Chicken Pox

Chicken pox usually affects children from the ages of three to four years old and is highly contagious.

In the majority of cases, the older the child, the more severe the attack will be. It usually starts with a low-grade fever, mild headache, and an overall feeling of weakness.

A rash will appear on the skin on the first day of the illness. It looks like tiny red spots and is mostly on the upper back or chest.

In more severe cases, the rash may also be on the face and lower extremities. The papules blister and turn into pustules and form scabs, which fall off.

The pustules come in successive crops, meaning that while some are drying others are beginning to form. After a few days, the skin clears and the child feels like his old self again.

The illness usually last from fourteen to seventeen days, but it can last from ten to twenty-one days.

Some researchers think that chicken pox is closely related to shingles or the herpes zoster virus that affects adults.

However, the basic cause as with most cases of fevers in childhood is an incorrect diet that results in a diminished immune system, preventing the child’s body from fighting off illnesses such as chicken pox and other childhood diseases.

Home Remedies for Chicken Pox:

Brown Vinegar

Add half a cup of brown vinegar to warm bath water to relieve the irritation of the skin.

Oatmeal

An oatmeal bath is a natural remedy to relieve the itch of chicken pox.

To prepare, cook two cups of oatmeal in two liters of water for fifteen minutes. Put the mixture into a cloth bag, preferably cotton, and tie a string securely around the top.

Allow the bag to float in a tub of warm water, swishing it around until the water becomes cloudy. The child should make sure the water goes all over the marks while the pouch of oatmeal is in the tub.

Tylenol

If fever and itching is making your child extremely uncomfortable, give him Children’s Tylenol, but under no circumstances should you give a child with chicken pox aspirin.

If the fever is not making your child uncomfortable, allow it to run its course, as fever is part of the body’s disease fighting mechanisms.

Baking Soda

Stir half a cup of baking soda into a shallow bath or a full cup into a deep bath, and using a washcloth, spread the bath water over all of the affected areas of the child’s skin.

Itching

To control the itch you can give the child an oral antihistamine like Benadryl Elixir. You can also dry calamine lotion with phenol and dab it on particularly itchy spots.

Do not use more than three or four times a day. Avoid hydrocortisone creams and ointments as these will inhibit the child’s immune system from fighting the virus and may allow it to spread even further.