Urgent advice please - Chicken Pox under nappies....

[SelfishMoo]

Help - I'm desperate!
Dd had the pox a fortnight ago, wasn't too bad, old enough (3.8) to understand, had a lot of spots but only a few really itchy ones. Now Ds (19 months) has it - spots started appearing on Monday and he's absolutely covered in it and very unhappy, clearly itchy all over. The worst spots are on his penis/scrotum - we both cried during his last nappy change, and that was just a wet nappy change! What can I do to help? He's had one dose of antihistamine today, am saving the second for his bedtime. Dd got on well with a cream called 'Eurax' but it says under 3 only with medical advice and even then only once a day and we put some on him this morning. Will pop him in a bath with bicarb in it, but he can't live in there!!! Is calamine likely to help? Any advice gratefully received - will keep checking in, may not answer until later as on full cuddle/distract/comfort patrol, not helped as now he's knackered due to short nap.
Help!...........

It should be getting a lot less itchy now as the first couple of days are over.

Calamine - I think it helped with the itch but it's so cold it might make him cry anyway - unless he likes it cold (?). You could soak some cotton wool in it and then warm it up a bit in your hand but it dries out really fast so you'll have to experiment with that idea.

My DCs had it last year - the 4yo was fine but the 2 youngest, aged 18mths & 2.5yr suffered badly with lots of itchy spots. Chin up, it'll probably be crusty by the end of the week And they'll never get it again.

Calamine will really help...u can peel back the nappy and repeat the application whilst he's asleep. U can also make a paste with the bicarb and water and apply to really bad areas.

An adult friend of mine has it now at the same time as my son and she says that actually pouring a whole tub of bicarb over her skin dry, whilst in the bath, really helps.

My poor DS had the same SelfishMoo. When DP did a nappy change his eyes were watering imagining how painful it must be for him.

Anyway we did give him lots of bicarb baths as they did seem to help dry up the spots, it also took his mind off the discomfort.

The good thing was the spots did seem to clear up quite quickly -the slowest to heal seem to be the ones on his chest and a couple on his cheeks.

Calamine cream is better than lotion - it stays put longer under nappy I found.

I have been having the same problem with dd2 (23 montsh)
LOTS of spots in nappy area, I was bathing with cool wa\ter to get the wee off and applying calamine lotion probably every 2 hors on the worst days. she was at the worst for probably 3 days and now she is just spotty but feeling much better.

Many thanks for your kind responses. Ds is now a little happier following a loooong bath containing bicarb and the oats-in-tights bag thingy - I can see he'll be having lots of baths over the next few days. Sorry if my OP sounded a tad hysterical - was having a bad afternoon. HAdn't expected the pox to be quite this distressing for him - my mind boggles at all the people who said if we were 'lucky' then he would catch it from Dd!
Thanks again

Ooooh, and to Norksbride - does it count as 'chin up' if I support it on a big G and T?????? (Erm, that's my chin, not his....)

Yes, Moo, that's perfectly acceptable

Try putting Calamine Cream on him.