Tips for dealing with chickenpox

CHICKENPOX appears to be rampant so far this year, I read somewhere it’s the worst season for it in many years.

I don’t know what your experience with it lately is, but it appears to be catching a lot of children for a second time. The heresay always seemed to suggest that if you get a bad dose of chickenpox once, you’re immune, but that doesn’t appear to be the case of late.

Obviously, I am not a medical doctor so I can shed no light on why it may be happening, but as a parent it feels like a worrying trend.

Chickenpox is almost like a rite of passage in parenting terms, something that will catch most children at some point in time. There are vaccinations against chickenpox although I have no personal experience with them. They are not part of the early childhood immunisation scheme so you have to pay for them to be administered by your GP.

I did enquire about them a few years ago when the girls were smaller, but then Covid kicked in and by the time I was at a point where I could consider getting them the vaccine, they had caught it anyway!

I have had two experiences with chickenpox. The first time it came into the house my third lady got it and I was pregnant with our fourth girl. She had literally one spot (yes, I can assure you I have been informed many times she could catch it again because she had such a mild dose but, touch wood, so far so good) that I thought was an insect bite until my friend, a nurse, spotted it and was under no illusion as to what it was. Chickenpox during pregnancy can be quite dangerous so your immunity to it is tested when you are pregnant (it was in my experience in CUMH anyway).

What was strange for me was that during my first two pregnancies I was showing that I had immunity to chickenpox, but in my third pregnancy the tests suggested I had no immunity.

I was around 37 weeks pregnant when I came into contact with it so I had to go into hospital and to be put on a drip for a few hours.

The second time chickenpox came into the house, there was no denying what it was. My husband had had shingles in the November time and two or three weeks later the remaining three came down with chickenpox, thankfully all at the same time. Another tale I had been told quite a lot was that the older they get, the worse they get it, but in my experience that didn’t really ring true.

There are a few useful do’s and don’ts when it comes to treating chickenpox. The first, and probably most important one, is not to give ibuprofen or aspirin to those suffering with chickenpox. These medications can result in adverse reactions; ibuprofen causes serious skin reactions and the use of aspirin can result in Reye’s syndrome – a severe disease that affects the liver and brain and can be fatal. Paracetamol is fine to give so work away with Calpol in either liquid or suppository form to alleviate symptoms like discomfort and high temperature.

I gave the girls antihistamines to try and alleviate the itch, it did work to some degree and when their whole body is covered any improvement no matter how minor is great.

Baths are great for relieving the itch too, put some oatmeal (porridge) into the water and this can be nicely soothing and a good distraction.

Try and stick to loose cotton clothing and avoid anything that isn’t breathable like polyester or material that causes an itch in itself like wool.

The general advise nowadays is to not use calamine lotion on spots to dry them out as it can do so too quickly resulting in scaring.

I used a product called PoxClin that is a cool mousse and it really did work, the mousse is light enough that it didn’t cause any discomfort when I was applying it and it gave the girls great relief.

Thankfully none of mine were left with lasting scars but some did take several months to fade away. It was the spots that blistered that caused the most damage and honestly, I don’t think I could have done anything to avoid them scarring at the time.

It hopefully goes without saying that you should heed the warnings with regards to isolating at home until the spots have crusted over, so don’t send your child to school or summer camps.

You cannot travel with chickenpox and some airlines might require a doctors letter to confirm you are out of the contagious stage.

You may think that chickenpox is harmless and for the vast majority it is just a minor hiccup, but it can be very dangerous to those that are pregnant, to their unborn babies and to those whose immunity is compromised.

If you have any concerns, always ask your GP.