Chickenpox advice

Chickenpox advice 

Chicken pox is a viral infection that is highly contagious. It manifests as an itch rash of blisters or spots that emerge all over the body accompanied by flu like symptoms. There is usually no need for treatment and symptoms disappear over a fortnight or so, but since it can easily pass on to other children in the family or at school, it is a good idea to keep your infected child away school and your other kids.

Here are some remedies to help keep your child comfortable in the sick bed and to prevent the infection passing to other members of the family.

• Keep your child cool : Dress your child in natural loose fitting fabrics. Bathe the child's skin with a cool cloth.
  
  
  Leave a wet handkerchief on her forehead until the handkerchief gets warm. Wet it again and repeat this process until the temperature comes down.
• Relieve the itching: He/She can sit in a bath made up of colloidal oatmeal. Colloidal oatmeal is oatmeal that has been finely ground. But let the child not stand in the bath as there is some danger of slipping and falling. A similar bath can be made out of baking soda. Mix about half a cup of baking soda into the bath.
• For itchy spots: For particularly itchy or inflamed spots, apply a cold compress with a cloth dipped in cool water. Cool but not ice cold. Use a smooth cloth however as anything rough may hurt him/her.
• Curtail scratching: Try and counsel your child to not scratch even when the urge to do so is very strong. Scratching will only make the area itch more. You can also trim his/her fingernails short to prevent bacterial infections and scarring.
• The good thing about chicken pox is that once you have had an attack you don't usually suffer from it again. And adult attacks of chicken pox may be more virulent so it may be best to get it over with in childhood. There are vaccinations for chicken pox which you can give to your family to prevent them from developing chicken pox in the future.