Coping with kids and chicken pox

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

I love the school holidays. One of the biggest problems with school is how quickly my children pick up any bug which is going around. School attendance is marked on their end of term reports and I wasn’t really surprised to see how many days they had both off – never at the same time of course!

They both caught chicken pox this year. I actually thought they had both had it a few years ago so when I heard that chicken pox was going round I wasn’t too worried. Unfortunately over Christmas I noticed my daughter had a rash and it quickly became apparent that she had developed chicken pox. Luckily it was a few days after Christmas so it didn’t stop her enjoying any of the celebrations. She coped quite well with it and got through with Calpol and a few quiet days at home.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

My husband and I had chicken pox as children but I began to doubt that my son had caught it when he was little. Sure enough, within a few days we caught him itching some spots which soon appeared all over his body. He’s a sensitive little fella and needed a lot more help than his little sister. By now, she was happily back at school for the new year, whilst he was at home with me.

I popped into my local pharmacy for advice and they were great as usual. They recommended the product Care ViraSoothe, which is available from Boots, which we found really helpful. My son was absolutely covered with spots and blisters which he found so itchy. We really didn’t want him to itch too much as this spreads the infection and can lead to scarring. Thankfully Care ViraSoothe is a cooling gel which helped ease the itching and took his mind off being ill.

I’m really glad that you normally only get chicken pox once. My children are normally so happy and healthy so I hate it when they are ill. The only bit of light relief was counting all the chicken pox spots. My parents gave me and my sister a penny for every spot we had, and this was something my children were quite happy to continue too!

Just in case you haven’t experienced chickenpox yet you may find this video with Dr Sarah Jarvis helpful:

Care ViraSoothe is available from all good pharmacies including Boots.

I would love to hear if you have experienced chicken pox and if you have any handy tips for helping your children through it.

Disclosure – this is  collaborative post.