What to Do When Your Child Gets Chicken Pox

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I know what it’s like, you wake up one morning and they’re covered from head to toe. I woke up one morning to find three of them covered in them. All under five and one was newborn. Imagine my panic! Hopefully this article will prevent you from feeling the way I did!

Here is a step by step guide for what you need to do:

a.)    First you need to make the child/ren comfortable on the sofa/in bed and get them a drink or whatever will make them feel better. If you have a no junk food rule in your home it may be worthwhile scrapping it until he/she gets better because chicken pox really are rotten things to have and if they have them in their mouth you should feel lucky tat they’re even eating.

b.)    Call the doctor, if at all possible have him do a home visit so that you can confirm the child has chicken pox and nothing more serious.

c.)    Stock up on Calamine lotion, you’ll be grateful you did when it gets to 4am and your child has been up all night screaming. You may also want to invest in some form of infant suspension/paracetamol. Whether or not you believe in giving pain killers to your child I would do so especially if they are over the age of three. The older the child the worse the outbreak. My daughter was five and you could not see any of her skin that wasn’t covered in blisters. She still has scarring now they were so bad, she screamed constantly for days.

d.)   Monitor their temperature and if it gets too high call the doctor out again. You can use paracetamol to keep the temperature down and ibuprofen to reduce any inflammation and/or swelling.

e.)    Try and keep your child from scratching them because they will only get worse, infected and may scar. Ideally you should put mittens on your child at night so that he/she cannot scratch the head off in their sleep.

f.)     Put them in a bath if it becomes unbearable. The water will take their mind off the pain for a while but it is worth noting that the best way to combat chicken pox is to keep them dry so that they heal quicker. If you must bathe your child do it quickly and dry them off as frequently as possible.

g.)    If your child has chicken pox in/around the genitalia ensure that you keep the area as clean and dry as possible. Keep an eye out for their toilet habits and if you think they are holding it on purpose to avoid the sting you may want to try and persuade them to go more frequently. This is simply because holding the urine for long periods of time can cause kidney/bladder infections.

h.)    Use cold compresses to reduce swelling and take their mind off the pain. Again make sure that the compresses are dry because you don’t want to irritate the problem further.

i.)      I’m a firm believer that TLC goes a long way when you have a sick/poorly child. Make sure you’re there as Mum or Dad to give them a big hug when they need it. Chicken pox are very painful for children so you need to be there every step of the way.

j.)      Try not to break down in front of your child. It will upset you to see them this way but most children get them and it is better that they have them as a child, rather than as an adult where severe cases can often be fatal. Remember that it won’t be too long until they’re back on their feet again and stick with it.

k.)    Remember to keep your child indoors until the incubation period is over. Chicken pox are highly contagious and as such you need to prevent people from catching them as best as you can. That means no school until they have all scabbed over. You may want to keep them at home for longer because even though they scab over they’re still very sore for a while after that.