daycare tomorrow

I posted a question in the Health forum, but I've received no responses and I need to formulate a plan for tomorrow. I suspect my girls have Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease. They had high fevers on Sat. and Sun. but no fever today. They have a few sores in their mouth they periodically complain about and they are slightly irritable, but they aren't acting sick beyond that. Would you send your kids to daycare if they had a few small sores in their mouth? Anyone know how long they will have the sores? Daycare policy is that they can go back after they've been fever free for 24 hours. Thoughts?

 

I would say once they are symptom free for 24-48 hours then you can send them back. The fever is gone, but the sores in the mouth are still signs of the virus. Hand, foot & mouth is very contagious when they have any of the common symptoms related to it and could take 3-10 days to clear up. Hope they start feeling better soon!

 

According to the CDC, HFM is moderately contagious & they are most contagious for the first week of the virus. They evidently can possibly still pass the virus on to others for several weeks after they are well & many people who are infected & contagious don't even have symptoms. With all that in mind, plus considering they almost certainly picked up the virus from daycare to begin with, I would probably send them back as soon as the fever was down & they were feeling better.
Link to CDC info

 

My kids just got over that a few weeks ago. The fevers only lasted about 36 hours, but the mouth sores lasted about a week. According to the Ped, they were contagious until all the mouth sores were gone (highly contagious, actually). Since mine are only part time, I was able to keep them out until their sores were gone. While I know it's hard to keep them out of daycare, it's for the sake of the other kids. My boys were MISERABLE so I was NOT pleased when I heard a mom had brought her kid to daycare with the mouth sores b/c she just brought him back after his fever broke (thus, infecting my kids & almost the whole class). So, if it were me, I'd keep them home until their symptoms resolve. Mine got little red dots on their hands & feet that never escalated to blisters, but I would've kept them home had they went into full blown blisters, too.

Hope you're able to figure something out. Hand, Foot, & Mouth is wicked. I think we've finally had ALL the strains now...ugh!

 

I've decided to keep them home at least another day. The sores in their mouths are VERY small, so hopefully they'll clear up quickly. Yes, I'm almost certain they did pick it up at daycare. They had a very mild case last fall after an outbreak at daycare too. I can't remember how long they were out though.