Severe chicken pox has left hundreds of brown marks!

[Gollygoose]

Hi,

My 7 Yr old son had a case of severe chicken pox from boxing day. Literally hundreds. He was hospitalised for a few days. The scabs have all fallen off now but he has been left with so many scars and dark brown marks all over his face and body despite not scratching or picking them. We have been using bio oil so far. It has only been a few weeks so haven't seen any difference yet. Will they ever go away?

Yes. They will disappear, although some of them may take a few years to vanish completely.

Bless him. Chickenpox can be awful. Yes, they will disappear eventually. Sunshine helps, but skin heals fantastically if a bit slowly.

I had chickenpox at 14, covered in marks, sunshine and time sorted them out. He'll be fine.

My sister had it in her 20s , the worst thing I've ever seen. She was covered in marks and pits but eventually they all except a few disappeared.

Going against the grain of PP’s here but sun exposure can make scars darker so keep his skin covered this summer and use sunblock. Given he’s only 5 you’re probably covering him up anyway.

Bio oil is great and the scars should go over the next few months. Gentle exfoliation also promotes skin cell turnover and will also help the scars fade - at his age use something very gentle in the bath like a mix of aloe Vera gel and rice flour.

Thank you so much for your advice!

I had no idea it could get that bad. My heart sinks every time I look at him! Thanks so much for your reply, very reassuring!

Thank you, thats very reassuring!

Oh bless him. It may take a few years for the scars to fade. I had a bad dose of chicken pox when I was 8, I was into my teens before the scars were gone. Sun helps 🌞

Hopefully they should fade and disappear over time. My youngest, like yours, was covered. He had over 100 on his foreheads alone! He has no scars/marks now.

They do fade eventually. You should protect the skin from the sun. If your ds is white skinned then you'll probably find that you'll have light/white patches which over time will even out but don't be tempted to force it through sun exposure.

My ds was also hospitalised with chicken pox, it has been just about 11 years ago now and he is still covered in scars but they are less noticeable. His torso still has light/white little patches but as he has grown the proportion of the scar has changed so they appear smaller. His face still has noticeable ones but they don't leap out at you any more. He has some pitting,mainly around eyebrows and nose.

It is hard seeing your perfect baby be covered in lasting scars but it's also a reminder of how lucky we are that they had access to modern medicine and survived.

So glad that chicken pox is being included in the routine vaccine schedule now and children won't have to go through it.

They'll fade.

I'd stop putting the bio oil on because you'll be teaching him that the marks are a problem that must be fixed.

Much better just not to draw his attention to them so he can forget about them.

My daughter was the same, she was only 5. She’s 8 now and there are one or two marks still visible but you need to be looking very hard. I was really worried as her pox were all over her face, actually joined up and weeping. We used this once they had healed over

Dermatix Gel for Scar Reduction - 15g amzn.eu/d/45faIIC

For almost all children all the scars (except possibly 1-2) will fade completely and disappear eventually.

My child had a very bad dose of chickenpox aged 5 and looked awful in the early months. The scars became much paler over the next year or two but unusually did not disappear. The scars are little pale slightly irregular circles and over a decade later around 100 are still visible to us. Other people genuinely rarely notice them. My teen is beautiful.

Please do not worry.

Definitely use SPF this summer. Don’t let him burn.
also switch from bio oil to plain sunflower oil. Tesco sells spray bottles for cooking, use this instead as it’s better for skin than the ingredients in bio oil.

One of my children had terrible chicken pox last year, every inch of his body covered.
After a few months most of the scars were unnoticeable, and only a couple of deeper marks were visible.
When it’s very sunny, I sometimes see a shadow of the marks, but you’d have to actually look for it.