Symptoms and treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease in children

Signs of hand, foot and mouth disease in children: blisters 2-10 mm in size, gray, oval in shape appear on the buttocks and palms of the hands.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, to date, the country has recorded nearly 2,100 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease. The cases have appeared sporadically in 57 provinces and cities.

Don't be subjective with the epidemic

Commenting on the current risk of hand, foot and mouth disease, Mr. Tran Dac Phu, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, said that after Tet is the season of hand, foot and mouth disease, especially in March and May. Therefore, parents need to pay special attention to hygiene for children, to avoid spreading the disease, especially in schools.

The country has recorded nearly 2,100 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease. (Photo: KT)

The reason is that hand, foot and mouth disease is an acute viral infection, transmitted through the digestive tract, commonly found in young children and has the potential to cause large epidemics through contact.

In fact, hand, foot and mouth disease is a contagious disease. It can be transmitted directly through the digestive tract when eating together or coming into contact with the secretions of an infected child. In addition, the disease can also be transmitted indirectly through hands or objects contaminated with the virus. In particular, even after recovery, in the early stages, children can still transmit the disease to others.

With the complex transmission factors as above, hand, foot and mouth disease is considered a dangerous disease. If just one child gets sick, the surrounding children can be infected at any time.

Doctor Nguyen Thien Hai, Deputy Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, National Children's Hospital, said that at present, the Department has also received a number of children with hand, foot and mouth disease, but the severity of the disease is not the same. The disease manifests with blisters measuring 2-10 mm, gray, oval. Blisters appear in the buttocks, knees, palms, soles of feet and are usually painless when pressed. Blisters also appear in the mouth and when they burst, cause ulcers in the mouth, causing pain and drooling in children.

When blisters appear, children may have a mild fever, be irritable due to mouth pain, and refuse to eat. The blisters will subside and heal on their own after 5-7 days. Some children may vomit and have diarrhea immediately after the blisters appear or have subsided. Most cases of the disease resolve on their own, but if the disease is caused by enterovirus 71, some children may have dangerous cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological complications such as encephalitis, myocarditis, and meningitis. What is more dangerous is that these complications are difficult to detect early if the doctor is inexperienced and the family does not pay attention.

Children with brain complications are often not in a deep coma but have symptoms that are difficult to detect such as difficulty sleeping, constant crying, startling when awake or when starting to fall asleep. Children may panic, mumble, have shaking hands and feet, and have convulsions. Other symptoms that can be seen when there are complications include very high fever, vomiting a lot, goosebumps on the skin, rapid pulse but no high fever, weak hands and feet, crooked mouth. When complications occur, if not treated properly and promptly, children can die within a few hours.

Mistakes to avoid when taking care of children improperly

According to medical experts, many people are making mistakes in caring for children with hand, foot and mouth disease. Parents are often too worried when their children have a lot of blisters, but this shows that the disease is milder than having few blisters. Another common mistake is applying green medicine to cover the shape of the blisters. The above treatment is not effective and makes it difficult for doctors to determine the cause of the blisters when examining.

For antibiotics, if there are no severe mouth ulcers causing secondary infections, they should not be used as the child will not respond to the medication. Forcing the child to take vitamins is also unnecessary because the child will have more pain if he or she has a sore mouth. Many children are hospitalized due to itching or infection due to not bathing. However, if the child is not uncomfortable, he or she can still bathe as usual, otherwise, only bathe in warm water and in a place protected from the wind. Absolutely do not give the child hot, spicy and sour food.

When children show signs of hand, foot and mouth disease, they should be kept home from school and the source of the disease isolated to avoid spreading to other children.

At level 1, patients can be treated at home. When keeping children at home, the treatment of their waste is very important. Family members need to treat waste with chromamine B solution before putting it into the general waste system. During the care process, they need to wash their hands regularly. In addition, it is possible to limit people entering and exiting, disinfect the patient's waste, provide knowledge to caregivers such as gloves, masks, etc.

At level 2 or higher, monitoring in the hospital is required to prevent dangerous complications to the nervous system, mainly encephalitis, and secondly, complications in the cardiovascular system such as myocarditis causing acute heart failure, which will lead to circulatory arrest or failure of other organs, pulmonary edema...

Dr. Tran Dac Phu recommends that people should seriously implement measures such as washing hands regularly with soap under running water many times a day (both adults and children), especially before preparing food, before eating/feeding children, before holding children, after going to the toilet, after changing diapers and cleaning children./.

According to VOV