Symptoms and Diagnosis of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

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Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease usually include fever, mouth sores, and skin rash commonly found on the hands, mouth, and/or feet.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is common in infants and children younger than 5 years old. Most children have mild symptoms for 7 to 10 days.

Symptoms include

Mother takes child's temperature using a digital thermometer

Fever and flu-like symptoms

Children often get a fever and other flu-like symptoms three to six days after they catch the virus. Symptoms may include:

Fever
Eating or drinking less
Sore throat
Feeling unwell

Other symptoms may appear over the next few days.

Mouth sores

One or two days after the fever starts, your child may get painful mouth sores (herpangina). These sores usually start as small red spots, often in the back of their mouth, that blister and can become painful.

Signs that swallowing may be painful for your child:

Not eating or drinking
Drooling more than usual
Only wanting to drink cold fluids

Mother holds child's foot and shows rash

Skin rash

Your child may get a skin rash on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It may also show up on the knees, elbows, buttocks, or genital area.

The rash usually looks like flat, red spots, sometimes with blisters. Fluid in the blister and the resulting scab that forms as the blister heals may contain the virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Keep blisters or scabs clean and avoid touching them.

Treat symptoms at home

Often the infection is mild, and symptoms can be treated at home. However, sometimes you need to see a healthcare provider.

Treat Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

When to see a healthcare provider

See a healthcare provider if

Your child is not drinking enough to stay hydrated
Your child’s fever lasts longer than 3 days
Your child has a weakened immune system (body’s ability to fight germs and sickness)
Symptoms are severe
Symptoms do not improve after 10 days
Your child is very young, especially younger than 6 months

Diagnosing hand, foot, and mouth disease

Healthcare providers can usually tell if someone has hand, foot, and mouth disease by examining the patient and considering

How old the patient is
What symptoms the patient has
How the rash and mouth sores look

A healthcare provider may sometimes collect samples from the patient’s throat, blister, or feces (poop), and then send them to a laboratory to test for the virus.