News and Blog

By Heidi Soholt

 

My one-year-old has got Chicken Pox – aaaaargh!

 

The poor mite hasn’t, luckily, been too ill with it (no temperature and a healthy appetite) but, she is covered in spots. Her back and bottom seem to be the worst, and I hate to think what it must feel like ‘down there’ when you’re wearing a nappy. Surely it must sting a bit?

 

However, it needn’t be a crisis. Although most parents panic when their wee-ones start developing the dreaded pox, take heart. They should only get it once in their lives, and it’s far better to have it as a child. Chicken Pox is also a relatively mild disease, with very few risks of complications.

 

In case you’re at all concerned, I’ve put together some basic tips from my own experiences. I hope they help.

 

When you first notice the spots, start rallying some help.

 

This is really important if, like me, your partner works away, or you have other children who attend school. You cannot take a child with Chicken Pox into the playground, so picking up and dropping off at school will be difficult. If your kids are old enough to simply be dropped at the gates, all well and good, but if not, then it’s time to call on friends who might help you out with the school run for the seven or so days it takes for the disease to clear.

 

How long do you need to stay at home?

 

The official line is that your child is infectious for about three days before the spots, and for five to seven days after they first appear. Apparently, you are supposed to wait until all the spots have crusted over before returning to nursery/school. However, in my experience, not all the spots do crust over, some just seem to fade away. So the official advice on this is a little unclear. I am going by the seven days rule for taking her out to the supermarket and so on, but don’t intend to send her back to nursery until next week, which will be more like ten days from the onset of spots.

 

Treatments

 

Over the counter antihistamines are effective, as is Calamine lotion. I, however, found the Calamine cream much easier to apply. I used a big wad of cotton wool to spread the cream on, easier than doing it with your hands as it evenly covers a larger area.

 

Baths are also great – very soothing. Make sure your child’s nails are cut short, to stop them from scratching the spots.

 

I invested in a few loose tracksuit bottoms and soft, loose T-shirts, which seemed more comfortable to wear than normal clothes. Pyjamas are good too.

 

As the weather has been quite warm, I popped my daughter in a paddling pool. This really seemed to alleviate some of her symptoms, and it was great to get her nappy off for a while.

 

If your child is off their food, then think in terms of drinks. Smoothies and milkshakes are good alternatives to solid food, and keep them hydrated too.

 

Miscellaneous

 

Get ready for some grumpy moments. I prepared for those by buying a couple of new toys to distract at appropriate times. Worked a treat, though can be expensive.

 

Hunt out other Chicken Poxers. My daughter’s friend from nursery also has the virus so we’ve had a couple of play dates which have been a huge help. There’s always someone else in the same position as you as Chicken Pox spreads like wildfire. Once one child gets it, they infect the whole class.

 

You will find that your child sleeps more and, I found, particularly so towards the end of the virus. My daughter has been having great naps in the afternoon – long may they continue! She has, however, been waking at night. Probably because she’s feeling itchy.

 

We’d love to hear from anyone who can add to our tips – just send them in to Ann-Maree and she’ll publish them on the brilliant labels4kids web site.

 

Take a look at the great products too – if you’re time-poor then Ann-Maree has solutions galore!

Some other solutions on chicken pox from Ann-Maree

Two of mine have now had them years ago and the other will (99% sure) not have them as he was injected against them in Australia. In Aus they inject against Chicken pox as it eliminates the added cost of health care having to deal with shingles in adults.  Apparently if you have had chicken pox you are more likely to get shingles as an adult.  So of course with the kids having dual nationality we managed to get the last one injected after a particularly bad run years earlier when first one and then the other got it over a 3 week period! 

Also the second child is usually much worse than the first if they catch them from each other. Don’t know why that is but everyone I know that had the sibling catch it from the other one, this was certainly the case.

One tip a nurse put me onto which works well but is not advocated by the medical profession is to put a dab of the cream zovirax onto the spot as it is red but not yet risen up and the spot never appears. This is particularly useful information for on the face. You can buy zovirax for cold sores over the counter at a chemist but they will not sell it to you if you say it is for the kids.