This was us last week, watching over the poor boy who started coughing in his sleep and then spotting a fever of 38 degrees. He slept the whole of the first day after being diagnosed with an inflamed throat and missed dinner, super unusual for his greedy self. Skipped his shower even and continued napping. When the doctor asked us what we fed him to get sucha inflamed throat, I was so puzzled. He was on homecooked food and his food was mainly slowcooked and baked very occasionally.


Second day, I checked his throat and discovered a carpet of ulcers. Got him diagnosed for herpangina and bam! There goes the whole week of school and child care leave to take. The crankiness peaked on day 3 when he could neither eat nor drink and every time he attempted, he would stick his fingers in and wail non stop. :(


Herpangina is a variant of HFMD and it's usually detected through mouth ulcers and a fever. No blisters are sighted.


If he could he wanted to be hugged all day long and sigh, what I would do to make you feel better. The 4 day ordeal was horrifying with the rude looking ulcers flaring up and he refused almost all his favourite food - watching him cry was no joke. And all the time he didn't want to be confined at home triggering off unreasonable tantrums and never ending teary high octane screeching episodes.


Finally, the day came where he took milk from the bottle without wincing and even asked for more.


Herpangina 0, Cyrus 1. We won this battle of herpangina. Fingers crossed.


I wish I can offer any form of advice apart from wishing for the best and offering as much liquids as possible - I was syringing him milk at some point, 5ml at a time. :( The usual icecream and jelly did not work its magic as it did for HFMD. I'd say this herpangina is a curse and I detest it way more than HFMD.