Share your tips for coping when your children have chickenpox with PoxClin

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Though most children will get it at some stage, chickenpox is an illness that can be difficult for all involved. With that in mind, PoxClin would like to hear the tips you have for when children get chickenpox.

Here’s what PoxClin has to say: “It’s never easy when your children are ill and it’s natural for parents to worry about the itching and discomfort chickenpox can cause. 46% of parents say that stopping children from scratching is the most important thing for them when their child has chickenpox and 34% also worry about longer-term effects like scarring. These issues, combined with children being at home and unable to attend school or nursery until the spots have crusted over can put everyone to the test, with children being restless and parents feeling anxious and stressed from juggling work and unexpected childcare. It’s at times like this that support and advice from other parents can be so valuable. So, if you have some amazing parenting “hacks” to share, we want to hear from you!”

Do you have any tips for dealing with being housebound while your child is contagious? Perhaps you know of remedies that help with relieving the itching and scratching that accompanies chickenpox? Maybe you have tips for dealing with more than one child getting chickenpox at the same time?

All who post below sharing their tips will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

*An online survey was conducted by Atomik Research among 1,300 UK adults aged 18+. The research fieldwork took place on 8th – 12th April 2019. Atomik Research is an independent creative market research agency that employs MRS-certified researchers and abides to MRS code

Oats in a warm ish bath helped us. Whatever you do, children will always end up with at least one scar unfortunately.

We used the classic calamine lotion when our LO had the dreaded chicken pox! It worked pretty well, but I wish we had seen these tips then! I'd have tried anything to ease his discomfort :(
In addition to the calamine, LO had lots of cool baths, light cotton sheets rather than a duvet at bedtime & lots of play time with us to distract him from the constant itchiness!

We struggled with my son as he had it really bad; in his eyes, throat and bum etc and we found a cool bath really helped along with calomine lotion and paracetamol. Night time was the hardest and keeping the room cool really helped.

We used poxcillin for the spots which worked great, we also found piriton for the itching was a godsend and oat baths.
Like all things you just need to ride the wave, if you’re lucky it’ll be over soon and once it’s done, most of the time that’s it!

Mine got it in the height of summer, so lots of cool baths and access to the paddling pool really helped. Cool water soothes the itching and keeps them comfortable.

Keep all the children at home so they can get it together! And you will need lots of calmomine lotion to apply all over as and when required

Oh god, my daughter had an awful time with chicken pox. She was absolutely covered in spots and was so poorly with it. As others have said, oats in a warm bath, calamine and the wonderful Piriton helped. My son had it a month later but didn't suffer at all.

Cool baths and from memory, antihistamines helped too. It was badly timed so they missed a nursery Christmas party (which they could see from our house). Not fun times...

DS had it when he was around 2 but it didn’t seem that bad luckily. We used scratch mitts, kept him in long sleeved pyjamas, and put calamine lotion on him, and he was still sleeping in a sleeping bag so we were able to limit the amount of skin that was on show.

Thanks all for posting - the prize draw winner is @TweetleBeetlesBattle

We did oat baths, plenty of gentle cuddles and TV as needed!

Amazing! Thanks Justine, I'm going to treat some special people with them.

Cool baths are a good idea, but if you can get hold of a “cool blanket”... I got mine, but it was advertised for keeping a dog cool. It needs no electricity or anything, but it’s very cooling to the skin, therefore taking down the urge to itch. Another way the cool blanket is useful to me at least, is when I suffer a migraine, laying my head & neck on it is bliss.