Short Fevers

Sunday afternoon, Ava woke up from her nap with a very low fever. By 4:00 or so, it had climbed to 101.5. It sat there until 5:30 the next morning, when it broke on it's own. She had no other symptoms at all; no runny nose, cough, etc. I thought she was just teething and didn't give it another thought.

Yesterday, Alec's school called me to tell me that he was in the office crying and saying that he didn't feel good, so I went and picked him up. By 1:00, both Benji and Alec were on the couch with fevers around 101.5!

When I went to put Ava in the bathtub that night, I noticed that she had bumps on the bottoms of her feet. She had been outside barefoot, so I thought maybe she had walked in something that irritated her and just ignored it.

Today after lunch, the boys were feeling pretty much better, also with no other symptoms just like Ava. We were at my mom's house and I took off Ava's shoes to show her the bumps on her feet and noticed that they were worse, and she also had a couple tiny bumps around her mouth. We drove home, and by the time we got home, she had bumps all around her mouth, on her hands, and her toes were all bumpy and swollen, AND she had a rash all over her calves!

I don't usually freak out about the occasional "mystery rash", but I suddenly remembered that she had had that fever on Sunday, and the boys had had a fever last night. I went ahead and took her to our MD.

She so kindly informed us that Ava has "Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease", which is only a mild virus that is quite common in young children and only manifests in a short-lived rash, mildly itchy, and a low fever. She said that sometimes there will be blisters of it IN the mouth, and then the child might have trouble eating, but Tylenol usually does the trick.

She also told me that as long as Alec's fever was gone I could go ahead and send him to school, but that it was likely that he and Benji both have it also and their rashes just haven't shown up yet.

I'm treating their viruses with just typical stuff I'd give for a cold: Echinacea, lots of Calcium Lactate, several other immune building supplements from Standard Process, Vit. C, and colloidal silver (by Silver Biotics). I'm interested to see how fast Ava's rash subsides, using all of these natural anti-viral, immune support treatments, as apposed to just doing nothing like the doctor recommended.

Anyone else have experience with this virus?