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

My daughter was one when she caught it and to be honest it was quite easy as she was oblivious to the spots so she didn't scratch them. We had lots of cool baths and loose clothing. The worst part was not being able to see anyone - none of our friends wanted to meet up as they thought they were too young to have it - so having lots of craft and activities to do at home is a must

Lotion liberally during the day (all the recommended kinds), oat bath in the evening and then calamine at night as easy to see where/if they’ve been scratching.
Rent movies.
Encouraging them to make a video messages that I sent to their friends Mums, especially friends who are also ill with the pox, so they can share how awful it is and the best thing they are doing to cope with it (reaffirming in their minds that they should let me put on even more lotion).
Once the worst has passed invite child friends over who also have had the pox for company. Don’t risk giving it to someone who has had it a while ago as may be a different strain, I heard there are 4 types around currently.
God bless us all!

My 3 year old daughter got it recently. Cold baths followed by calamine motion worked for me. Also cotton and light garments helped her skin too.

Lukewarm baths, piriton and scratchmitts. Also distraction - we watched a lot of dvds

My toddler brought chicken pox home form nursery when my twins were two weeks old! I also hadn't had it and tests showed I was not immune... GP gave us antivirals and injections and babies and toddler weren't too bad... poxcilin, oat baths and calamine did the trick... I was really ill and wouldn't have coped without my Mum staying for a fortnight as then husband was in US with work....

I cut the foot off some tights and put porridge oats into it. Tied a knot at the top and put it in bath water. The milk that comes out of the oats into the water helps soothe itching. My kids also loved playing with the tight foot whilst in the bath.

Lavender oil in the bath Is great. First dilute it in milk, then add it to the bath as it distributes it through the bath rather than just floating on the surface. Also Sudocrem is great!

Currently got two dc with chicken pox and giving them salt baths morning and night, it seems to be drying the spots out. My tip is if you have a Flexi tub, the kind you can buy for gardening etc, they are fab for using for young kids to bath in as it's quick to fill and nice and deep, and safe as they can't slip down, mine are enjoying having a nice deep soak in theirs to relieve the itching.

Lots of time cuddled up on the sofa watching CBeebies got us through. We had a tiny quiet play park a couple of hundred metres from home on a residential road where most people came in and out by car all the time, so when she was feeling better we snuck out there at times I was confident no-one else would be around - we'd obviously have headed straight back home if any other kids came out to play. It helped with the cabin fever.

I swore by chucking half a tub of bicarbonate of soda in the bath. Really seemed to calm the itching. And a fan pointed towards the bed.
Sticker books were excellent for days stuck indoors.

Anti-histamines, calamine lotion and lots of cuddles! My three had it one after the other and they suffered differently!

Apart from the recommendations made by pp, gin. For me, obviously. DS2 was miserable as sin and I spent days following him about stopping him scratching (he’s a rather determined child and none of the scratching prevention measures worked), winding up at the gp with infected spots 🙄.

DS1 got it the same time he had cellulitis and was rather poorly so in all we spent 3 weeks in the house/go/hospital with 2 ill DC. That wasn’t fun. Hence the gin once they’d gone to bed.

Cool baths, calomine lotion and lots of ice lollies to cool and soothe the spots in their mouths helped with mine.

Seems like a lifetime ago that my two had chickenpox! I tried cool baths, calamine lotion and cotton clothes. Neither of my children were particularly poorly with chickenpox (thank goodness!). Was interested to read some of the previous comments about a vaccine that is now available.

I had my daughter inoculated, as did most people I know (I live overseas). The UK is so weird about chickenpox.

I was really lucky. Both of mine were young and bar a few miserable days not too bothered with it. With ds we were recommended poxclin and it seemed to work well, though his was a mild case. We did oatmeal and bicarb baths and calpol NOT ibuprofen.
If ds hadnt got it by aged 3 I was going to look into chicken pox vax. Currently expecting no 3 and the more I look into it the more I think the vaccination might be a good idea I was unaware how serious it could be for some kids and the fact we are one of the few european countries that doesn't already recommend it or have a programme for it.

Definitely oats in a sock in the bath!

Socks at night on hands to reduce or eradicate scratching. Calaminle lotion and wear as many natural fibres as possible

We’re still dealing with pox scars with ds2 - masses of Aveeno moisturiser, bio oil and kelocote has been used in the last few months and the scars are fading very very slightly. I wish the nhs funded the vaccine

Oat baths and Virasoothe worked best for DC.

We would have gone mad staying inside all day so we packed picnics with lots of 'treats' and drove out to deserted beaches/woods to run around and get out of the house.

Oats wrapped up (and knotted!) in the foot of some tights, place in the bath and let your child squeeze the 'milk' out. The bath water becomes milky and soothes their skin as well as giving them something to play with. My kids loved their oat baths and my hands felt softer too!
If you have a garden, get them out in the fresh air.

Calamine and cuddles worked for DD!

Vaccinate so they don't need to suffer and cheaper than two weeks of work!

My 1 year old is just over chicken pox.
We used porridge oats in sock, tied in a knot at top in the bath morning and night and squeezed the milk that came out over him.
We used calamine aqueous cream and anti histimines for itching until I discoverered poxclin it’s just fab we kept in fridge and used it 3x per day and it had them best relief of all the things we tried

Playing in the woods and empty parks kept Us busy!

I kept mine as cool as possible - light loose clothing - as being sticky & sweaty makes the itching worse.

An anti-viral from the Doc helped my son (as he was so young when he contracted it, this was prescribed) but my daughter just had over the counter antihistamine and calamine lotion to ease her discomfort.

Ice pops were the treat of the day - kept them cool and eased the throat!