In a viral video, a mom shared that she and her child contracted hand-foot-and-mouth disease from a shopping cart.
TikToker Syd (@thesydney_grant), who often shares lifestyle and motherhood content, uploaded a video that showed her son sitting in a shopping cart, followed by photos of rashes and sores on her hands and around her mouth. The text over the video reads: “puts baby in the shopping cart for the first time, gets a horrible case of hand-foot-and-mouth.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hand-foot-and-mouth disease is a contagious yet mild viral infection. Symptoms “usually include fever, mouth sores, and skin rash. The rash is commonly found on the hands and feet.” While not a deadly disease, symptoms can last 10 – 12 days.
The viral video has over 13 million views and thousands of comments. Many viewers expressed questions, wondering if Syd used sanitizer or if her son contracted the disease, too, asking, “Wait, did the baby get it or just you?”
@thesydney_grant When you put your baby in the shopping cart for the first time #momsoftiktok #momtok #firsttimemom #hfm #handfootandmouthdisease ♬ original sound – Jo Wuensche
In a follow-up video, she addresses their questions. “Yes, my baby did get it. That’s how I got it. So he got it from the grocery cart,” she explains. “He touched it and then put his hands in his mouth, like all babies do.”
She stresses that she sanitized her hands after the grocery trip, as she always does, and also sanitized her child’s hands. “But it was already too late. He started showing symptoms a couple of days later,” she says.
Her follow-up video has 465,000 views. Many viewers shared their newfound fear after witnessing what happened to her and her child. “So you’re telling me even wiping down the cart doesn’t prevent this,” one commented.
Others stressed the importance of a cart cover, which provides complete cart coverage and protection from germs. “This is why we use a cart cover and clean after every use,” one viewer shared.
Another shared, “I’m going to be a new mom in February and wasn’t really sure if a cart cover would be a necessity, this has changed my mind.”
While the disease has symptoms, Syd assures her followers that it did not have deadly effects on her and her child. “Thankfully, he didn’t have too bad of symptoms. He had a slight fever and a little bit of a rash was uncomfortable for a couple of days, but he’s recovered now, thankfully, and didn’t get it as bad as I did,” she says.
The Daily Dot reached out to Syd for comment via email.