Two weeks ago Leo was struck down with chicken pox. I say struck down but I think you can tell by that image above that he actually didn’t suffer at all. He got off very lightly.
I thought I’d share with you what happened because I had no idea what to even look for with chicken pox so I’m assuming some of you will be the same.
It was Tuesday morning. The night had been very warm in our house and we’d woken to 21 degrees, bliss. I noticed a small spot on Leo’s face, just below his nose and I assumed it may have been a bit of heat rash. On Wednesday I noticed it was still there and also that he had a little blister under his belly button. I didn’t recall seeing it before so I asked how he did it and he told me he hurt himself on the trampoline. And who am I to question a four year old?
Fast forward a couple of hours and we got to the swimming pool, took his t-shirt off and I noticed a few more of these little blisters. At this point something started to ding in my brain – it was either a bad case of heat rash or the it must’ve been chicken pox. So off we went to the pharmacy to get an opinion. The pharmacist was pretty sure it was the chicken pox and advised us to get some antihistamines to help with the itching whenever it started to happen.
From then on the spots just kept coming, I felt like I could literally see them appearing by the hour.
They were generally pretty small except for a few larger ones around his groin area and hips. They just looked like little blisters and some of them looked like they had tiny black dots in them. By the time bedtime came and he was snoozing I could see that he now had them in his ears too. I’d heard horror stories about kiddies getting them internally as well so kept everything crossed that wasn’t what was happening.
He woke on the Thursday with a few more than he’d gone to bed with but even by then I could see that these little liquid filled blisters had started to dry up. We were applying calamine lotion and giving him antihistamines but he was starting to get a little bit more irritated by them, although I;m not sure if that was down to me praising him for coping so well so he played on it a little or if they genuinely were a bit itchy. I thought I’d better hedge my bets though so I popped off to Boots to get some Cal Pox as it had come so highly recommended by a few other moms. I really preferred it to the calamine lotion. It went on so easily and soaked right in and he wasn’t left with pink splotches that don’t easily wipe off especially when you don’t want to be applying too much pressure to any of the blisters/scabs.
I’m so relived to be able to say that he wasn’t really affected at all – had he not had the visible spots I’d never have known any different. And he was quite pleased to get to spend a week at home with me. Lush.
We returned to nursery the following Thursday to a class full of other chicken pox survivors all with scabby faces. It had halved their class size for a week!
I thought Tayo had picked it up as he was showing symptoms but nothing yet so we will see how that one plays out.
Have your littles had it? How did they fair and what remedies did you use to help ease the itching and groggyness that can come with it?
I have attached a handy little pin that displays the symptoms and explains the incubation periods and whatnot that will hopefully come in handy if you are yet to experience the chicken pox. And always remember if you are unsure about anything call your GP or 111.
{Pin The Guide}
Aww Leo. Glad it wasn’t too severe. It does the rounds doesn’t it. There seems to be an outbreak at the moment. My little boy got chicken pox at 8 months. There’s not too much you can give babies, but I did give him an oat bath, by just putting porridge oats in a muslin and then leaving to soak in the bath. It made it really nice and silky which I think helped him not itch. He was super tired and had mammoth naps, I also popped calamine on him – this took a while to ensure all spots covered, I think it was quite severe as he was absolutely covered. The scars are fading each week now and he’s nearly 10 months old. I also did read, afterwards, that someone suggested putting calamine in a spray bottle and applying as it helps coverage. Not sure how that would work in reality but sounded like a good idea to help coverage. So horrible seeing them covered, especially as a tiny baby and my first thing I had to deal with that was out of our control! First of many I know! Xxxx
Amy I forgot to say about the oat bath! Leo seemed to really enjoy them.
Great tip about the calamine in a spray bottle… it seems to Sian into the cotton wool really fast.
Oat baths all the way !!!
Also as soon as I saw a spot come up I would dab it with coconut oil on a cotton bud and would reapply every hour or so. It was slightly tedious however the spots I managed to catch straight away didn’t blister or scab, just sort of … disappeared ! Therefore itching was at a minimum – just that first phase I didn’t catch straight away and lessened chance of scarring. I was unsure if doing the right thing but she recovered super quick and no scars !
Emily that’s so interesting! Coconut oil is amazing isn’t it?!
That’s so good to know Emily! Storing that one away for inevitable future knowledge x
We had it back in march. He just had one spot in the afternoon and by bath time it was all over. We got away with it pretty lightly too but he did have a lot of spots. We had virasoothe to put on, it’s like a cooling gel formula so would have felt quite soothing too.
I couldn’t believe how quickly they spread! Thanks for the product recommendation! A gel sounds like it would be super cooling 🙂
Glad to hear he didn’t suffer too much with them- he’s absolutely beautiful!!! My oldest two have had them and again didn’t get them badly thankfully. Someone recommended lavender oil in the bath which seemed to help. The other thing I heard was using head and shoulders dandruff shampoo to wash them with- I suppose that makes sense as dandruff is basically dry, itchy skin like the pox spots.
