Chickenpox

[Posey]

Its half term, we were planning lots of nice things and poor dd has got the pox Feeling rather lousy today, first spots appeared last night but loads today.
This may be a piece of string question but does anyone know how long its likely to last, or at least how long til she starts scabbing over and stops being infectious?

A piece of string question in my experience,ds1 was so ill took secondary infections the lot,ds2 took the pox 2 weeks later and he had millions more spots but was neither up nor down,one tip though i found aloe vera gel kept in the fridge worked much better than camomile for cooling the spots and itching-good luck

My dd1 got it the night before dh and I were due to go on our own to the Canaries, my Mum was minding her..........anyway bad mummy and daddy went anyway but my mum tells me it's 3 days coming, 3 days there and 3 days going.
So that's half term taken care of then poor thing just use loads of that pink stuff calamine lotion isn't it

Message withdrawn

Thank you. Have taken note of your recommendations and will go and buy some stuff tomorrow.
Loobie - where would I get Aloe Vera gel please?
Just hope ds doesn't get it too.

Piriton stops the itching and helps children sleep. I can't recommend it highly enough. Infectious (roughly) until seven days after the last spots appear. But most infectious before any spots appear, ironically. Ds has just had a mild attack, all over in a week.

It's really good to get it now. Adult chickenpox is dreadful.

Following on from the thread I started on the same subject, whereabouts in the country are you Posey? Seems like there's a mini epidemic going on with us (Northamoton)

It's going round Berkshire too. And I can confirm that it's usually much better to get it over with as a child as I had it a few weeks ago, followed by ds. He was feverish for a short time but after that was hardly affected. All over with in less than a week. Officially you are still infectious until 7 days after the last spot has scabbed over although I took ds out a few days before that - he hardly had any spots that scabbed over anyway, most of them just healed up. Agree with Podmog, Piriton seemed to be of limited use wrt itching but does knock them out. Apply liberal quantities of calamine cream and keep her cool as the itching is worse if you're hot. I found Boots calamine cream was too thick and drying - preferred one I got from local chemist which was Care' or Care+'.

HTH and she gets better soon.

Dec - We're in London. No one had it in dd's class in the week before half term but there may be some gone down with it now.
She's now been asleep 3 hours and hopefully will have a good night and maybe feel a bit brighter in the morning.

I've noticed Eurax lotion being advertised for chickenpox. It's an anti-itch preparation so maybe worth a try. Phenergan liquid might help her sleep.

Ime, Angelmother's mum has it about right with her 3/3/3 equation and it's definitely worth getting as a child. My SIL had it when she was 30-ish and it took a year for her to recover completely.

Our DD got them on last day of term, Posey. Like you I had planned to take kids out places.

Thankfully she doesn't seem too bad, although she has got a few spots right underneath her eye and one on her bits

Hoping that by Thursday we can take her out, although she was in the courtyard downstairs with DS1 & DS2 for a short while today.

Posey I posted on other thread, but about 5 days for both of mine. We used Bicarb of soda baths and a homeopathic remedy called RuxTox (I think) recommended on a thread about 1 month ago. DO a search. It worked a treat

ds's first spots appeared on Saturday and started scabbing on Thursday and was 'safe' to venture out by the following Saturday. We are in London and almost everyone in his reception class had chickenpox in the first half term of 2004.

Thanks again everyone.
We're due to go to the Hi5 show on Saturday which dd has been looking forward to for weeks. should we go? If she's feeling okay, but is still unscabbed is it irresponsible to take her?

You mentioned you had a ds - has he had it? If not, do watch out: secondary infections within the family (ie, from extended exposure to the infection from another family member) can be much fiercer than the first one's - my gp said he would always prescribe Zovirax for the secondaries, to start the moment the first spots appear on the second child. I speak from bitter experience of having been told this & still delaying: luckily dd's big scar is only on her bot.

No he hasn't. He's just over a year old. So should I take him to the docs if he gets some spots?

Yes - that's what I should have done with my dd - she came out with only one or two the first day or two, so stupidly I thought, oh she's going to have a mild dose too, I'll just ignore what doc said when he confirmed ds's chickenpox - then by the third day she was seriously covered and by then (so I'm told) Zovirax can help a bit but you've lost the real power of it. I was cross with myself for months.

Have just seen this. I think my DS2 is coming down with it - DS1 has just had it. What exactly is zovirax (forgive my ignorance) is it the same stuff you put on coldsores?

Dinosaur, hello. It's acyclovir, so same active ingredient as cold sore creams, but for c'pox kids it's prescribed as the usual sort of banana-or-whatever-flavoured-liquid, like pencillin used to be. Our doctor was very keen for dd to have it, as secondary infection within family. Not very much more to add to self-accusing message below, except - if you are going to get it - to repeat: don't delay like I did.

thanks

DH is at home with DS2, on spot watch! Will go to GP Co-op tomorrow if necessary.

NHS direct says chickenpox stops being infectious five days after the spots appear (not from when they scab over). So children only need to off school for a total of five days. I found that on the website.

Blimey, I wish my dd's school knew that. We've had the most boring week waiting for them to all scab over.
Anyway almost there and back to school on Monday.

My two have just got over chickenpox in the half term but d1 has now got a great big sore around his mouth, spots gone now this. By the way my hubby has never had chickenpox and can you get shingles from chickenpox?

would love to know the answer to Lars question below - or rather, how can DH prevent himself getting shingles as he had never had chickenpox and DD has it ATM....?????

Also - on a few threads people have referred to 'mild' doses.....whats mild and whats not ?

Is it necessary to go to the Doctor with it if you are pretty sure it is Chicken-pox....DD only cam up with the spots today but its been going around nursery.....

Seeing as how I am getting very familiar with this illness at the moment, I thought I'd better respond

You can't catch shingles - shingles is the chickenpox virus (that remains in your body years after infection) reactivating for some reason (lowered immune system/poor health/stress). However, if you haven't had chickenpox then you can catch chickenpox from your child. You can also catch chickenpox from someone else having shingles. However, the odds are good (97%?) that you've had it as a child and either didn't display many symptoms so it wasn't noticed or you just don't remember. You may well be immune even if you don't ever remember having chickenpox. There is a blood test you can take to see if you have the antibodies - worth doing so you can be aware or be reassured.

There's not a lot you can do if you've been exposed to the chickenpox virus except wait for up to 21 days to see if you get the spots. There is a blood product you can have within 96 hours of exposure that may prevent/delay/reduce symptoms (research seems to be ambiguous). HOWEVER, it's expensive, so generally the NHS will only prescribe to the truly needy - pregnant women, lowered immune system people etc.

You can take a homeopathic remedy called Varicella (30c twice a day for 2-3 days) - I'll let you know if it works :P It's hard to get hold of though, so you'll either need a homeopath to sell it to you or get it offline via somewhere like Ainsworths .

If you do get spots as an adult, then see your doctor immediately as you can be prescribed an anti-viral drug which can reduce the length and severity of the illness - HOWEVER only really effective if taken in the first 24hrs of spots appearing so it's important to move fast.

If you haven't been exposed yet and are not immune as an adult, there is a vaccination you can have (available I think if you are a woman of childbearing age but NOT pregnant, or a health worker, or someone with a lowered immune system) which is highly effective... apparently. Two jabs 8 weeks apart. About 80% effective prevention and 90% effective of reducing severity. However, it didn't work for me, I'm still not immune even though I had it last year, so I'm probably not the best person to recommend it Not much use if you've already been exposed though.

Hope this helps