ADVICE please- chicken pox fever

[Lulujk85]

Can anyone advise, my son has caught chicken pox from his older sister and has it much worse. His temp was up to 39.3 at 6 so I gave calpol, I've been checking it since and it's now 38.6 (that's what it was when I checked at 7pm) so it's not coming down any further. Should I worry about this? I don't want to give him neurofen because it says not to for chicken pox and I've heard horror stories about secondary infections etc. So what should I do about his temp not really moving down or if it goes back up before the next dose of calpol is due? My daughter only had a slight fever and it went right down with calpol so this is worrying me. Thanks in advance.

How old is he?

He's two and five months

I would ring out of hours and get him checked out.

My DD was very unwell with CP, it actually turned out to be nasty CP and an ear infection, she was burning up and obviously not sleeping due to the pain - obvious in hindsight!

Well his temp has gone down a bit but if it goes back up before his next dose of calpol I'd give 101 a call. Is it possible that he has another bug as well eg ear infection?

He has had a very runny nappy once today, not watery but very loose poo. His ears are bothering him a little but the chicken pox is in his ears. He has a runny nose too.

It's definitely appropriate to have a low threshold for getting him checked out if his fever isn't easily managed with calpol; but a more important marker is how he is in himself - if he's hot but ok that's less of a concern than if he's very lethargic not drinking etc.

Definitely worth calling 111 or whatever the OOH number is, for advice, so that if he needs seeing you know where to take him and he can be kept isolated from others. Secondary infections of various types are very possible with chickenpox.

The reason aspirin stopped being recommended for children was because of a very rare but devastating complication that seems to be triggered by the combination of aspirin and chickenpox; there is a tiny possibility that ibuprofen (neurofen), being a related drug, could do the same; that is why you are advised to avoid it in chickenpox. Difficult when a child is miserable with a fever that calpol can't completely control, but definitely advice worth following.

Hope things improve, take care of yourself as well as your kids.

Thanks for all your replies, it's so nice not to get told off for worrying, which is what dh does (I am
a massive worrier sometimes it's irrational I'll admit, but sometimes I'm right to worry). I've just checked ds again and his temp has dropped slightly to 38.3 so at least it's gone down a bit. I find it so much harder to judge the whole lethargic or floppy scenario when they are in bed for the night as ds is now, but he has told me off for putting the thermometer in his ear just now so I guess that's a good sign. I will keep checking him every few hours to be on the safe side I think. Thank you x