15mo, chicken pox, fever, seizure and refusing to drink

[PoxyChick]

Just after some advice really. My 15 month old daughter has chicken pox and is really suffering.

She has had a fever since yesterday morning, been controlling it with calpol. Last night at bed time she had a febrile seizure, cue a fast trip to A&E as we had no idea what was happening. After observation etc she was discharged and came home. She had a bad night but managed some sleep.

Today we've had her stripped off, kept the house cool, kept up with the calpol etc to keep her temp down, as advised by hospital, but she has refused to have any drinks (managed 3Oz of milk this morning but nothing else).

I'm so worried because I don't want her to get dehydrated. She has had a few wet nappies through the day and when she cries she shed tears so don't think she is dehydrated but she has just gone to bed and refused to even have a sip of milk. Terrified that she is going to have a fever in the night and become dehydrated.

I've been giving her snacks of grapes, put loads of milk in her dinner and gave her a fruit pot with sneakily added water but really bothered that it might not be enough.

Honestly, no one told me how terrifying it is being a mum sometimes

getting water into her food is a good idea, and of course the wet nappies are a good sign

when my son was like this i used one of those medicine syringes and we made a game of drinking water with it which he quite liked. very time consuming but it did get some down him

If she is managing some food, that will give her some hydration.

I can imagine the worry though. poor wee soul.

Were you advised to rotate the calpol with ibuprofen for her or not?

If you are at all worried, just take her back up to a and e or phone NHS direct.

Febrile convulsions v. common, but awful to watch.

Yes, we syringed about 10ml into her mouth too but couldn't manage any more because she was crying so hard that we thought she was going to choke.

Nicky - At the hospital they just said calpol, but when I called NHS Direct this morning (after she had been vomiting) they said we could alternate between the two if we wanted. Before bed tonight she has had one about 2 hrs before bed and then the other just before bed.

would she eat ice lollies, ice cream, ice poles, etc as that would get fluids into her and cool her down too?

Seona - She has had ice cream but she doesn't really 'get it' and she appears to have no clue about licking an ice lolly or even sucking it so sadly a no-go.
Thinking about that though was what led me to the fruit pot adding extra water idea though (no idea how those ideas went together in my head!)

On the plus side, at 36wks+5 pg, I've had some lovely ice lollies to keep me cool!

Aw, so sorry you are heavily pg too. Makes everything harder.

I am 38 weeks and ds and I have both just had the pox. It is no fun.

Hope she is well soon.

I wonder if she has some chickenpox in her mouth - poor thing. The temp should settle but if not take her back as she may have a secondary infection. dd had chickenpox at 10 months and her nappy area got infected She has to have anti-bs to sort it out.

Saggar - what would I be looking for when you say a 'secondary infection'?

Her nappy area is awful, its on the inside of her bits and everywhere, looks so sore.

Ice cream? Ice lollies, melon. If she takes calpol, could you syringe some squash in?

dd's nappy area was obviously infected. Very red around the spots and some of them pussy. They can get infected with Strep or Staph most commonly.

In situations like this I have always given up my 'no sweet drinks' policy and gone straight for the Ribena or dilute fruit juice...

Whatever it takes - just try lots of things that are quite liquidy and enticing. You can go back to the 'rules' later...