Health: Chikenpox ► General Recommendations & Prevention (con) #6

General Recommendations

• Give your child homeopathic Rhus toxicodendron daily until symptoms lessen.

• To support your child's immune system and soothe mucous membranes, give him an echinacea and goldenseal combination formula.

• Apply homeopathic Grindelia or Calendula tincture or gel to your child's lesions to relieve itching.

• Children over the age of three can usually understand why scratching should be avoided. Explain to your child that scratching or picking at scabs can cause an infection, and that rubbing open a blister or pulling off a scab before the new skin has formed underneath will leave a scar, a pockmark. Keep your child's fingernails short to prevent breaking of the skin if he does begin to scratch.

• If your child is under three, it may be difficult to convince him to leave the pocks alone. Take any and all measures to relieve the itching. The more your child scratches, the greater the danger of infection and scarring. Be diligent and creative.

• Keep your child clean, quiet, and cool. A soak in bath water treated with chamomile, calendula, or grindelia will soothe and relax your child. These herbs help relieve itching, too.

• Oatmeal baths are very soothing to dry and itching skin. Tie a handful of raw oatmeal in a washcloth and swish it around in your child's bath water. You may gently rub the washcloth full of oatmeal over the itchy places as well, but be very careful not to break the blisters.

• Use Burow's solution soaks to dry open or draining sores.

• Occasionally, a few extra-thick scabs refuse to drop off, and skin begins to form around them. Don't try to lift these stubborn scabs off, or your child will be left with pockmarks. If you notice some tenacious scabs that seem to be clinging on too long, encourage them to separate from the skin with a soak in one of the hot treated baths suggested above.

• If your child is left with a tiny scar after his chickenpox is fully healed, apply vitamin E oil to the scar. Break open a vitamin-E capsule and rub the oil into the pockmark in the morning and at night until it clears. Rubbing castor oil into the scar will also help.

• Once the chickenpox has cleared, protect your child's skin from the sun. The areas where pocks have healed are now tender, new skin that will burn and scar easily. Apply a good sun block or high-SPF sunscreen when your child goes outside.

Prevention

• Keep children who have chickenpox separated from each other. This can mean a milder case for the second child who comes down with the disease.

• It is not now possible to immunize your child against chickenpox. A vaccine is currently under research, and may become available in the future.