Ask L'Oreal: I contracted hand, foot and mouth disease from my toddler, and now I'm losing my nails. What should I do?
As a first-time mom to a now 2-year-old, I’ve become quite familiar with the alphabet soup of childhood viruses: RSV, HFMD, ear infections ... you name it, we’ve probably had it.
That meme about how paying for day care is essentially paying for a new virus every other week? Yup, story of my life. It’s gotten to the point now where when I get that midday call from our daughter’s day care, I immediately close my laptop, grab my keys and head for the door because I know what’s coming next.
I’d consider myself a relatively healthy person, and up until our daughter started day care a year and a half ago, I rarely got sick. Like, I somehow managed to dodge COVID for the first three years of the pandemic. But as it turns out, my immune system is no match for day care germs.
So when I got the dreaded notification that a case of hand, foot and mouth disease had been reported in the toddler classroom, I braced myself for impact. While our daughter and my husband remained unscathed, my sister and I weren’t so lucky. And, if I’m being honest, HFMD was so much worse than COVID for me.
The itching, oh my goodness, the itching! At one point, I must have bought every anti-itch remedy from Walgreens — calamine lotion, Benadryl, hydrocortisone, etc. But nothing provided as much relief as the cold washcloth I’d put in the freezer every couple of hours. And then came the peeling. I remember looking at my skin and feeling as though I’d somehow turned into a reptile overnight because of all the shedding. Talk about gross.
And as if all that weren’t bad enough, I started to lose my nails. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fingernail and toenail loss after HFMD is pretty rare, as it typically only occurs in 4% of severe cases. So I’m not exactly sure what we did in a previous life to deserve this, but here we are.
Thankfully, a mom friend who’d lost all (!) of her fingernails and toenails warned me this could happen, so I wasn’t completely shocked when it finally did, but I was pretty upset nonetheless.
Onychomadesis — which takes place when the nail plate separates from both the nail matrix and the nail bed and results in shedding of the nail — is a late-stage complication of HFMD that typically occurs about four to six weeks after the initial onset of the virus. For the uninitiated, HFMD is a contagious viral infection common in young children, but it can also impact adults (and pretty severely, if you ask me and the adults I know who’ve fallen victim to it).
As I said, HFMD is the gift that keeps on giving.
“Unfortunately, there’s really nothing you can do to prevent nail loss from happening,” explains Dr. Kendall R. Steadmon, associate program director of the pediatric residency program at the University of Florida. “The good news is that the nails typically grow back completely normal and you shouldn’t have any long-standing deformities because of this.”
Although it may be tempting, Steadmon advises against picking or peeling the nail that’s shedding so you don't destroy the underlying nail matrix. As we all know, chasing after toddlers is a hands-on job, so you’ll want to protect your digits as much as possible.
To do this, JadeAllen Palser of Bankz Salon in Mansfield, Ohio (who recently repaired my damaged nails), suggests reaching out to a professional.
“The best thing to do is let the tech know you have some shedding from past hand, foot and mouth, and they will assess the damage to see if it is too far shredded to apply any product,” she says.
In my case, because the nails had been further damaged at a previous salon I went to, Palser recommended structured manicures, such as the Luminary Nail System, a soakable hard gel that provides the strength of an acrylic set with the flexibility of a traditional gel set. The manicures, which last about three weeks between fill-in or touch-up appointments, help protect the nail while the damaged part grows out.
If you can’t make it to a salon, Palser recommends trimming the damaged nail down so it doesn’t snag, and applying cuticle oil one to two times daily while your nails grow out.
“Keeping the skin around the nail well moisturized will also aid in the healing process,” she says.
I’ve never been a “nail girlie,” but I’m trying to find the silver lining here and look forward to using my monthly-ish appointments to try out new nail designs. When life gives you HFMD, you treat yourself to pretty nails because you deserve nice things, Mama.
And if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering who I am and what makes me qualified to share health and parenting advice. And those are great questions! So to start, my name is L’Oreal (yes, like the makeup). I’m an author, health and wellness journalist and certified yoga teacher.
After quite the arduous fertility journey (including fibroids, a myomectomy and several failed IVF cycles), I gave birth (via a scheduled C-section) to my daughter two years ago ... and I’ve been trying to figure out this whole parenting thing ever since. Thank you for trusting me with your parenting questions, and I look forward to bonding over everything from periods to postpartum together.
You can think of me as your personal cheerleader and new mom friend who just happens to love calling up doctors and experts to help guide my answers to your questions. Reach out to me on Instagram or X (Twitter), or email [email protected] with anything you want me to weigh in on.
