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

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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

No tips except lots of tv and cuddles!

Once the Calpol kicked in, we gave our three a pot of calamine lotion and a little paintbrush and got them to dab their spots and count how many they had. They earned a penny a spot (which fair added up after five days!) and we had a celebratory trip out to spend it once they had scabbed over.
DD did hers in the garden because she was lucky enough to have it in summer and the boys sat on a big towel on the sofa because they had it in winter. It meant there was no fighting to get the lotion on, and it kept them distracted for a while. That, plus the fact Tesco delivered wine and chocolate, got us through!

I know how nasty and life threatening chicken pox can be so my Dcs are vaccinated. Just hoping they don't still pick it up as it's been in school recently.......

My tips would be virasooth or calamine for the itching, NEVER IBUPROFEN, calpol if its needed for a temperature, and distraction therapy - television, ice cream and popcorn.

If your child can take an antihistamine - they really helped my DD2 with the itching, a cold calamine tea solution dabbed on with cotton wool. Keeping your child hydrated is important too - so if they won't drink - try ice pops or milkshakes.

Ride it out with calamine lotion and calpol. It didn't last long for us. My eldest had about 10 spots and didn't appear to notice them. The other two had it a bit worse but they've been more ill with colds. The calamine worked really well and I remembered having it myself. Perhaps if we'd been harder hit I'd've looked up some other tips but we managed with the bare minimum.

My biggest tip is to AVOID giving your child IBUPROFEN. There is ibuprofen in Nurofen for example. The pharmacist recommended it to my child when he first started showing symptoms. The chickenpox got inflamed and infected to the point where my child had to go to A&E and be put on antibiotics. Thankfully, he recovered, but he still has a couple of scars on his body.

My tip is to have your child vaccinated so they don’t get it in the first place!

Oat baths and piriton did the trick here

Oat baths, piriton, and poxclin worked for us - my 2 year old didn't particularly enjoy getting the mousse ok but it really did soothe the itch instantly. After a couple of days, if we saw him starting to scratch, we only had to ask if he wanted some "cream" and he immediately stopped! For the worst couple of days we basically did nothing but cuddle and watch kids TV.

My eldest has had it twice and my youngest once. Fortunately they had relatively mild cases and weren't especially ill or uncomfortable with it. We discovered Pox Clin on the second round of chicken pox, and it definitely seemed to be the thing that gave them the most relief. Calamine lotion and cool baths were also good - or sitting on a potty with cool water to stop the nappy area getting irritated and itchy. The chemist also recommended piriton to help itching. Lots of TV and cuddles too of course!

Get your kids vaccinated. The vaccines are cheap in comparison two two weeks off work for most people so cost isn't an excuse not to get it. Just hoping my baby doesn't get it before I can vaccinate him. My older two have had the vaccine. It is ridiculous that we are one of the few developed countries that doesn't have a vaccination programme.

Bath with porridge oats and spread conditioner on to stop the itching!

My DS had it twice quite bad both times the first time he had spots all over his lips he didn't want to eat so I gave him ice pops and frubes things he just eat without having to open to wide or chew as he was really sore he wasn't really scratching it was more the pain of where they were that upset him most. The second time he got them at the same time as my DD and they were covered all over their thighs and their nappies would rub and make them sore. I used calomine lotion and Calpol to help with the fever before the spots broke out and let them run around naked as much as possible to avoid the nappies/best suits from rubbing. Luckily both my DC were young and were not overly interested in scratching neither of them have any scars from spots and fingers crossed they won't return!

My two had chicken pox in April, we used poxclin which really helped with the itching and was easy to put on. They also had cool bath every other day with oats in a sock run under the two making oat milk. Then used the disk as a sponge to gently wash with.

I remember resorting to liquidising a bag of organic porridge oats in a mixer with some warm water to make it into a goo-like paste! I literally covered every spot with the goo and let my crazy daughters run around naked until the goo had dried onto their spots. Not a pretty sight for a couple of days but it worked - no itchy spots, no tearful toddlers and best of all no scars! A miracle Granny remedy from nature is the best here - good old fashioned Quaker’s Porridge Oats!

Smothered both of mine in poxclin, kept up with paracetamol, lots of baths.

Both ended up on antibiotics and youngest was 7 months at the time and so poorly and couldn't sleep, I ended up driving round in the small hours to get him to sleep and having a nap on a car park with him the pox suck massively!

Baths, calpol, and lots of cuddles.

*Vaccinate your children people. Chicken pox is a killer in some cases and the nhs will not protect them at the moment.

Most vaccines cost £60 each and its two vaccines at least 4 weeks apart.
Cut out Starbucks, Nando's and posh coffee etc and pay to vaccinate your children against chickenpox.*

My son caught it at 6 months so was too young to avoid chicken pox by vaccination. Seeing him very unwell I wish we would have been able to avoid him getting it.
My advise for everyone is to keep a close eye on your little ones' temperature and seek medical help if you are worried about it. We ended up at Out Of Hours twice and had daily check-ups at our GP as our little one had a really bad fever and had some infected spots. He was pretty poorly and was given antibiotics but was well-monitored and recovered well. All the doctors we saw said that we did the right thing getting help as chicken pox can be v dangerous. At the time my relatives thought I was over-reacting as a first time Mum, they thought I was over-reacting over my PFB having a 'normal' childhood illness. We were definitely right to keep getting him checked. He has a few scar marks now and it took ages (probably a few years) for all of the marks to properly fade away but otherwise he is perfectly healthy.
Our daughter also had chicken pox (when she was a bit older at 2 1/2 years) but had much milder spots which barely bothered and her temperature didn't spike in the same way. It really is a childhood disease that reacts differently in different children.

Getting out in the garden and Disney films. Mine wouldn't tolerate lotion but calpol helped.

I just bought an over the counter lotion and it seemed to help a lot, my children weren't that bothered and fortunately it was very mild compared to when my DH and his siblings got it as adults. We also didn't stay in the house, and instead chose to go to secluded outdoor areas so we could all get a breather.

Lots of cool baths.

Luckily mine weren't too poorly with it so lots of hugs & tlc to sympathise but other than that they rode it out pretty well.

We put a sock filled with oats under the tap and had regular oat baths to relive the itchiness. Also used a paint brush dipped in calamine lotion and encouraged her to paint on her spots. I went on long walks while she napped in her pushchair. It rained everyday and I used the cover over her chair so wasn't worried about passing it on. I would have found it very difficult not being able to leave the house for 2 weeks.