Coping with Chicken Pox

Well I can safely say we've 'got the T Shirt!'.

As some of you may know my family - son, daughter and darling husband are recovering from Chickenpox.

Recommendations from friends plus reading lots on the internet helped us to know how to cope with the symptoms of Chickenpox so I just wanted to give you a 'Toolkit' so you can be ready and armed when it's your turn to combat what can be a really miserable disease. Some children get it mildly so I really do hope this is the case for you and your children.

Unfortunately my children especially my son had it pretty badly so here is a list of medicine, creams/ointments & tips we used and would recommend:

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• Calpol
  
• Nurofen (on the internet it advised not to take it "This is due to a very small risk of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, causing adverse skin reactions during chickenpox". This said, my son was in so much pain that a doctor said it was so rare to get a reaction like this that it would be best to give Nurofen to him so we did and it did help.
  
• PoxClin
  
• Eurax
  
• Metanium (for nappy area)
  
• Piriton
  
• Baths with Porridge Oats -  Yes Porridge oats. Put a couple of handfuls in a sock or some tights and run under the tap to make the water all 'milky'. You can also squeeze the milky liquid over their skin too which seemed to really help.
  
• Baths with Bicarbonate of Soda - 1 tablespoon dissolved in a bath. Although we preferred the "Porridge Bath".
  
• Ice-Lollies - nice and cooling and fun to eat especially if they get spots in their mouths.
  
• Lots of water/liquid to keep them hydrated.
  
• Dampened Cotton pads for eyes (My children got the spots all over their eyelids and you unfortunately can't put anything else near their eyes). 

Our children had high temperatures so we gave Calpol. We also gave Nurofen since they had terrible tummy pain and headaches. 

PoxClin helped at first and is so easy to use, and you can use it anytime they are feeling itchy. It's great and easy to use on their scalps. Once the spots had scabbed over the PoxClin seemed to hurt their spots. We even bought good old Calamine Lotion but this didn't help either. Eurax on the other had did. It was recommended by a friend who had been advised by a consultant, so there you go.
 
We used Piriton throughout (pretty much every 4 hours) to alleviate the itching. It did help.

Like most girls it seems, my daughter got spots in her 'bits' and we used Metanium (a nappy rash cream which is excellent). It seemed to sooth her and made us feel we were able to do something to help her discomfort. Baths with Porridge Oats in a sock really helped too especially at 3am!

If you or your partner hasn't had Chickenpox I think my husbands words would now be "Go get the vaccination"! He just kept putting it off and now regrets it. He was in a lot of pain but thankfully I had read that adults can be prescribed Antivirals but they must be taken within 24 (some say 48 hours) which we did. Even though my husband had a really tough 3 or 4 days we believe the Antivirals helped him enormously.

So here's hoping your children only develop a few spots and are hardly affected by them. Please note however that even though it is a very common childhood disease it really isn't a very nice one.

Listen, I am not a doctor and these are just the things that helped us personally cope with Chickenpox. Please read the NHS website for more info since it's really helpful and you will need to be made aware of the symptoms and know what to look for since children and adults can develop serious complication: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Good luck!

Lots of love

Tabby x

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