Hand Foot Mouth? Croup? Anything else?

On Sunday I noticed that little Bailey had some strange pimple-looking things on her face.  She never suffered with baby acne, and I've never heard of a case of it in a one year old.  But I didn't think too much of it (other than to look on-line to make absolutely sure it wasn't chicken pox).  Yesterday, being Wednesday, she had a sudden breakout of the same thing in her little diaper area.  So on the phone to the doctors office I was, terrified it was chicken pox.  I spoke with the nurse and was assured that it wasn't chicken pox, but that it was probably Hand Foot Mouth.  What?  Okay, I didn't think so, but good possibility.  WRONGO, BUCKO!  Poor little Bailey has those dumb ouchy looking things ALL over her bum, in her mouth, now starting all around her wrists and her hands.  Oh, joy!  To make things better, Bryn has a little case of croup.  That started sometime around three this morning.  And I have my sisters kids this week, which her little girl, Gracie, also has Hand Foot Mouth, and her oldest son also has croup.  You can't make this stuff up!!  Ha ha ha.  

In case you are wondering, Hand Foot Mouth just looks like little blisters or pimples that show up maybe on the face and diaper area, and for sure in the mouth, and of course, on hands and feet.  It's super contagious, but they don't even recommend that you keep your kids home because it's most contagious time is TWO DAYS BEFORE the symptoms show up, and the first two days of symptoms.  You know, the two days that you ignore it because it just looks like a couple of strange little dots.  If your child has been infected, the dormant stage is 3-6 days, and then symptoms show up.  If a fever accompanies the blisters, your pediatrician will most likely want to see your baby.  Hm.  That's that.  If you were thinking of visiting us . . . this may not be the best week to do so.