Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD)

Have you ever heard of the toddler illness, Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD)? Think it sounds a little made up? Think it's a joke? Allow me to reassure you that HFMD or Hand Foot Mouth Disease is no laughing matter. It is a fairly common toddler illness and a real booger of a toddler illness. This is a recount of the hellish week I got to experience this week battling this seriously awful toddler illness

Oh, it's been a rotten week at our house. I'm not even going to sugar-coat it. Monday night my niece whimpered and cried sporadically all through the night. We initially thought she was having a common fever, but the next day, my mother took her to the doctor and found a couple of canker sores in her mouth. My niece began to refuse to eat. Anything. NOTHING AT ALL. She even refuse to drink. That night the whimpering and crying began 2x louder. My sister stayed over at my place because we wouldn't want her son (my nephew) to get it as well. So my house was my niece's quarantine place.

My nephew once had it but it wasn't as serious as my niece. The reason for this post, apart from the obvious whining and venting, is to inform anyone who might actually read this about HFMD and this is also a testimony of God's instant answering to "YES AND AMEN".

HFMD a virus of a toddler illness and there's not a single thing you can do to cure it. It's a matter of waiting it out. Try telling that to a sobbing one-year old. Brutal.

Google has a lot of soothing remedies. Anything cold and icy has helped my niece for a short period of 5 minutes and after that the crying and whining and venting all began again. It became our major concern when she is there crying her lungs out and there is not a single drop of water down her throat.
Anyway, the really important thing for you to do for your child is make sure they are at least drinking. Do everything you can to prevent them from becoming dehydrated. If that happens you might end up forcing and flushing down liquids to their sore throat.

The next day, it was a series of mini-naps with LOUD crying and screaming episodes intermingled. So that night, it was all over the house, all the screaming and crying, my whole family simply just hope there is some instant magical power that we can do to soothe my niece who were tortured by this mysterious toddler illness.

SO how did we solve that horrible second night with HFMD? Because my niece kept crying and crying, we did all ways to try to soothe and comfort her but it just didn't work. Because we are a Christian family, we turn it to a mini prayer meeting. My dad took the lead to start praying for her, laying hands on her, each of us also started praying for her, speaking peace and comfort, asking Jesus to take the pain and itchiness from her (the photo in this post is the combination of her eczema + HFMD which equals to a BIG horror for my niece), and true enough, after moments of praying, it comforted her, she began to stop crying, drank a lil water and her milk and off she went to sleep soundly. Yes, prayer WORKS. That was the instant magical power from Jesus. If there is no cure for HFMD, it's okay because our God is a Healer.

Today, she was better. No crying at all throughout the day. She took in porridge and drank her milk. She now drinks water as well. No more mini-naps. It is all a full-napping time for her. Yes, praise God for listening our prayers. If your toddler is facing such as well, and you are hopeless in comforting your lil one, try praying to Jesus. Trust me, it works.