I’m glad he didn’t suffer too badly! I have to admit I find it very odd that children here arent vaccinated against chicken pox. Most people seem to think it’s harmless and something they just have to get through. Which is certainly not true for everyone.
Poor Leo and you! Felix got it last December (he was 15months old 🙁).
It happens so quickly. I noticed one spot on his shoulder at bath time. Thought nothing of it . Woke up the next day (Sunday) to a spotty baby! It got bad really quick. By Sunday evening he was covered all over his body.
On the Monday my husband took him to the doctors to confirm it was chicken pox and also because Felix get quite bad eczema. His little legs were red raw. Apparently the doctor visibly recoiled and winced at his legs. Turns out he had it bad and chicken pox aggravates the eczema (joy!).
He got them in his mouth too from ducking his thumb. That was a fun night , baby in pain/discomfort but unable to suck his thumb because it hurt!
He was just so clingy and ended up sleeping in with us for a few nights.
We used aveeno bath oil (which we had for his eczema), virasoothe and the emollient prescribed for his eczema. Oh and piriton which the doctor prescribed us!
As awful as it was he’d recovered within a week and back in nursery for his Christmas Party.
Fortunately all of felixs were all over his body and not on his face.
I think as they heal and dry out they’re more irritated by it. Felix had crispy skin as the blisters healed!
You have the cutest babies… Even with the pox. Zach had this as a baby and we did the oat bath worked a treat. He did get some really deep ones though… I’m sure I gave him ibuprofen before all the stuff on the news about not using it so he does have a few scars on his tummy and on his face which I think will fade in time. Apparently we don’t have a vaccination because if you vaccinate children you loose the natural boosting for immunity against shingles as an adult which is much much worse
We haven’t had the chicken pox yet but I’m dreading it…J (19 months) had hand, foot and mouth a month or so ago and it was honestly the most ill I’ve ever seen him. He had blisters all over his hands and feet but really terrible ones in his mouth, particularly under his tongue. He couldn’t actually close his mouth because it obviously hurt him so much, he walked around with his poor wee tongue hanging out and dribbling down his front. There were times in the night when he just cried and cried and I couldn’t do anything to make it better – he’d had the max amount of medicine I could give him – felt so helpless. I was telling my colleague whose girls both had hand foot and mouth but she said chickenpox was much worse! So now I’m really afraid because they are a similar kind of thing :/ Just hoping when the time comes that he gets off lightly. Leo is a gorgeous wee boy and I’m glad he’s feeling better now!
Oh Emma how heartbreaking! You poor little boy. Fingers crossed for you if he does pick up the chicken pox that it’s just a mild case. Leo had lots and lots of spots but they just weren’t that irritating. Feeling very lucky!
My two eldest caught it within a day of each other, but Fred who caught it from Hen was much worse (apparently if they catch from each other each case gets worse) and they were 8 & 9 before they got! Hen was a bit like Leo in that he got lots of spots/blisters really quickly and then spent a week waiting for them to dry, but wasnt ill as such. Whereas Fred was covered within hours, then spent the following 2 weeks still getting blisters, to the point where we had to send him back to school no matter what as he had missed too much. He had them everywhere you could think of including his fingertips, under his foreskin and inside his mouth. But again we count ourselves lucky as he wasn’t ‘ill’ either. We’re still not sure if our littlest Samuel caught from them and didn’t have any symptoms as he was very little, but he’s been exposed twice since and never caught so guess we just wait and see…
Ohhhh I’m dreading this!!! So glad he didn’t suffer too much and he did so well to get to 4 and not have it. I just know it’s coming after Silvia starts preschool in September.
Also can I just say your Instastories are banging. Late to the party but yeah loving it!
My daughter had it in March and was covered in spots particularly her head and bottom where she really suffered with the itching. However there seems to be difficulty diagnosing it at times because we were told by our GP that she had it last September the day before we moved house so that meant we had her with us during the whole of the house move as she couldn’t go to nursery (packing up a house is stressful with a two year old in tow!). But the rash she had faded a day later and never blistered or scabbed so when she got spots again in March it was so clear these were text book chicken pox and she clearly hadn’t had it in September at all. I also looked after my goddaughter yesterday who had about 4 spots and her parents thought it was chicken pox but it looked nothing like my daughter’s, so anyone got any tips for a fool proof diagnosis?!
We had our son vaccinated against chicken pox a couple of years ago. The NHS have chosen not to offer the vaccine however it is routine in many big countries (US, Australia etc) globally. It was two doses a few weeks apart and so far so good – several mass outbreaks at nursery and all fine. It cost us around £150 total for the two doses however we thought it was less than a week off work and a potentially quite poorly little one.