Patient's question:
There are 2-3 red spots on the palms and soles. The doctor diagnosed hand, foot, and mouth disease and admitted the child to the hospital for a week, where they received many intravenous drips. Later, a colleague said that conservative treatment could be used, only needing to drink Pu Dilan oral liquid. A few days ago, the child had a cold, but because I was busy, I didn’t use dietary therapy. Based on the child’s tongue coating, I arbitrarily bought Feng Han Gan Ma particles for her. In the past few days, she has been recovering. The day before yesterday, the child said there was a bump in her mouth and it hurt. I didn’t pay much attention because she doesn’t eat much vegetables, and fruits were also restricted during medication. So, I thought it was due to a heatstroke. Tonight, she didn’t eat dinner and said it hurt. I used a flashlight to look inside her mouth and saw large red spots, mainly distributed in the throat area, with fewer on both sides. I don’t know what to do, so I let her play for a while while I eat and search online for conservative treatment. A while later, she said she wanted to sleep, so I quickly put down my bowl and checked her temperature—it was 38.1°C. Since I had to go on a night shift soon, I called the child’s father to bring her to the hospital. Then I came to the office. The child’s father called and said the doctor diagnosed hand, foot, and mouth disease and admitted her to the hospital. Her temperature was around 39.1°C, and the child was crying. She has only had vaccinations and injections during her hospital stay, so she is very afraid of getting shots. I searched online and found that a fever requires hospitalization, but can conservative treatment be used after the fever goes down? Can fever reduction be achieved through physical cooling?Doctor's answer:
Hand, foot, and mouth disease can range from mild to severe, with most cases being mild and typical. The main indicator is whether there are blisters on the hands and feet. If there are none, it could be herpangina. Of course, it's all the same viral infection.Whether it's mild or severe depends on observations of heart rate, respiratory rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, and body temperature, as well as blood tests and chest X-rays. Additionally, mental status should be assessed. This requires observation by a local doctor.
If the body temperature is normal for two days, blood tests are normal, the chest X-ray is normal, and the patient is in good spirits, oral medication can be administered.