chicken pox remedies please

[cathpip]

Right ladies, my ds who is 4 has come down with chicken pox, such crap timing as its his first year getting properly excited about christmas. I need to know what remedies you all used to help aliviate the itching, his spots are everywhere bless, but at least he is not feeling poorly, its just the constant itching. Any help much appreciated.

piriton (the hayfever medicine) and calomine lotion. hope he feels better soon. Go to the chemist and ask for 'Pharmacy First' (won't work in the supermarket) should be able to get them on perscription direct from the pharmacist. Along with calpol.

Calamine aqueous cream was easier to apply than the lotion, and it's great kept in the fridge.

Our 2 didn't like the taste of piriton, but it helped them to sleep at night so we'd mix it with calpol!

Bad luck cathpip - something we found that worked really well was to put porridge oats in a leg of an old pair of tights and leave it in the bath with him / her (tie a knot in the 'open' end.) My ds had it quite badly - he was 12 and the bath seemed to help a lot, with calamine lotion put on afterwards.

The good fun one which all my dcs liked was porridge oats in tights under the bath tap...supposed to be soothing, certainly git a giggle .

Got not git!

Definitely try the oatmeal baths - really helped dd when she had them a few weeks ago.

Also we got PoxClin mousse that really worked for the itch. DD has eczema and really dry skin and found calamine too drying for her.

Do you have a Nintencdo DS in the house? I found it a great help to keep dd's two hands busy and concentrating so she didn't focus on the itch so much

hi cathip, just wanted to let you know you are not alone! MY 5year old DS started getting spots on saturday and he is still developing spots now so no planned outings with my elderly relatives on boxing day.
What rubbish bloody timing. Our plan was to see a friend and then go to crib service this afternoon. Instead we shall be watching christmas movies and eating chocs so not all bad...im trying to stay cheerful but we dont seem to have much luck at christmas health wise. Nevermind aye, hope your ds stays relatively cheerful. Have a good one :)

Calomine isn't recommended nowadays I don't think. Has been found to be too drying on skin and can make itching worse.

PoxClin mousse is brilliant. Not cheap but worth every penny and you can ask for it on prescription. Antihistamine (piriton) has no evidence for helping but many say it calms itching and if nothing else used at night it causes drowsiness so helps them sleep better as less likely to wake due to itching as they are in deeper sleep.

All the above was told to me by pediatric doctor and proved true in our experience. My child was three and absolutely covered.