chicken pox question - advice needed please

[tifflins]

ds first spots started to show last friday morning and seemed to increase gradually on saturday and sunday. he has really suffered, crying and hardly sleeping at night, coughing alot. he is alot better today, less scratching but still lots of spots which are mainly crusting over with scabs (nice). some spots are causing him issues and haven't scabbed yet. my question is: when does he become non-contagious to others (cos we are both going crazy stuck at home), and when can i send him back to pre-school? any advice appreciated, thanks!

my 2 dc's have had cp recently - the advice my GP gave me was to keep them indoors for 7 days from when they develop the first spots . It takes about 3 weeks for all the spots to fall off . Hope your ds is feeling better soon . As for his pre-school i think you should phone them and ask what their policy is when children have cp .

I would keep him off the rest of the week. They are contagious until the spots scab over which is normally 5-7 days from when the spots start to appear.

My dd just had it too - I kept her off school and away from the general public for 7 days which was when spots scabbed over. She had full week off nursery

Once spots have scabbed over they are not contagious. Calamine aqueous cream and piriton work well for the itch and paracetamol to lower temperature. With chicken pox the general rule is that kids will stroll through an infection as if it's a little cold. If they are tired and take to their beds then the doctor should be contacted.