Learning About Finland: Enterorrokko Style

Enterorrokko is not the name of a brand of clothing or a Finnish designer.
Nor is it the name of Jyväskylä's newest Japanese sushi bar...because Jyväskylä doesn't have one of those currently.
Why, it's the latest trend among the Finnish day-care kids!!
It's also known in English as "Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease" - a lovely virus involving someone interacting with poop at some point and not washing their hands properly...and the love from that blossoms into a virus and is super duper highly contagious!  Then one kid drools on something (or kisses another as my kid is known for at his day-care...) and it spreads like wild fire.

How do we know?

Because last Friday, the day-care staff said A-Man wasn't himself.  Alright...we got home and popped "Disney's Frozen" in the dvd-player and waited...

"Let it go" played and he didn't sing or dance at all.  Yep - he's probably ill.
He refused food...he had a fever through the weekend (38*C +)...he vomited at one point...lacked an appetite...slept a lot...
Then Sunday came and that was the worse.  He developed these little red spots and they didn't seem to bother him until Monday.
I was so sure it was chicken pox but there were so few and they were mostly on his legs and wrists...I did change the laundry soap recently but he would've had a reaction prior to last weekend....

So I took him to the emergency and after waiting nearly an hour (which is awesome compared to waiting in a Canadian waiting room for something "minor" like this) - the doctor took a look down his throat and listened to his chest and said he has "Enterorrokko".
Because it's a virus - there's absolutely nothing we can do but give pain medicine because those red spots turn into blisters and they'll make his skin feel like it's on fire.  Also, inside his throat was covered in these blisters and she recommended that he eats ice-cream or something cold to help soothe the pain.

Within 3 days he's fine, my oldest had a fever and 1 spot on his hand...and my little girl has some blisters between her finger and thumb (she's a finger/thumb sucker) and some blisters on her wee little tongue.

But so far - we're surviving and you can too.
I strongly recommend loads of coffee, sugar or caffeine and a nap when you can!
BIMU