Scarring after Chicken Pox, please give advise

[Irfe]

Our DD had Chicken Pox 2 months ago at the tame she was 13 m.o. She also had a secondary infection to the skin and was on antibiotics. Infected spots were all localised on her torso and left quite a few pitted scars. Somehow the spots on her face did not get infected. But at the time of her Chicken Pox she also had a conjunctivitis and severe cough, which made her rubbing her eyes almost constantly. We tried to keep DD?s hands away from her face, but obviously not enough. She managed to knock 8 scabs, mainly on her forehead and one on her chick. All knocked scars were pretty small and left pitted marks about 1.5mm in diameter and probably 0.5mm deep. They are still red and very noticeable.

The rational part of me is saying that pitting will nether disappear and it is what she is going to be left with, but another part of me is hoping that there are some miraculous healing properties on 1 year old skin and the appearance of scars may improve somehow.

I am very distressed about what happened. Neither me, not my DH new that CP might result in such level of scaring and I really blame myself for not reading more about CP beforehand and not knowing about a vaccine.
I am sure there are some other parents and kids in the similar situation. Could you please share your experience on how you coped with it and what improvements have been made over the time?
Manny thanks

Please please don't worry. My DS had cp really badly when he was 4 and he was covered. He had loads on his face and his also got infected and he had to have antibiotics (he also has eczema which didn't help). I was so worried about the scarring afterwards and, like you, I beat myself up about not vaccinating etc etc. My DD had had cp when she was one and it was nowhere near as bad as DS's.

The scars on his face were red for ages and I would say it took about a year for them to completely fade but they did!!! He is 6 now and I can only see the scars in certain lights and only because I know they are there and I look really closely - the are not indented, just a slightly paler area of skin. He also has a few on his torso but really nothing to worry about.

I think your DD will be just fine especially as she is so young. One thing I would say is that because of DS's eczema, I have always had to moisturise his skin thoroughly (we use Epaderm) and I think that may have helped. It might be worth getting some kind of moisturising cream for your DD to help the healing process.

Dear Shallweshop thanks a lot for your prompt reply and being so supportive. My DD has eczema as well I am wondering if kids with eczema are most likely to be scared after CP? I will check Epaderm, at the moment we are using Aveeno.

Hi, just thought I'd let you know what happened with my little ones. They had cp at 1 year and 3 years old, both were fairly good about not scratching. Also when younger both have had occasional bouts of eczema, but not major attacks.

The younger was covered everywhere with blisters and i mean everywhere, there seemed to be more spots than normal skin. She recovered very well, and very soon afterwards there was now no evidence of cp at all.

However, older daughter only has a sprinkling of blisters, but was left with 4 pox marks on her stomach and side, these were initially red, but when healed were pitted, white and very obvious; its taken a few years but the marks are now faded into surrounding skin and much less obvious unless you look closely. The pitting has almost completely gone, there is just the slightest indentation but you wouldn't notice it unless you knew to look for it; and its just a little paler than surrounding skin, again you would notice it if you didn't know where to look.

One thing I have found by experience is that the pale marks tan less than the surrounding skin, so become slightly more obvious with a tan. But at least there is an easy solution for that: I make sure she is always well topped up with a high factor suncream( but then its only sensible to wear suncream anyway.)

The outcome has been so much better than I thought it would be, young childrens skin can be very resilient.

Hi Purples, thanks a lot, it sounds very reassuring! I didn?t not expect that pitting can go even to the certain extend. When I spoke to our GP his reply was petty blunt that pitting would never go. But to honest our GP was not really in a mood to talk much about such insignificant thing as scarring on the little girl face! I was really shocked!

Bump! Bump! Bump!

Hi I used vitamin E oil.

You can buy it in a small bottle, it costs a few pounds [cant remember exactly how many] but it lasts ages. It is a very thick almost sticky oil, but that is good as it doesn't slide off where you put it.

My children got CP all at the same time, they were aged 1, 4 and 7 at the time. It was very hard to stop the baby scratching, so I know how you feel.

My children are mixed race, so even more prone to scarring badly [keloid scarring and pigmentation] but I found the vit E oil did wonders.

I cant see any scars on the youngests face now [he's 10 now]

I have also heard good things about Bio-oil too.

I haven't tried it for CP scarring, but virgin organic coconut oil is brilliant for everything else and definitely can help eczema, so maybe try that?

