the tonsils or else where in the mouth.
ANTIMONIUM TART. 30-Antimonium tart is another effective remedy for this diseases. In the chill stage of fever--.gooseflesh and icy cold skin. Heat stage of fever.--the patient clings to those around and wants to be carried. He does not want to be touched or looked at.Thirstless despite the dry parched tongue.Sweat stage of fever-profuse , cold , clammy or sticky , dry, cracked, parched tongue with whitish discoloration in the centre. Tongue tip and sides clean, moist and red. Thrush. There is craving for apples or apple juice.
BORAX 3X—Borax is another top remedy for this disease . The patient refuses to talk during fever. Desire for cold drinks and cold food during fever.There is great heat and dryness of mouth with white ulcers. White fungus-like growth, they are tender.Ulcers bleed on touch and eating. Painful red blisters on tongue. Sore mouth prevents infants from nursing. Fear of downward motion. Startle easily. Very sensitive to sudden noises .