Chickenpox -- distraction strategies

Das Kitty

My 4 year old has chickenpox. I'm using paracetamol and calamine but he's focusing on the pain a lot and crying. Does anyone have any tips for distracting him? Cartoons and colouring books are limited in their effect! I've heard of porridge baths, anyone tried that?

He's quietly crying in his bed now and it's breaking my heart.

My 5 month old is going to have them in a few weeks too

pwurple

Oh the poor dear. I remember when I had it, my mum put on music and we danced around the house. It's my first memory of Wham!

Moonbeam

We were told by the pharmacist not to use calamine lotion as it dries out their skin and can irritate it more,they also gave us antihistamines for the then 4 and 2 year old which helped big time. We found the over the counter chicken pox cream and gel great.
Of course a different antihistamine and cream worked for both girls:( and the boy was only 6 months old so nothing for him only a bit of cream but it did not bother him at all.

I have to admit I let the 4 and 2 year old watch Netflix in bed as they had not got the energy for anything and I was house bound with them for 5 weeks,I think I suffered more then them!!
Near the end of it we went to the drive through Mc Donalds,got food and sat on the grass in a part on the uni that was empty and ate.
I was on the verge of going insane,especially cause the poor 4 year olds face was destroyed.

Das Kitty

Thanks for the tips MB, going to go to the Chemist first thing. He keeps waking up asking if it can be morning yet. The poor pet.

Jurga78

poor pet, is he better ? My daughter got antihistamines too

nikpmup

Poor little man DK My sisters kids had chicken pox not so long ago, I know she didn't use calamine but I can't remember what she did use. I'll ask her tomorrow.

crazy cat lady

Poxclin and zirtek!

sillysocks

We've just bad chicken pox with our 3 year old and now our 8 month old is in the throws of it.

We also used Zirtek for the three year old, gave her baths with bread soda on it which are meant to be great and she loves the bath anyway so helped distract her. I find Nurofen generally better than calpol and you can give them staggered during the day so maybe ask chemist about that. They say days 3&4 are the worst so hopefully you're nearly there!

We used calomine and a gel we got from the chemist.

The 8 month old suffered a bit worse than the older one, but the older one was generally quite ok form wise during the day and just got itchy at night. The baby started 2 weeks to the day after the older one started. The baby had awful nights at day 3/4 but now is much happier and back tk sleeping (day 6 now).

I have one question if you don't mind me hijacking. Did anyone else have a dribbly baby that had a lot of chicken pox around their mouth? He has a good few around his mouth/chin but they're not clearing like the rest cause any cream is just getting washed off within a few minutes by his dribbles.

Qualitymark

A load of thrilling videos? Are the Teletubbies available on DVD? Disney cartoons? The Time Bandits (scary!) Old black-and-white comedies?

The dribbles around the mouth usually happen when the kid's in the throes of teething - the saliva becomes very acid then.

Edit: I see people online recommending oatmeal baths (careful - slippery! - and put the oatmeal in muslin so it doesn't clog up the glug-hole).