Before children I was led to believe that chicken pox was a right of passage for everyone, but it was going to be horrid going through the process. I expected a child would itch, have a fever, and generally would feel unwell and sleep a lot. Ha! Not in our case. It turns out, they were all just really bored!

Seth was the first one to have symptoms. He’d been grouchy for a few days before the first spots appeared. We kept him hydrated with water constantly and a bath in a morning and night of oat water. Within 3 days his had blistered and crusted over, meaning it was short lived! He started with one spot around his groin area and as each of the days progressed and each time I look at him, more appeared. He ended up with around 50 spots spread across his body. At the time, chicken pox was rife in our area and we had been to a lot of events as well as children’s groups so it was inevitable, really!

It wasn’t for another 10 days later, before any of the other children showed symptoms. And of course they all came down with it together. So I ended up with a baby (4 months old) and the two older children (Tobias and Hamish) at home with me. Their symptoms were tiredness and loss of appetite. So I’d prepared myself to have a bit of a tough week with them all. None of them even were really that itchy! They’ve been absolutely fine. If anything they got more and more bored as the week went on! Thankfully, the weather was pretty decent, with some lovely sunshine so we spent a lot of time on the farm, playing around. We baked, played, cleaned the house and even did some gardening.

In all seriousness though, chickenpox isn’t nice. Some children can get very sick from the virus and it’s important to let your GP know as soon as any of the typical symptoms get worse. I know of lots of other families who had severe reactions to chickenpox. There are a lot of solutions to help ease the itch of chickenpox, some say Calamine Lotion, we used a moose from the chemist specially for itching. It’s really important to note, that if your child has chickenpox keep them away from anyone who is pregnant or has a low immune system.

So, now that they have all had chicken pox, I feel like it was a none event! Baby Jonas is prone to getting it again as he got it at such a young age. But overall I’m glad they’ve had it and it’s out of the way! It helps to build there immune systems up and also means they’re not as susceptible to other, possible nastier, viruses in the future.

Much love Rebecca