About Kids and Chicken Pox

Early December one of my kids started to break out in spots. No doubt it was the chicken pox. 2 weeks later, my other three kids also became spotty. So for more than 3 weeks now, we've been anti-social because we do not want to spread it to other people. We've had to skip a Christmas party and people at church are probably wondering if we've become lost sheep.

Now that I've gone through the ordeal, I thought I'd share what I learned.

1. My first two kids were vaccinated for chicken pox when they were babies. Obviously, it is not 100% protection. So do not assume that once vaccinated, they are immune for life.

2. They say if you get chicken pox and you've been vaccinated before, you won't suffer too badly. That was true for my son D1 but not really for my daughter K. D1 had very little spots but K had a fair amount. My youngest girl, babyK (2 years old) had very few spots and she wasn't vaccinated. Worst hit was D2. He was not vaccinated. This is the picture of his back.

3. Besides fever, the kids will also have a sore throat. It even hurts for them to swallow water. They may complain of some body ache like leg pain. My girl K was very fatigue and felt dizzy most of the time.

4. I put calamine lotion on their body but they didn't like it. They said it didn't help much with the itching either. I boiled barley water and pak-chi-cho (chinese herbal drink) to cool down their body. My girl said after drinking, the itching isn't as bad. Oh, almost forgot to mentioned that the doctor prescribed an antihistamin (Alleryl or Piriton) to help with the itching too.

5. Another idea that helped with the itching was rubbing ice on the itchy spots. I gave my girl an ice cube and wrapped it in a handkerchief. Instead of scratching, she rubbed the ice on the spots.

6. Make sure they drink a lot of water to stay hydrated.

7. The chicken pox has an incubation period of about 2-3 weeks. When D1 was having it, my other 3 kids didn't show any symptoms until 2 weeks later.

Some questions you may have:

• When is the chicken pox contagious?
  I thought it was when the spots start to dry up and flake off. BUT apparently, a person is contagious even 2 days before the spots appear.

• Can you spread the chicken pox virus even though you've already had it before but you are now in contact with your child who has it?
  My friend said yes and that was because she contracted chicken pox from a mom whose baby was having the chicken pox. The idea is that you are carrying the virus even though you are not infected with it. However, some people say no because the antibodies in your body would have destroyed the virus already. I don't know the right answer but I would rather be safe than sorry. I don't want others blaming me for passing the chicken pox around. That's why my family's social life came to a stand still when the chicken pox started.

• Is a chicken pox party a good idea?
  My idea of a chicken pox party is for kids already infected with the pox to get together to have some fun. The original idea of a chicken pox party is for healthy kids to mix around with infected kids so they too can be infected and get the pox over with. Many health experts are not in favor of this. They say you never know when the chicken pox could get complicated. So why purposely expose your child to it. Here's a video on that matter.
  
  
  So yes, please do not do the chicken pox infected lollipops thing okay?

Are your kids vaccinated against the chicken pox?