Chicken pox - does this look infected?

[houseargh]

DD (2) has chicken pox - incredibly unlucky as we had her vaccinated but the second dose was only last week and it transpires that there were cases at nursery in the interim. Apparently getting it with only one dose of the vaccine is not uncommon, but usually milder.

So far it's milder in terms of spots - only spotted five so far (and they don't seem to itch) but a couple new in the last 24hrs so they are still emerging. But the poor thing is miserable - temp (does come down with Calpol), and she's just moaning and miserable - from what she's saying seems like aches and chills and generally feeling crappy. One of the first spots to emerge has got past the blister stage but is now surrounded by white puffy skin and some redness around that - does that seem like grounds to go in search of antibiotics?

No, looking at that. It just looks like a popped blister. Just keep an eye on it.

Does the red go all around the finger ?

I don't think so but it's hard to tell as I feel like fingertips are naturally a bit redder than the rest of your hand

Compare it to her other fingers

That looks like the "mother blister" they are bigger & more sore. Poor baby.
A lukewarm bath with a load of oats (porridge!) in an old clean pair of nylon tights or muslin bag will be really soothing for her.
Hope she feels better soon.

Are you sure it’s chicken pox? Where are the other spots? If they are also on her hands or round her mouth, could it be HFM instead?

That spot looks ok to me (my daughter had infected chicken pox and it was black in the centre with a spreading red ring) but if you are worried, GP may be able to prescribe antibiotic cream.

Thanks all. Poor thing is so miserable - was sick all over me this evening (though perked up after that and did want some tea after all). It seems like she's mainly suffering with temperature, feeling bad and sick. Still no real signs of itching yet.

We're assuming it's chickenpox on the basis that there have been cases in nursery that would fit the timeline perfectly and the spots look right. They are on her chest, neck, chin and finger. Look quite different to HFM, when she had that in August (though I know there are different variants), and thought that was more of a summer virus anyway, but yeah I guess it is possible? The other possibility is a reaction to the vaccine - all the symptoms she has are on the list of potential side effects though it was just over a week ago, so I'm not sure what the timeline for a reaction would be.

No. There's often a lot of pink around popped blisters, but they can get infected so keep an eye on it.