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.

Health: Chikenpox ► Homeopathy (con) #5

Homeopathy

• Homeopathic Calendula, in tincture, oil, or gel form, helps to relieve itching and promote healing. Apply the preparation topically in the morning, in the afternoon, and at bedtime.

• Grindelia tincture, applied topically to the pocks, helps to relieve itching. Apply the undiluted mother tincture in the morning, in the afternoon, and again before bedtime.

• To fight the intense itching of chickenpox, give your child one dose of Rhus toxicodendron 30x or 9c, three times daily, for forty-eight hours or until symptoms improve. If there is no improvement in forty-eight hours, try a different remedy.

• Sulphur 30x or 9c is often useful for very red and very itchy pocks. Give your child one dose, three times a day, for up to three days.

Acupressure

• For the locations of acupressure points on a child's body, see Administering an Acupressure Treatment

• Four Gates helps to relax a restless, uncomfortable child.

• Large Intestine 11 helps relieve itching of the skin.

• Spleen 10 is a specific for taking "heat" out of the blood.

• Stomach 36 is useful for improving appetite.

Health: Chikenpox ► Herbal Treatment (con) #4

Herbal Treatment

For age-appropriate dosages of nutritional supplements, see Dosage Guidelines for Herbs and Nutritional Supplements.

Burdock root is high in many valuable trace minerals, and helps to detoxify the body and heal skin lesions. Give your child one dose, twice daily, until he recovers.

Echinacea and goldenseal help to clear infection, support the immune system, and soothe the skin and mucous membranes. Echinacea is a powerful antiviral. Give your child one dose of an echinacea and goldenseal combination formula, three times a day, for up to ten days or until he recovers.

Note: Echinacea should not be given on a daily basis for more than ten days at a time, or it may lose its effectiveness.

If your child is feeling very restless, give him a cup of chamomile tea, twice a day, as needed.

Red clover, like burdock root, contains many trace minerals. It helps to detoxify the body and aids in healing skin lesions. Give your child one dose, twice daily, until he feels better.

Health: Chikenpox ► Nutritional Supplements (con) #3

Nutritional Supplements

For age-appropriate dosages of nutritional supplements, see Dosage Guidelines for Herbs and Nutritional Supplements.

• Vitamin A aids in healing skin tissue. Give your child one dose of vitamin A or its precursor, beta-carotene, once a day, for ten days.

• Vitamin C and bioflavonoids help to stimulate the immune system and resolve a fever in the initial stages of the illness. The first week, give your child one dose of vitamin C in mineral ascorbate form, and an equal amount of bioflavonoids, three to four times a day. The following week, give him the same dosage, but two to three times a day. During the third week, give the same dosage, twice a day. Then continue to give one dose, once a week, for three weeks.

• Try giving your child one dose of zinc, twice a day, in tablet or lozenge form, for two weeks. Zinc promotes healing and stimulates the immune system. Note: Excessive amounts of zinc can result in nausea and vomiting. Be careful not to exceed the recommended dosage.

• If your child is restless and having difficulty sleeping, try giving him one dose of a calcium and magnesium supplement, twice during the day and once again at bedtime, for one week. Choose a formula that contains 250 milligrams of calcium to 125 milligrams of magnesium. Note: In excessive amounts, magnesium acts as a laxative. If your child develops diarrhea, decrease the dosage.

Health: Chikenpox ► Conventional Treatment (con) #2

Conventional Treatment

Acetaminophen (in Tylenol, Tempra, and other medications) is helpful in relieving pain and bringing down fever.

Note: In excessive amounts, this drug can cause liver damage. Read package directions carefully so as not to exceed the proper dosage for your child's age and size.

• Do not give your child any product that contains aspirin. A child or teenager who has the symptoms of any viral disease, including chickenpox, should never be given aspirin, because the combination of aspirin and viral disease has been linked to the development of Reye's syndrome, a dangerous complication.
• The antihistamine diphenhydramine (found in Benadryl) or chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) can help relieve the awful itching a child with chickenpox experiences. Benadryl is available in pill form as well as in a spray. The pill form is generally more effective at relieving the itching of chickenpox. An antihistamine can also help an uncomfortable child to fall asleep.

