Chickenpox Symptoms and Treatment Methods in Children

What causes chickenpox, a childhood disease? What are the symptoms of chickenpox in babies? Does the chickenpox vaccine provide adequate protection to the child? What drugs are used during this period?

Learn all about chickenpox treatment and take precautions against rashes on your little one’s body!

1. What is chickenpox?

Chickenpox is a contagious disease that is among the most common viral infections with fever and rash in children. The incubation period is between 17 and 21 days and is generally mild.

Are smallpox and chickenpox the same, let’s say that too. The viruses that cause these two diseases are not the same, so the two diseases are different from each other.

2 What causes chickenpox?

The chickenpox virus is called varicella-zoster. This virus, which causes chickenpox, also causes shingles. Those who had chickenpox in childhood can also get shingles in adulthood.

3. Symptoms of chickenpox in babies

Symptoms of chickenpox in children show themselves 1-2 days before the rash:

• High fever,
• decreased appetite,
• Headache,
• Unrest
• Fatigue may be observed.

So how do we know if a child has chickenpox ? At the onset of chickenpox, the rash appears primarily on the scalp and trunk. It spreads to the arms and legs in 3-4 days. These rashes that cover a large part of the body; It can even spread to the mouth, anus, vagina and ears.

During the disease, an average of 250-500 water-filled blisters develop. They form continuously for 3-4 days and quickly turn into crusty, small bumps.

4. At what age does chickenpox appear?

Let ‘s tell when chickenpox occurs in babies. The probability of chickenpox in newborn or 3-month-old babies is quite low. Chickenpox is most common between the ages of 6 and 10. Most children have the disease before the age of 10.

5. How is chickenpox transmitted?

Chickenpox, with the person who has the disease;

• Direct topics,
• It is transmitted by breathing the same room air or by contact with the patient’s skin rash.

The periods 1-2 days before and 6 days after the rash are the times when the risk of transmission of the disease to others is high. The child’s disease is contagious until the scabs fall off.

A person who has chickenpox once becomes immune to the disease. Therefore, the probability of developing chickenpox in adults depends on whether the disease is present or not.

If people who have not had the disease before, encounter the chickenpox virus, they will get sick with a probability of 80-90%, but the rash develops after 10-21 days at the earliest. Apart from this, although there may be exceptional cases, chickenpox is not transmitted to the person who has the disease.

6. How is chickenpox treated?

There is no specific treatment for chickenpox. The disease shows improvement in its course. If you ask how many days the chickenpox disease in children will pass , we can say that the disease appears 10 to 21 days after exposure to the virus and lasts for about 5 to 10 days. You can take some precautions so that your child can go through this process more comfortably. Let’s talk about what you should pay attention to in the treatment of chickenpox.Although it is a febrile illness, antibiotics are not used to treat chickenpox. You should keep your child cool and take care not to stay warm.You should keep your child’s nails short, as blisters and crusts, filled with water, can become infected or scarring can occur when they are torn before they are fully healed.If you’re still diapering your child, you should change their diapers often and ventilate them to help the scabs shed.You can regularly apply caladryl lotion to skin rashes to relieve itching, be careful to take a bath with lukewarm water instead of hot water.Try to keep your child’s bed as clean as possible. You should change and wash the sheets and pillowcases daily.If your little one has a high fever and is restless, you can use paracetamol.

You may wonder if there are any scars or stains after chickenpox . After the lesions of chickenpox itself, there is usually no scar. However, if there has been a bacterial infection during the disease process and the chickenpox lesion on the skin has grown, the rate of inflammation may increase. This leads to scarring of chickenpox.

7. Drugs used in the treatment of chickenpox

• Paracetamol is usually used for fever. Drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen should definitely not be used because they increase Reye’s syndrome .
• Those with diseases such as cancer, kidney, heart disease or eczema may have a heavy infection with chickenpox. In such cases, you can use the antiviral acyclovir.
• In addition, if your child’s itching is very intense, you can consult your doctor. He will give you anti-itch medicines for this.

In which cases, special medicines can be given to a child with chickenpox? If your child:

• If there is a problem with the immune system,
• If you are on cortisone treatment,
• If you have a serious skin problem,
• If you need to use aspirin,
• If you have an ongoing lung condition,
• If the age is over 13, drugs that inhibit the replication of the chickenpox virus should be used within the first 24 hours after the onset of the rash.

8. In which situations is chickenpox risky?

• If the rash is inflamed,
• If the fever lasts longer than 4 days or exceeds 39.5 °C,
• If new rashes appear after the sixth day,
• If the child’s general health is deteriorating, do not neglect to see your doctor. Your little one’s health needs to be examined in detail as soon as possible.

9. Can a child with chickenpox take a bath?

Can a baby with chickenpox take a bath ? is one of the most frequently asked questions by mothers. There is a wrong practice of not giving a bath to a child with chickenpox. If the water used is clean, there is no harm in giving your child a bath.

On the contrary, the bath has the benefit of preventing skin inflammations. Bathing in clean and warm water with a handful of dissolved table salt reduces itching.

10. Does getting the chickenpox vaccine prevent catching the disease?

Research into how long the vaccine provides protection and whether an additional dose is needed is still ongoing. However, we can say that a child who has been vaccinated today has a much milder chickenpox. Only pain and swelling in the places where the vaccine was given, although rare, may occur with fever.

Finally, when is the chickenpox vaccine given to babies , let’s say that too. The first dose of the vaccine is given at 12 to 15 months, and the second dose at 4 to 6 years of age.