What you should know about Hand, Foot and Mouth disease - AmericaNowNews.com

What you should know about Hand, Foot and Mouth disease

Hand, foot and mouth disease causes painful rashy-like blisters and makes kids miserable.

It starts with a fever. Spread by contact, it's highly contagious and especially common in small children that go to daycare or pre-school.

On the bright side, Dr. Bucky Elofson says Hand, Foot and Mouth is rarely serious and generally runs its course in a few days.

Like colds and flu, Dr. Elofson says there is no cure for Hand, Foot and Mouth, but there are things you can do to make kids feel better.

"Treat the symptoms. You do Tylenol, Motrin, to make them feel better. And you try to encourage liquids because their appetite goes down," says Dr. Elofson.

The antacid Maalox may help with ulcers in the mouth.  It creates a kind of protective coating.

Parents can lower their child's risk of getting the disease by keeping them away from kids who have it and making sure anything they've touched is disinfected.

Even then, doctors say the virus is hard to contain because it can be spread before there's even any symptoms.

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