• Viscous Xylocaine is a local anesthetic that can be used as a mouth rinse to decrease pain and itching in the mouth. This rinse numbs mucous membranes, making it more comfortable for a child with mouth sores to eat, drink, or brush his teeth. This is a prescription drug, and it must be used in small quantities because of its potential toxicity.

• Burow's solution is a powder available over the counter at most drug stores. Mixed with water and applied as a soak, it is very effective at drying up weeping sores.

• Calamine lotion can help to relieve itching and dry weeping sores.

• Acyclovir (Zovirax) is a drug that has some effectiveness against the chickenpox virus. However, it is very expensive and shortens the course of the illness by only a few days. It is therefore used primarily in severe cases that occur in children with disorders that impair immune system function, such as leukemia.

Dietary Guidelines

• Offer plenty of fluids so that your child stays well hydrated.

• Prepare a simple, clean, whole-foods diet. Include easily digested foods high in vitamins and minerals, such as soups, well-cooked whole grains, and vegetables.

• If your child has lost his appetite and is not eating well, try tempting him with diluted fruit juices, herbal teas, and soups. Frozen fruit-juice popsicles are usually well received.

When to Call the Doctor about Chickenpox

• If your child develops vaginal or rectal lesions, or bad sores in his mouth, call your physician.

• If your child develops a fever consistently over 102°F, an earache, a very painful sore throat, a persistent cough, and/or increased difficulty breathing, seek your doctor's advice. It is possible for a child with chickenpox to develop such complications as an ear infection, strep throat, or pneumonia. If your child seems to be developing any of these conditions, seek medical attention.

Health: Chikenpox ► Symtoms of Chickenpox(con) #1

Symptoms of Chickenpox

The first signs that a child is coming down with chickenpox usually include some combination of the following:

• Moderate fever.
• Headache.
• Fatigue.
• Itchiness.
• Sore throat.

A day or two after these first symptoms appear, a child with chickenpox will develop the tell-tale rash, usually characterized by the following:

• It starts out flat and reddish, centered on the trunk of the body.
• A day or so after it first appears, it spreads to the extremities, neck, and face, and turns from red splotches into masses of tiny pimples.
• It is intensely itchy.

Health: Chikenpox

(Excerpted from Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, Avery Publishing Group, 1994)

Chickenpox is a highly contagious childhood disease that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, a member of the herpes family. Very few children escape chickenpox infection. It spreads quickly. Coughing and sneezing-even laughing and talking-spread the illness.

A child with developing chickenpox will be contagious for one or two days before any symptoms show. A child who plays with an infected child during this period will almost certainly catch the disease. An infected child is contagious from a few days before symptoms develop until all of the blisters are dry and have formed scabs.

The more intimate and more frequent the exposure to chickenpox, the more severe the case will be. This fact has very important implications, especially if you have more than one child. Children in different stages of the disease should be separated to minimize their exposure to each other. With minimal exposure, the second child to become ill is likely to have a less severe case of chickenpox, with less discomfort.

Chickenpox typically begins with a headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, and fever, much like any other viral illness. A day or two after these early symptoms, a rash of flat, red, splotchy dots erupts, usually beginning on the chest, stomach, it and back, and spreading a day or so later to the face and scalp.

The red dots of the rash soon come together to form clusters of tiny pimples, which then progress to small, delicate, clear blisters. Some children develop 3 lesions; some develop 300. Once the rash erupts, expect new crops of blisters over the next three to five days. Scabs, which are the last phase of the pox, form five to six days after the blisters develop. These scabs last for one to two weeks before falling off, exposing tender, freshly healed skin.

Over the course of the disease, the rash shows signs of all the different phases of chickenpox, with some areas that are splotchy and red, some areas of new blisters, areas where sores are crusting over and scabbing, and areas of healing. es From eruption through healing, each and every pock is very, very itchy. It is the extreme itchiness of chickenpox that causes the greatest torment.

Chickenpox can be contracted at any age. Because infected adults tend to feel much sicker and more miserable with this disease than youngsters do, it's probably best to have it as a child. Once you have had chickenpox, it is highly unlikely that you will ever suffer through it again.