chicken pox

[cary]

bad case of chicken pox in our village at the moment, my daughter is unfortunate to have picked it up from school, along with a dozen of her friends!!  Went to the chemist to get some lotion for the spots and she insisted i needed to see the doctor, when i asked why she told me that she can not give me anything at all without a prescription.  Checked with the mums at school who told me to go and buy some eosine from ecomarche and that the chemist was wrong as the doctor, as most of us know, can't do anything for chicken pox.  Put the eosine on the spots which is like a bright pink food colouring type liquid that not only stains the skin but anything that comes into contact with it!  So unfortunatly i am having some piriton and calomine bought back from the uk this week.  There are some things we just cannot do without, especially when your local chemist doesn't want to help!!

[Val_2]

One of the best remedies for soothing the chicken pox is to keep the child in a lukewarm bath for as long and as much as possible. It stops the scratching and also heals and you can still apply lotions when dry. This worked really well when my two were very little and covered in spots and it also prevented any scarring too.

[Ron Avery]

Perhaps the chemist was right and you should consult your Doctor.  Chicken pox is no joke and can have nasty side effects at any age, so why not take your child to the Doctor and have her checked over, you never know the Doctor may have a treatment that is better than calomine lotion and could prevent fiurther problems in her later life.

[Iceni]

Why would you you give Piriton - an antihistamine - to a child with an infection. Do you know better than the doctor? Piriton can have side effects even when used for an allergy and the UK habit of prescribing it for children to 'knock them out' to give the parents a good nights sleep is not in anyones best interest. I react badly to it which is why I am posting this - and this happened suddenly after using it for years with no side effects.

For goodness sake, take your child to the doctor - you can get scarring and other complications from these childhood illnesses.

[Chrissie]

Would suggest also that people are careful using calomine lotion - my mother and the school used to daub me liberally with it for rashes/chicken pox etc and I found it excrutiating - made the itching much worse!

Chrissie (81)

[Mistral]

When each of my kids had chicken pox, the doctor just prescribed an antiseptic lotion in case the spots got infected (he didn't look all that enthusiastic about it but he said it was the recent guidelines from the ministry) He said to use paracetemol if they had a fever, but that was it. I used some homeopathic remedies which I believe helped too.

I remember seeing one friend's daughter who had chicken pox and then, to add to the indignity, had a red eosine splotch on every single spot. For years I believed that French red ink pens had terrible leak problems because I kept seeing pupils (and teachers!) with red all over them. I still don't understand why people keep using red eosine. I've been told that it's so you can see where you've put it. But I don't generally have trouble with that with something transparent.   Clear eosine hs been available for years but no-one seems to want to use it.

[Teamedup]

I thought that eosine was not 'bad', where as the red that everyone I know used to use, not sure if it still is on the market is mercurochrome, which we believe to have mercury in it and therefore were not going to use it on our kids.

[chateaud<P>chateaud<P><P> <P>]

When I was a nanny and one of the kids had chicken pox, we went to the doctor and we come back with a prescription a mile long.  Including the need for Zovirax (the stuff for cold sores).  I just used calamine lotion and calpol.

I have just had 3 bottle of the stuff sent over from the UK incase my son picks it up as it is going around here too.

[Russethouse]

Luckily neither of my children were unwell with chicken pox and they both had it this time of year, so played out in the UK sunshine a lot of the time (it wasn't particularly hot)The spots seemed to heal fairly quickly with minimal trouble. Perhaps the Vit D was a help ?

Di - when I was a nanny we used to use Phenergan as knock out drops - recommended by the doctor for the purpose !!

[Teamedup]

My children weren't unwell either with chicken pox................... their dad was

[cary]

Iceni:   No i am well aware thanks that i am not a doctor!!!  But i have had 2 other children go through chicken pox so am not an amateur either.  Piriton syrup can be used to calm itchy rashes associated with some childhood diseases such as chicken pox as clearly stated on the bottle and i am not in the habit of dosing my children up with medicine just to give myself a peaceful nights sleep!  After speaking to the mums at school they also thought the pharmacist was being unreasonable in not giving me something for the soothness of the spots as there are several things she could have sold me.  Anyway after a few baths with bicarbonate soda in it the spots have almost dried up and she is recovering very quickly.  And i didn't just throw bicarb in the bath for a bit of peace it came from a trusting reliable source and has worked wonders. 

[opas]

Chicken pox! both our children got them , in different years ,the eldest the day before we left for a holiday in france....my boss was convinced I had phoned in sick so I could do my ironing untill she saw the holiday snaps.  luckily for us we were traveling at a quiet time and the hovercraft was practically empty.  The other one must have been in contact with someone before we left UK for our holls (again in france) as she came out in spots within days of arrival.

I followed my mums advice of sponging them down with bicarb.....and their spots cleared up pretty smartish, I also thought this was helped by the sun.

