Chickenpox

[newbie23]

Good evening,

I think my DS4 may have chickenpox. He's started to come out in spots and has about seven total. He had one spot on back of his neck from yesterday and the other Spots started coming at lunchtime today. The one on the back of his neck is now bigger and looks like it has hard skin almost, the others are relatively small. He's had no itching, fever etc and has been well in himself.

I can't bring him to the doctor or pharmacy as I'm from a small town in NI and they are all closed for 12th July. Doctor will reopen on Monday. I can bring him into nearest city as they'll have open pharmacies but I'm worried about incubation period and infecting other children?

Can anyone advise what I can do? Or how to treat them? I'll obviously keep a close eye on him to see if anymore come out. He's already getting Piriton for hayfever so I imagine that will help with itching?

I've also got a 17month old and a 6 week old, do I need to be worried about the baby?!

Any help much appreciated.

I dont think you need a pharmacy, if he feels unwell then give him calpol, but NOT IBUPROFEN, you can try and keep your other children away from him, but i think it is likely that they will both catch it, i can't remember if the incubation period is two or three weeks, but my baby dd2 caught it from dd1 when she had it.

Are you breastfeeding? If you’re immune and breastfeeding don’t need to worry about baby at all. Agree with PP tho, as long as you have calpol and piriton you’ll be fine.

Thanks for the advice!

I'm not too sure how long he's contagious for? My MIL is adamant that when spots show he's no longer contagious and I don't need to isolate him from others? I'm sure thats wrong though. She's a former pediatric nurse so I'm afraid I've got it wrong?

And yes I'm breastfeeding

You need to wait until all existing spots crusted over and no new ones emerging.
At that point he’s no longer contagious.

You need to isolate him from other children/those with low immune system until the last spot has scabbed.

Are you sure it’s chicken pox though? Are the spots full of fluid? Google to spots they are fairly distinctive.

I'm fairly sure it is chickenpox although not 100% which is why I thought a pharmacist could give a second opinion.

He has none on his body just mostly his right arm, one on his neck and a couple on his neck and head. He's about ten in total. Do they usually come out this slowly? I remember being covered in them when I had them.

Just not sure if it's not that of what else it could be?

Yes, DS2 had it recently and they came out this slowly - he had fewer than 10 spots in the first 48 hours. Some more came out after that but not that many, thankfully! Most were on his torso, a couple on his neck and scalp and a couple on his legs and feet (that came up on about day 4). His face was spared apart from in his hairline. Hopefully your DS has a mild case like DS2 had? When DS1 had it, it went from 1 or 2 spots to having hundreds a few hours later, so I was unsure whether DS2 even had it at first.

You definitely need to keep him in the house until they scab over. Cool baths with some bicarb in help itching and help it scab over quicker. Piriton really helped DS2 so he slept fine as long as he'd had that. Do not give ibuprofen as it can cause a dangerous syndrome IIRC. Poxclin and Virasoothe are both good for itching/preventing infection.

Thanks for all the advice guys! Potential of having three babes all at once with the pic and a DH working away- wish me luck!