Coxsackie Virus

Jasper awoke at his usual time, 5am, on Sunday morning. I had worked the night before and only had had 4 hours of sleep. I thought nothing of it, as we usually fell back to sleep for another couple of hours after nursing. But panic set in when Jasper could not nurse. Instead he cried and complained that it hurt too much. I assumed he was teething, but it didn't make sense because all through his teething, he nursed like crazy - prefering that to any food. He wouldn't let me feel or see into his mouth, and not knowing what to do, I started to dress thinking that I would go to the emergency room. I called my midwife before I did and she helped me to calm down and really look more closely at the symptoms. After speaking with her, things didn't feel so dire. By 7am, we were at the drugstore getting chewable children's motrin, since all the liquid kinds had been recalled. Jasper ate one and drank a cold juice box and within 30 mins we were in his bed, nursing and sleeping. I spent the rest of the day treating him as if he was teething. He complained of his mouth hurting, I gave him the motrin and he continued to nurse until the evening time, when things got much worse. He would no longer take the motrin and it didn't seem to help anyway, and nursing was again too painful. He wouldn't drink anything else, either. And his drooling all day had been excessive - my shirt and his shirt were drenched. Nothing I could do would sooth him. I cried and he cried and neither of us slept that much that night. The next morning, Monday, he refused all offers of food and beverage. I got a little look inside his mouth and saw blisters on the tip of his tongue. I googled "excessive drooling, mouth sores" and came up with Dr. Sears website stating the the most commonly overlooked reason was Hand Foot and Mouth Desease, or the Coxsackie Virus. I called his PCP and she advised me to have him seen that day. We slowly got ready and in that time he drank some cold water while gargling at the sink and later ate some watermelon. At 9am, when urgent care opened, we were in their office and he was drooling all over the place. They saw us very quickly and confirmed the diagnosis and we were sent on our way to get some Miles Magic Mouthwash to paint on his tongue to numb it. I felt a little better. While waiting for the perscription to be filled, he ate some vanilla ice cream and seemed to feel much better. He sucked down a juicebox after that. When we got home, we painted his tongue, but he hated it. And in the end, it didn't seem to help much. He still couldn't nurse or eat. We finally fell asleep for a lousy hour. Jasper slept on me and during all this time didn't want to be put down. He moaned constantly. When he wasn't moaning or being carried by me, he would explore and play without speaking or singing. And indicated what he wanted by gesturing and making a whiny grunt. He spoke minimally. I bought a tub of vanilla ice cream and let him eat liberally from it. After each feeding of the creamy cold stuff, he's be somewhat of his usual chatterbox and drink more juiceboxes, but nothing else. At my midwife's suggestiong I began administering Astralugus to build his immune system. And I crushed the chewable painkiller and mixed it with water and squirted it in his mouth - all after eating icecream - and I think it helped him to sleep more soundly. Monday night we finally seemed to sleep better, but I still had to sleep with him. I began making breastmilk smoothies with green powder, he drank some of those. I made a follow up appointment for Wednesday. Things gradually seemed to improved. My midwife made us a spectacular meal that we ate for 2 nights in a row and I had lunch and breakfast from it also. I was so grateful to be able to focus on Jasper, who made it difficult to prepare anything because of his constant need for holding and comfort. Sleep improved and lengthened. Wednesday's appointment revealed a slight fever and no weight lose. He wouldn't open his mouth for the doctor, but she said to keep doing what I was doing. He looked good. That night he slept on his own from 7:30pm to 1am, when I joined him and he promptly fell back to sleep once in my arms. At 3 am we went downstairs to get him a juicebox, at his request. We returned to sleep and I woke up at 6:30am Thursday morning to find him nursing! I was certain that after all this he would be done. I pumped during the past few days to be on the safe side, but I just had this feeling that he would be through with teta, as we call it. All morning he's been acting more like himself, playing, talking conversing and singing. Only once did he put his hands in his mouth and say it hurt. He asked for ice cream, I gave him a dish and at the same time set a breastmilk banana smoothie in front of him. He asked for more ice cream. I said drink your smoothie first. He threw a fit. I ignore him and announced that I was going to make eggs for myself. He said he wanted one too, so I made 2 scrambled eggs. We ate them on the backporch and he sipped some of his smoothie and asked for more eggs. I made him another. He ate that one and asked for another one. I made him a 3rd egg! He ate that. Then ate some mulberries - which he refused the day before. For lunch it was back to icecream, but this time with Peach sorbet, which my Aunt brought over. Then more mulberries. Then we cleaned the inside of my car and he washed dishes and drank some water. At 1pm, I took him up for a nap. He nursed to sleep and that is where we are at present.