Patient's question:
My baby has been crying and refusing to eat since yesterday. This morning, I noticed several large blisters in my baby's mouth. My family is very worried and took them to the local hospital for a check-up. The doctor diagnosed it as hand, foot, and mouth disease and prescribed medication to take home. However, there hasn't been any improvement.What kind of help do I need: What is hand, foot, and mouth disease in children?
Doctor's answer:
Regarding the extremely widespread distribution of hand, foot, and mouth disease without strict regional characteristics, it can occur in all four seasons. Physicians can usually differentiate hand, foot, and mouth disease based on the patient's age, symptoms reported by the patient or their guardian, and examination of rashes and ulcers. Other diseases that are more common in summer and autumn, primarily affecting children, often occur in settings where infants and young children gather, showing a trend of outbreaks. Clinically, the main manifestations include initial fever, mild elevation in total white blood cell count, followed by maculopapular and vesicular lesions on mucous membranes and skin of the oral cavity, hands, and feet. The course of the disease is relatively short, with recovery typically occurring within a week. Based on these clinical features, diagnosis is not difficult during large-scale outbreaks, but when occurring sporadically, it must be differentiated from diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, herpangina, and rubella. This disease is primarily transmitted through food, oral and nasal droplets, and contact. Therefore, prevention primarily focuses on maintaining dietary hygiene and avoiding transmission.