My ds had terrible CP all over his face when he was 2, and as it was summer, many of ths scabs came off when he was hot at night. They lasted ages. Many people commented that they had never seen such a bad case of CP. He had a huge one at the end of his nose that made a big dent on the tip, like part of his nose was missing, it looked awful. I was really upset at the time, my perfect baby having all these scars. He is now nearly 5 and I can barely see them, only one or two in certain light, and nose one gone. Hope thos reassures you x

Ps any left over bio oil is worth a try

DD had CP terribly badly at around 4 months. She's quite badly scarred all round the pelvis, but I'm not unduly concerned about that as we're not planning a career for her as a porn star lingerie model. There are a few tiny pit marks elsewhere - e.g. on her natural parting and also on her forehead, but you know I just don't even notice them. She's 14 now and simply beautiful and it's the last thing you'd ever think about when you see her.

Thanks everyone for your support.
AmberLeaf thanks for advice on virgin coconut oil and sharing your story with me.

Holidaysdistantmemory and Clam your stories are really inspiring. I can imagine what you went through with your Ds and I am so glad that his scars are not visible not. It really gives me some hope.

I think CP scars are such an issue for me because I have a lot of acne scaring on my face. It has been with me for 30 years and has not improved at all. Many years ago I was extremely concerned about my scars and tried to remove them. The technology was not that advanced at that time and laser treatment did not exist. No probably something can be done (subject to time and money), but I got used to my scars.

I expected that my DD may have problems with acne when she is older and if she inherited my type of skin, but I had absolutely no idea that something else, as trivial as CP, may scar a baby?s face. I don?t understand why parents are not being warned about complications after CP by medical professionals and why CP vaccine is not being mentioned anywhere?

My dd had infected CP v badly when she was 5. She ended up in hospital for 8 days on IV antibiotics. Thankfully like your dd the worst infections were not on her face (although she did have about 10 infected spots on her face), worst was torso and thighs. The worst ones were about 2 cm across and initially the holes were so deep that I couldn't imagine how the skin would ever close over them properly, but after a few months it did. She is now 8 and amazingly even the large ones now are almost flat, although still clearly white scar tissue rather than normal skin. The deepest one on her leg still pulls in about half a cm but it is astonishing how much the scars have improved. I can't imagine that she will ever feel self conscious or concerned in a bikini - really the scars are there if you look but you don't 'see' them.

On her face, if you look closely you can still see about 5 or 6 scars. Worst about 5 mm across but pitting on those now almost non existent (less than 1mm) and they don't have that white stretched look of scar tissue in the way the ones on her body do. I doubt anyone but me notices them. The state of your dd's scars now really doesn't sound too bad. 2 months is nothing in the healing process, you can expect a lot of improvement, not so much in diameter, but the pitting will lessen and the colour will totally fade. You won't believe the improvement in a year.... Or in our case in 3 years. Even with my other dd and DS whose CP didn't get infected the redness didn't fade for at least 2 months. The improvement in my daughter's scars has been HUGE. No, they probably won't actually ever disappear but they get to the point where they are not noticeable unless you look for them.

I too was left very shocked by what happened. I had had no idea how bad CP could be and also blamed myself in a way - I had been pleased when she came down with it, glad she was getting it out of the way, not concerned in any way. The extent of her illness was a bolt from the blue and for a while I tormented myself about it, especially re her appearance. I don't give it much thought now. It is part of her history and what happened happened. Your daughter's scars WILL improve.

We used bio oil. Don't know if it helped or whether it was just time that was the healer.

Nelly, I am extremely grateful for your support. I followed up the story of your DD (actually I read all the treads about CP which still can be found) and honestly I am incredibly glad that your DD has recovered so well, especially having read how ill she was. I know what scars mean to a girl or a woman and it is fantastic that the skin condition can improve so dramatically in 3 years, probably it is all down to the healing properties of the young skin. I am trying to convince myself that my DD?s scars will improve, that?s why I am so desperate to listen to other mums who had similar experience with their kids. Once again thanks a lot for your help and I admire your ability to go through such a hard time and to offer constant support to the others.

Another vote for bio oil - used it on my dd religiously morning and evening for about a year and has worked wonders.

Another vote for vitamin E oil. Can get two little bottles in Superdrug for £3

My son had CP this time last year and still has scars, fortunately on his torso. He also has a couple of scars on his face from relatively minor toddler-face-versus-tarmac accidents. He also has eczema and I also wonder if eczema skin is more prone to scarring than normal skin :(

On the positive side though, I have very dry skin and mild eczema and I found that when I was a teenager, and also when pregnant, my skin was actually fairly healthy with just a few spots. I think the hormone induced greasiness balanced out the natural dryness so, with any luck, you may find that your daughter doesn't go on to have problems with acne. :)

My son has had chicken pox now just over a month ago he is Afro Caribbean he has been left with circle marks over each chicken pox scab that has fallen off will these go overtime , he has lots on his face