has anyone heard of chicken pox making eczema worse?

[vivie]

I don't know if this is an urban myth or a reason to keep ds in while the local outbreak dies down!
Can anyone shed any light? Thanks.

Don't know about eczema but it certainly aggravated ds' molluscum contagiosum (he scarred only where he had it, behind the knee fortunately ) but also seemed to be the trigger for it finally going away. friend's dd has been vaccinated because she has very sensitive skin and allergic eczema type reactions.

My dh caught it this year and it affected him really badly on his psoriasis. Infact since the chickenpox he has developed a new type of psoriasis which is really nasty - poor soul

But vivie I personally beleive it is much better for children to catch it whilst they are young. My two little ones got over it really quickly and ds has eczema tooo. But dh at 33 really suffered and I dont think it was a man thing because I felt really sorry for him

My sister had severe atopic eczema for 14 years (hospitalised, unable to attend school etc). She was actually unable to catch Chickenpox properly. She had one spot on her mouth and that was it. My mum was told that her immune system was too sc*wed to recoginse the virus so she never developed it properly, that is she caught it but her skin didn't react normally. Hmmmm, not sure I'm explaining this very well!!

She was exposed again years later and came out in a whole rash or spots, her body had a normal reaction only when her eczema had begun to clear up.

I think that it depends on what kind of eczema your ds has and if its auto immune triggered.

I dread ds getting chicken pox because his skin is already so sore and itchy with severe eczema. The thought of all those spots adding to his suffering is just to much so I would be inclined to shield him from an outbreak.

It can make it worse, but to be a problem it has to be pretty severe eczema. My ds1 had chickenpox with no problems (and eczema). The nightmare was eczema herpeticum, so watch out if anyone has a cold sore. That really was hideous.

bunny- just read your message on SN- if your son's eczema is bad enough to need wet wrapping then it probably would be worth avoiding chickenpox if possible. When eczema is that severe then chickenpox can be a problem. I didn't ever avoid chickenpox as we thought that the eczema herpeticum was chickenpox (we knew it was one or the other and the hospital treated it as e herpeticum but no-one was sure, and the swabs didn't grow- until he caught chickenpox (no problems) and then the paed decided it had been e herpeticum). Do everything in your power to avoid eczema herpeticum though- even if it offends granny- it was nasty nasty nasty (and can be fatal).

This is well known in immunological circles (I did a tiny bit for my degree) and some people belive this is how autoimmune disorders start. Very simply - The body's defense system gets confused and the cells in your body are very similar to the virus cells and by mistake it attacks your body instead. However, I am not sure its worth keeping your son in?

cazzybabs-my god my heart missed a beat then- do you have a link/book? I'm really interested in this as this is what I think happened to my ds. Eczema herpetcium followed by autism which is of course autoimmune (video seems to confirm the regression happened around then). I know the herpes virus can be a nasty one. I've only touched on this area- but would love to read more.

jimjams the herpes virus is a nasty one. My friend developed leukemia and had had all the chemo etc. and was in remission, had the bone marrow transplant and all was looking well...then she caught a virus and had this really nasty infection which had got into her spinal fluid. After loads of tests it turned out it was the herpes virus, you know the one that cause coldsores (it had been re-activated). She did manage to get over the initial infection but never did really get over it, it was really awful Sorry you most probably didnt want to hear that, but my sister was so immuno suppressed following her transplant anything could nave been a major catastrophy IYKWIM. Chickenpox was a really big no no for hert even though she had had it as a child.

Mrs doom and gloom signing off now

Thanks for the reply Jimjams. Ds is not in wet-wraps at the moment butI am still inclined to avoid chicken pox, the poor thing has suffered so much already. My biggest fear was when he spent a year on oral steroids, chicken pox could have been fatal to him for that 12 months as the Prednisolone suppresses the immune system so much.

Yes it does. I'm not a medical specialist but I have mild to moderate eczema. Till I was in elementary school my eczema wasn't too bad. With proper treatment I was able to control it to just a few patches(I could count how many with both hands). Sometime during that time period I apparently developed chicken pox. The thing was wherever I got chicken pox spots I got an eczema spot right on top of it so it looked like I was having a severe eczema outbreak. My dermatologist at the time seemed to have overlooked the possibility of chicken pox and gave me meds to treat the eczema to no avail. After that an acquaintance noticed and told us that I had chicken pox. After that I was treated for the same and was cured of it. However the eczema spots and scars remained. My eczema which was controlled to just my arms and legs spread to basically everywhere (hands,face, abdomen,you name it). It's been almost a decade since then and I still have the scars from that outbreak. It's not as severe anymore now, tho it loses control every now and then from weather and allergens. Due to the number of spots I have it's quite a battle every time it gets aggravated.

If any of you moms have children with eczema or if you guys know someone with it make sure they take chicken pox seriously. It can literally change your condition completely if left unattended. And if you ever have an unexplained sudden outbreak that's too severe to be normal make sure to take chicken pox into consideration. Sometimes it hides in plain sight like mine did covered by eczema as a disguise. If I had been diagnosed with chicken pox earlier on mine may have not gotten this bad. Please don't let others experience that.

Please note that this is my personal experience only. I have no medical experience.

When my daughter had chicken pox, her eczema became infected, and I think I read Later that this was one of the dangers of chicken pox. Maybe you could have your son immunised? It’s standard in the US to have the vaccine and I think it is available here in the UK, if that’s where you are.