Chicken pox and the kids

Two weeks ago my 6-year old daughter developed Chicken pox or Varicella Zoster. She was fine the day before, I took her shopping and noticed a few pimply spots on her nose. The next day she woke up with spots all over...circular red spots or known medically as 'maculo-papular'.

I recognised instantly that it has to be chicken pox but with no pre-spot symptoms or what we doctors call 'prodromal symptoms' such as fever, headache, lethargy, nausea or vomiting...I was still in denial. I took her to the GP and she confirmed it was chicken pox.

She gave her some liquid Aciclovir and also, a cream to put on her spots. The dose of oral Aciclovir is five times a day so, you have to give it to the child every 4-5 hours. There are lots of debate about the efficacy of Aciclovir. Most say that it only works if given early at least within 72 hours of contracting Chicken pox.

Chicken pox starts with a kind of small pimply rash, red in colour which turns into a larger red raised rash all over the body. It also becomes blisters.

I found out that she picked it up at nursery from one of the other children. The best time to get chicken pox is actually during pre-school age. The symptoms are mild although the spots look horrendous but their young rejuvenated skin will soon heal without much scarring inshaAllah provided they do not scratch.

The most infectious period is actually 2-3 days prior to the rash appearing and also during the period of blistering. Once the rash is totally crusted over and is dry, it is no longer infectious. So, the infectious period from appearance of first rash is usually around 10 days.

After 4-5 days the blisters start to crust over and looks sort of blackish. During this period, there is a mixture of rashes, blisters, red spots and those crusted over...

The rash is very itchy so, doctors usually recommend parents to put on some calamine lotion to soothe the child. It is best to dab the child with the lotion rather than to rub it on. Calamine doesn't really help to heal the rash but it does keep the skin cool. The child may also benefit from some anti-histamine medication such as Piriton (not recommended in children under 1 years old) for its anti-pruritic (anti-itching) properties. It is also slightly sedative and will help the child to sleep.

I was fortunate that I had chicken pox when I was younger because the older you are the worse symptoms you get. As I said, my daughter was laughing, jumping, smiling, playing, screaming happily all throughout the chicken pox period. You wouldn't imagine that she was ill at all...

Chicken pox is one of those illness that gives you life long immunity. Once you get it, you should not get it again. Some people claim that they develop chicken pox a second time, that could either be due to previous misdiagnosis. It is easy to misdiagnose chicken pox as there are so many other types of viruses that can give you post-fever rash (known simply as viral rash) or if it is true that one has chicken pox twice, that person is just truly UNLUCKY...what can I say? They are one of the unlucky ones out of thousands and millions who only get it once.

Oh! the other thing is...people do get mixed up between Chicken pox and Shingles. Chicken pox is when you get it the first time after being exposed to another person with CP. Shingles is when your old Chicken pox gets reactivated usually in a particular localised area without you being exposed to anyone else with Chicken pox. 

Anyway, just two days before Eid-ul Fitri, all my other kids developed those same red spots and blisters. The incubation period meaning the time from which you are exposed to someone with chicken pox and you developing symptoms is somewhere between 10-14 days. So, another misconception is that people believe if you are exposed to someone with CP today, tomorrow you will develop the spots!Duh!!!

As expected my eldest had the worst symptoms, fever, joint ache, headache and just feeling totally crappy! This time I was ready though, I have kept a supply of Aciclovir and as soon as we saw the spots, I gave her the medication. My youngest is covered with spots but he's laughing, playing, jumping around as usual. So, my advice to parents is...if possible get your kids to have chicken pox when they are preschoolers somewhere between 4-7 years old. You would be doing them a favour. That is why in some cultures, they have chicken pox parties just to get it out of the way.

On top of that, you can't run away from chicken pox. If you missed it as a child, you are most likely to develop it as an adult especially when you have kids of your own...they go to nursery and pick it up from somewhere, you too will pick it up from them.

Once healed the Chickn pox will be dried and totally crusted over...it is very important NOT to pick on the crust and allow the crust to shed itself. This is to avoid any scarring. Once, the crush is shed, new skin has been formed underneath and the rash will heal nicely inshaAllah.

As for me, we manage to spend a day of Eid-ul Fitri with family and I am glad that now they have all had chicken pox. There is blessing in everything and we just have to be grateful, have Tawakkal that everything happens for the best. Alhamdulillah