Chicken pox and really bad throat, high fever, what should we do?

[Flightty]

Ds1 has chicken pox since wednesday, and he was fine at first but has started to get worse.

He had a fever around 38 and a half on Weds evening, then last night it was 39.4 and his throat is really, really sore.

Ds2 had the fevers for a few nights but not the throat. Should I be doing anything and at what point do we talk to the GP? I'm a bit worried about complications, and not sure what is 'normal' and what is a problem.

Thankyou.

btw I'm giving him nurofen which brings it down but he's still in a lot of discomfort.

Have you looked to check he doesn't have it in his mouth and throat?

I haven't looked yet, just got up, but I assume he probably does have some in there.

He's 8 in case that helps

I would definitely ring nhs direct or your gp. Can't hurt to do it, and I don't recall mine having sore throats at all or spots in mouth or throat.

My friends dd had them a few weeks ago in her throat and all he ate for a couple of days was Ice cream and ice lollies as she could swallow anything else. Have you tried alternating paracetamol and nurofen? Maybe ring the gp just for reassurance?

Stop giving him nurofen, giving it at the same time as chickenpox can lead to a child developing Reye's disease. It's very rare but not worth the risk. Stick to calpol.

I would get him checked out just in case he has tonsillitis as well. It could be that he has spots in the mouth though which can't be nice. Difflam spray works wonders.

Thankyou. I've got some ice lollies and so on, he's just having honey and lemon to drink which I'm not sure is a good idea but he asked for some.

I'll ring the GP when surgery opens and ask for a phone call back.

his fever is down at the moment but obv will keep an eye on it.

Flossy, really ? Oh bugger. I thought that was aspirin.

I asked the pharmacist when ds2 had it and she said nurofen is fine?

Will look for difflam, thankyou

Oh just found something on web saying ibuprofen can lead to secondary infections, great, well feck that then. Sorry. Cross now that pharmacist didn't seem to know that.

I'll give him paracetamol from now on.
Thankyou so much for the heads up/

That said, I've googled and found out that a sore throat can be quite common with chicken pox. Well I never. How is his temp responding to nurofen/paracetomol?

You're not wrong, aspirin is far more dangerous and is not recommended in under 16's anyway but you have to be cautious with brufen too.

I can't comment on the pharmacist, but things are often done differently in the community than they are in hospital. All I can tell you is that if you asked a paediatric consultant the same question they would recommend against using nurofen. Unfortunately, I think GP's and pharmacists aren't as clued up about this kind of thing as hospital staff are.

And (god I clearly know nothing) I had NO idea about ibuprofen link to Reyes.

Just ignore me!!!

I hope he's feeling better very soon.

Thankyou very much, you've really helped - I was giving the nurofen as it works far far quicker on the temp and he was really upset last night.

I'll not give it again. Gahhhhhh this is horrible, he's crying about his throat.

Will call GP in a while. Thankyou all again.

Pooka don't worry. I saw something in A/C about this a few weeks ago but didn't look at the thread, wish I had now. I did ask the woman in Boots though, she OUGHT to know this stuff.

Hope he gets better soon. 8 is a horrible age for c.pox.

If they are in his throat please speak to your gp/nhsdirect. Not to worry you (although you probably are cause I've said that!) by brother was admitted due to them being in his mouth/throat he was an adult though and it is nastier in adults.

Hope he's better today

I realise that this thread was started years ago but just in case someone in the same position reads this, I wanted to highlight that you should NEVER give someone with chickenpox ibuprofen, it can make them seriously ill.