Chicken pox

[jpclarke]

Any tips for dealing with chicken pox? My first child developed spots today, but I have 2 more children so I know there will probably be a trickle effect. My dh doesn't know if he had them and has some spots now too. What am I in for?

A month of it at least. I have 3 children, my first was off school for 10 days, now the older two have it even worse (it's usually 2 weeks incubation). They are itchy, miserable and bored.
Oats in a sock in a bath helps a bit. Calamine has been useless and there's no way I could cover them in that. Piriton is quite good, and it helps then sleep. Ice lollies because they get them in their mouths and throats. It's grim.

Thanks for that. I work and dh just started a new job, there will be no way I will be able to take a month off work. O god what am I going to do.

You never know, your other two children might get away with it. I thought mine had because it took the full 2 weeks for them to show symptoms.

I'm really struggling. Working from home fortunately.
How old are your children? My oldest is 13 and is in a really bad way. It has affected the oldest children the worst.

There's a gel you can get from boots (and probably similar places but that's where I got it) called virasoothe, it works much better than calamine lotion at taking the itch away and it's a clear gel so dries in and doesnt leave horrible flakey off patches.

Definitely recommend oats in a sock or the foot of a cut up pair of tights, held underneath the running tap as the bath fills, it's creates a nice white milky bath and really soothes the itch too, let them sit in it for donkeys and keep topping up the water.

Piriton for over 1 year old, especially at night time because sleep is a real struggle for them, socks on hands at bed time to help stop sleep-scratching.

Calpol for temps and irritability. Do not use nurofen during chicken pox, it can cause complications.

Quarentine until the last spot crusts over. If all of them catch it then yeah it could be off/on for a month because it's a 2 week incubation period and usually about 7-10 days from start to finish for each child.

My 2 just had it 2 weeks after each other. Piriton was good and they were fine.

I saw something this morning that said don’t use ibuprofen as it makes the pox go deeper into the skin and cause more discomfort and scarring. Use paracetamol if needed.

My kids all just had calamine lotion liberally applied to their spots and didn’t seem to suffer too badly, although they did also have croaky throats and general feeling run down at the same time.

Hope yours are all over it soon!

Thanks nogods, I'll look for that gel.

My twins had it a few years ago 2 weeks apart. First one was fairly ok only had a few spots and was actually poorlier before the spots came out. Was scanned over within 4 days only missed 3 days of nursery due to weekend. 2nd twins was much poorlier. Missed a week had spots everywhere. We managed to juggle childcare through oh working from home and me swapping some days round but know that won't work for everyone.

Thanks for the advice, have been to the chemist and topped up on calpol and some sort of chicken pox lotion. She is so far not too bad, the itching hasn't set in. Just a bit tender if anyone touches off her. The 2 year old I would be shocked if they aren't brewing in her, runny nose, cough, and irritable all week. Doctor isn't sure about my own immunity to them so I prob need a blood test.

There is a vaccine which, if not effective after exposure, will massively reduce the severity of the symptoms. It needs to be taken within a certain timeframe of exposure though, but you might still be within that.