Two weeks ago Leo was struck down with chicken pox. I say struck down but I think you can tell by that image above that he actually didn’t suffer at all. He got off very lightly.

I thought I’d share with you what happened because I had no idea what to even look for with chicken pox so I’m assuming some of you will be the same.

It was Tuesday morning. The night had been very warm in our house and we’d woken to 21 degrees, bliss. I noticed a small spot on Leo’s face, just below his nose and I assumed it may have been a bit of heat rash. On Wednesday I noticed it was still there and also that he had a little blister under his belly button. I didn’t recall seeing it before so I asked how he did it and he told me he hurt himself on the trampoline. And who am I to question a four year old?

Fast forward a couple of hours and we got to the swimming pool, took his t-shirt off and I noticed a few more of these little blisters. At this point something started to ding in my brain – it was either a bad case of heat rash or the it must’ve been chicken pox. So off we went to the pharmacy to get an opinion. The pharmacist was pretty sure it was the chicken pox and advised us to get some antihistamines to help with the itching whenever it started to happen.

From then on the spots just kept coming, I felt like I could literally see them appearing by the hour.

They were generally pretty small except for a few larger ones around his groin area and hips. They just looked like little blisters and some of them looked like they had tiny black dots in them. By the time bedtime came and he was snoozing I could see that he now had them in his ears too. I’d heard horror stories about kiddies getting them internally as well so kept everything crossed that wasn’t what was happening.

He woke on the Thursday with a few more than he’d gone to bed with but even by then I could see that these little liquid filled blisters had started to dry up. We were applying calamine lotion and giving him antihistamines but he was starting to get a little bit more irritated by them, although I;m not sure if that was down to me praising him for coping so well so he played on it a little or if they genuinely were a bit itchy. I thought I’d better hedge my bets though so I popped off to Boots to get some Cal Pox as it had come so highly recommended by a few other moms. I really preferred it to the calamine lotion. It went on so easily and soaked right in and he wasn’t left with pink splotches that don’t easily wipe off especially when you don’t want to be applying too much pressure to any of the blisters/scabs.

I’m so relived to be able to say that he wasn’t really affected at all – had he not had the visible spots I’d never have known any different. And he was quite pleased to get to spend a week at home with me. Lush.

We returned to nursery the following Thursday to a class full of other chicken pox survivors all with scabby faces. It had halved their class size for a week!

I thought Tayo had picked it up as he was showing symptoms but nothing yet so we will see how that one plays out.

Have your littles had it? How did they fair and what remedies did you use to help ease the itching and groggyness that can come with it?

I have attached a handy little pin that displays the symptoms and explains the incubation periods and whatnot that will hopefully come in handy if you are yet to experience the chicken pox. And always remember if you are unsure about anything call your GP or 111.

{Pin The Guide}

Chicken Pox Symptoms & Tips