Mrs O

[Lola56<P>**************<P><P>Lola (56)<P>]

I've had two childrens medicines prescribed over here by my doctor when my daughter was ill.  Doliprane is the alternative to Calpol & Advil is the same as liquid nurofen.

The dosage is done by the childs weight not age & they are both excellent.  I had ran out of childrens nurofen medicine so was glad to find these.  They're available without prescription too.

[Teamedup]

I have no idea what nurofen is,  but I know that doliprane is paracetamol and that is all doliprane is.

[Tourangelle]

[quote]I have no idea what nurofen is, but I know that doliprane is paracetamol and that is all doliprane is.[/quote]

But all Calpol is is paracetamol too! It is adapted so that parents can dose it easily and there are other things in it to make it taste good. It is practical to have it in liquid form, it is adapted for the under-sixes and the over sixes but the active ingrediant is paracetomol.

Nurofen is a commercial name for ibuprofen.

[Teamedup]

I read the thread really strangely and thought that both were nurofen. Yes I have heard of ibuprofen, but I have no idea as to what it is exactly in comparison to paracetamol or aspirin.

Calpol, LOL doesn't matter about the taste in France, usually for our tots the toubibs give suppos.

[Jo53]

I find Doliprane is a bit of a faff in comparison to Calpol, and unlike Calpol it contains sugar. We always bring Calpol back from the UK if we've run out. We also bring back Lemsip, or some other hot lemon drink - totally indispensible when you're feeling coldy or fluey, but can't get it here. And E45 cream.

The doctor can't do anything for chicken pox, except possibly give 5 unnecessary prescriptions like they do for most things. Yes, there can (very rarely) be complications (they're more common in adults), but the doctor can neither predict them or stop them happening, so it is pointless to go unless the child becomes very unwell. Anyway, chickenpox is very dangerous to pregnant women and going to the surgery with chickenpox could quite easily expose a mother-to-be or someone else vulnerable. Best to keep out of circulation.

Jo

[Jo53]

To qualify what I said above - you do need to be sure it's chickenpox before deciding not to go to the doctor. Spots/rash could be something worse, so if child seemed quite unwell I would certainly get them checked out.

Jo

[cary]

totally agree with you Jo.  Been to the doctor in a hugh panic 8 years ago with my 1st child only to be told, nothing we can do.  Pointless going really and as you also mentioned to be given a prescription for antibiotics for a very common childhood illness is surely worse than calpol and piriton!! Have use Advil here which the kids don't seem to mind and none of these medicines have actually ever knocked the children out or made them drowsy!!  Anyway she's almost better now it just looks horrible now all the spots are dried up.  Definately having no more children so she is the last to have it, over and done with now, as we said before its much better to have it as a child because it usually is pretty nasty to have as an adult.

[Clarkkent]

All you ever wanted to know about chicken pox:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/chicken_pox.html

Something for consideration - it's the pointless prescribing of antibiotics for viral illnesses such as chickenpox which is the real cause of conditions like MRSA.

NB Paracetamol is known as acetaminophen in USA.

[Ejc]

Chickenpox is a herpes virus - and for most children is unpleasant but not serious - if your child is imunocompromised in some way then there are antivirals like Zovirax or Valacicilovir available that in the early stages of the disease when the spots are still appearing will shorten the infection. However for the most part - treating the symptoms and encouraging them not to scratch (if possible) is best. Paracetamol or similar to bring down any temperature and bathing as previously suggested are good. The symptoms are far more unpleasant when it's hot. Chickenpox is more serious in adults -so they may well be prescribed anti-viral treatment, but this only works if given early as it works by stopping the virus from replicating.

Shingles is a re-activation of the chickenpox virus in someone who has previously had the disease - you can't catch shingles from someone with chickenpox - but some who has not had chickenpox can catch it off someone with shingles if they come into contact. Shingles is the disease that is more usually treated with antivirals as it can be VERY painful and depending on where the shingles rash is seriously damaging to sight and can go onto to cause long term pain problems due to nerve damage.

 

 

[cary]

had a friend with shingles and she was incredibly ill. Piriton is not a prescribed medicine and can be bought over the counter in a chemist in the uk, just to stop the itching a little.  It has been very hot which didn't help the spots being that she wss sweating so much which is why i used a little calomine on the worse spots.  The eosine i bought on the shelf in the supermarket was illuminous pink and she hated looking at herself with bright pink splodges everywhere so i stopped using it.  And as for going to the doctor because of complications and scarring, there is nothing you can do to stop a child itching the spots apart from telling them all the time not to scratch and explaining it will scar if they do, can a doctor do any better by looking at them? Once they have it there is nothing you can do to take the spots away apart from seeing it through, and thank goodness she is through and can now go on her school picnic the last day of term!!