Chicken pox remedies

Both my 4 year old and my 5 month old had chickenpox this month, here's a summary of the remedies we used as they had it very differently and what worked for Charlie didn't work for Eve.

First off Charlie came out in chicken pox spots at school, when I arrived to collect him they were already all over his chest and back. They continued to appear throughout the afternoon and he got a lot on his face, two inside his bottom lip, in his ears, all over his scalp, on his bottom and tops of his legs. His arms and feet didn't get any. He had a high temperature that first night and was sleepy the day before the spots showed. After the first day, his temperature left and he felt completely his normal self, just spotty.

Then 13 days later baby Eve came out in them too. She just had two at first (belly button and eyebrow), but a few hours later came out in more, all over her chest, back and face. Overnight she developed even more, the poor little girl was absolutely covered, all over her scalp, face, ears, really badly in her bottom and legs. Again none on her hands but a few on her feet, including the soles. She also had a high temperature the first night and then continued to have it for two more days.

After googling and calling out on FaceBook for remedies, we came up with this:

For Charlie (four and a half):

- Oaty baths. Put porridge oats in a sock, tie a knot and place in a warm bath. Squeeze the sock to make the water milky. I used about 3 tablespoons of oats and a football sock was the best. Charlie's socks were too small, the knot was too tight and really hard to undo with the cotton all wet. Football socks are nice and long so can be knotted loosely plus polyester so easy to un-knot when wet. With Charlie we had two long baths a day, he stayed in for about half an hour each time and they definitely soothed the spots. I also added 4 drops of lavender oil to promote healing (I was told to have lavender oil baths by the midwife right after I'd had Eve). NB, we didn't have any plain old oats when C first caught it so I used a pack of strawberry jam microwave oats, it did help soothe him, but he also smelt of strawberries and the water went all slimy,

- Piraton Syrup. This took a while to kick in but once he'd had a few doses he wasn't scratchy at all. (He still occasionally rubbed at the spots but more because they were pushing up his skin (particulalry on his scalp) then because they were itchy.

- Calpol. This helped bring his initial temperature down and made him feel much better.

- PoxClin Mousse. This was expensive (£10.99) but also worked the best, we covered him with it after each bath and whenever he started scratching and it instantly soothed. It also lasted the full 10 days he had the spots.

- Aloe Gelly - I was given this by a friend and it helped cool the spots. Worked best after they had scabbed over and were beginning to fall off.

Charlie stayed at home in quarantine for 7 days, he left school on the Thursday afternoon and was back a little over a week later on the Monday. Apart from the first night and day, he wasn't really bothered by the chickenpox and actually enjoyed being at home with Evie and me all day long! We mixed it up a little for him towards the end with a day spent at Nana and Grandad's house.

For Eve (almost 6 months):

- Oaty baths. As above, I filled the baby bath with warm water, an oaty sock and 1 drop of lavender oil. She had 3 a day as she only stayed in for 5 - 10 mins at a time. It was good to do after a dirty nappy as it made sure her poor sore bottom didn't get any worse or that the spots there didn't get infected.

- Allerief syrup. This was prescribed by the doctor, it's pretty much the same as piriton syrup and although the bottle said it's for 1 year plus, the doctor said she could have it twice a day as she was so absolutely covered in spots and really really itchy.

- Calamine lotion. The poxclin mousse didn't work on Eve, in fact it made it made her spots worse, her skin came up bright red and the spots even more so. We phoned the doctor who prescribed the allerief and the calamine lotion. The lotion definitely helped calm her spots, though because she had them absolutely everywhere she was plastered in the lotion and left a trial of powdered lotion wherever she went (sofa, my blouse, play mat, jumperoo, cot etc.). I also used Sudocrem and Metanium nappy rash cream on her bottom as it was so sore.

- Aqueous calamine cream - the chemist recommended this as it doesn't leave the powder behind. It wasn't quite as effective as the calamine lotion, but good to use on her bottom and the area where the nappy goes.

- Calpol. As with C this helped bring down her temperature.

- Aloe Gelly - this was gentle enough to use on her baby skin.

Eve had it much worse than Charlie, far more spots to skin ratio and her head was absolutely covered, which meant she couldn't sleep as lying on them in any way hurt her, even after having calpol. We got the allerief syrup on day 3 and this worked amazingly well to soothe the pain and it also made her sleepy. She was therefore able to sleep better which was exactly what she needed.