The Parker Family have just had their first brush with common childhood infectious diseases - chicken pox to be precise. Here is a blow-by-blow account of what happened and some of the things we found help alleviate the symptoms of our five year old.

WEEK ONE
Monday

We pick E up from school. She's looking a little pale and tired but soon picks up when she goes to play with friends. The children have a great time rolling around on the floor together and practising gymnastics. E says she feels a little shivery at bedtime and has a slight temperature.

Tuesday

E takes off her pyjamas this morning to get ready for school and is covered in red spots. Some have already got raised little blisters on them. It's chicken pox! Consult our family medical books and its bad news for the friends she was playing with yesterday. The disease is infectious the day before the rash appears. We phone to let them know and tell them that the incubation period is around two weeks, although it can be anything from one to three weeks.
The general advice seems to be to keep the child cool and give them plenty of fluids. E feels worse as the morning progresses and the spots start to itch. We encourage her not to scratch because it makes the itching worse and can lead to infection and scarring. A bath with a few tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda (no soap) really seems to relieve the itching while she is in the bath. She finds it really soothing and relaxing.
We make sure she is wearing loose comfortable clothes in natural fibres. Her pyjamas fit the bill perfectly and some cotton socks keep her feet warm. We repeat the bath procedure whenever she feels really miserable. E spends a fair amount of the day just resting on the sofa but is still quite perky except when the spots are really itchy. At last - bedtime! Give E a teaspoon of Calpol and also one of Piriton syrup. Expecting a very sleepless night but, surprise, surprise, she sleeps really well.

Wednesday

Have to coax E to eat some breakfast. The spots have spread and are now all over her body and have started to appear on her face and her scalp. Luckily she doesn't have any sores in her eyes, which can apparently be quite serious and would need a trip to the doctors.
We go to the chemist and buy some calamine lotion and also a homeopathic remedy called Rhus.tox. which Granny has recommended. Some of the older spots have blistered and look really sore. We dab all the spots with calamine lotion. It helps to really saturate a pad of cotton wool with calamine lotion and then dab the spots gently. E is not too keen on the coldness of the lotion but feels much more comfortable within five minutes of the lotion being applied.
We start giving E the Rhus.tox. Initially two tablets every two hours for the first six doses and then four times daily for up to five days or until the symptoms improve. It doesn't seem to be having much effect through the course of the day, but as we've nothing to compare it with who knows? We just hope it's doing some good.
E is feeling pretty miserable and we seem to spend a lot of the day dabbing on calamine lotion. E seems to have lost her appetite too. The only things she wants to eat are crumpets.
At bedtime we repeat the same procedure as yesterday and are expecting a fairly uneventful night. No such luck. E only manages to sleep for an hour and then wakes. The itching is very severe and she only manages to go to sleep at 4a.m after a bath, calamine lotion and a further dose of Calpol and Piriton.

Thursday

E sleeps in 'till gone 9 o'clock and seems to be feeling a little brighter. She eats a good breakfast and hardly complains of itchiness all day. Wonder if last night could be a result of the Rhus.tox? Homeopathic remedies can apparently initially aggravate symptoms before alleviating them.
There is a huge improvement today. The spots seem to be drying up nicely. After a fairly uneventful day we think we'll have a quiet night, but E is beside herself with the itching. She gets more and more tired and more fretful. We take off the duvet and just have a sheet and light blanket. It seems to itch less the cooler she is. Eventually she falls into a very deep sleep.

Friday

E is feeling much brighter. It definitely seems much worse at night. She doesn't complain of itchiness all day and only needs to apply calamine lotion before she goes to bed after her bath with bicarbonate of soda. E has a wonderful undisturbed sleep for about twelve hours.

Saturday

E is back to her old self. She is still a little tired but altogether much better. Only the spots on her scalp are a bit itchy at times. We stop giving her the Rhus.tox.

Sunday

E has much more energy today. She even has a good run around in the garden. Lovely to get some fresh air after being cooped up inside all week.

WEEK TWO
Monday

No school today - just to be on the safe side. The spots are healing nicely, and have crusted over so it's not contagious any more.

Tuesday

E goes back to school today.

Wednesday

Everything seems to be back to normal.

Thursday

We have a call from E's teacher at school to say that E is feeling poorly so we bring her home. She is just generally feeling very tired and has a sore throat which turns out to be the start of a cold. We seem to have underestimated how much this bout of chicken pox has affected her and she has probably picked up the cold because her resistance is low and she is still a bit run down. She has a very fitful night and is quite feverish.

Friday

E has a quiet day at home.

Saturday

She seems much better today.

Sunday

E's little brother and sister both go down with chicken pox!

WEEK THREE
Monday

E goes back to school. E's Daddy comes home from work with…chicken pox!! He had chicken pox mildly as a baby but is unlucky enough to go down with it a second time.