Chicken Pox or something else in 14mo?

[FranknCock]

Story thus far:

DS (14mo) went to a birthday party Sunday before last (17th) and a little girl who had attended came down with chicken pox the next day.

Tuesday (26th) DS was feverish, lethargic and just out of sorts in the evening. Not eating much and very clingy.

Wednesday (27th) he woke up with a rash that was mostly on the lower half of his body. Pictures of early chicken pox that I found looked quite similar. The worst looking ones were around the line of his nappy.

Yesterday (28th) called NHS direct and they said it probably was chicken pox, but said it could be something else.

I am surprised I'm not seeing the blistering at all really, the spots seem to be quite small in most places, and he did get just a few on the back of his neck and some more on his arms eventually, but nothing around the trunk of his body or on his head.

Anyone experienced chicken pox like this? Or should I start wondering if it is something else now? The rash actually looks better today though still most obvious on bum and legs.

Any experiences with CP welcome, I'm not sure what to do.

Anyone?

Now the ones on his bum/nappy line are starting to look a bit crusty, so I'm back to thinking it is CP, but just a very mild case.

My DD has it at the moment, most of her spots look like small red raised lumps, not obviously blisters, though she has got some that are most definitely blisters, including one on her finger which I can believe she's left alone for 2 days!
It's supposed to be milder the younger the get it.
The fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, yep, we've got all them too. The time scale sounds right for incubation too. I've been reading it's generally 1-2 weeks but can be up to 3.

I knew it was going round school so as soon as I saw the spots I went to the chemist once I'd described the spots they gave us calamine lotion and piriton. We phoned the GP the next day but they said not to come in, our description was spot on and they didn't want to risk spreading it.

DD hates the piriton. After spittng it out 3 times we've resorted to hiding it in small amounts of drink.
The calamine lotion isn't too popular anymore either, I've been getting her to help me, but I think she feels so bad right now that everything is resulting in tears. She wouldn't even take calpol tonight and we've neer struggled with that before. Some people have recommended calamine cream so I'm going to try to get some of that.

I've also had recommended a bath with oatmeal (put oatmeal in tight and stick it under tap whilst running the bath.) Last night she had a bath with Bicarbonate of soda and lavender oil in it. My friend had chicken pox when she was 33 and found that helped ease hers loads.

Thanks, will try the oatmeal for bath tomorrow night. He is so difficult to get to sleep now, was really easy before, went down without a fuss. Now screams for ages and wants to get down and wander around.

We have piriton but haven't tried it as he doesn't seem to be scratching at all now. When he woke up with the rash on Wednesday, he'd scratched his belly enough to draw a bit of blood, but there were no spots there. Since then he's not been scratching, but wonder if I should give piriton just in case?

I'd give him the piriton, at least before bedtime. It eases the itching and make them sleepy. DD didn't have piriton last night, she spat it out, hence hiding it in her drinks today. She ended up in with me fidgeting half the night because she was itching so much.

Today I've been giving DD the piriton just in case, not as much as she can have, she only had 3 doses today and she could have had 6. We might have to up it to 4 doses tomorrow though because by tea time they were obviously bothering her.
She's got loads of spots around her face, in her eye, on her lips, so I want to avoid her scratching and getting scars.

DD didn't want to go to bed either tonight, she was crying and ended up falling asleep on my lap in front of the telly once the piriton kicked in.

Is it just me & DH or are you all itching loads too. DH & I have both had the pox as kids, DH has had shingles too, but we both feel rough, achey, tired and itchey.
My reasoning is that although we're immune (hopefully) our immune system is still having to fight it off and that's why we feel rough.