Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello everyone and welcome back to a Wonder Care podcast. I'm Sheena Mitchell, pharmacist and mom of three. I combine healthcare and practical advice to support you on your parenting journey. I bring you this episode with the support of Salon Plus Breathe ECE therapy device. I'll be chatting about that a little bit more in a minute. After recording this podcast, I decided that it was best to separate it into two parts. So in part one you'll learn all about chickenpox its treatment, what happens if you get it when you're pregnant, the best products to use, the best tips and advice on how to manage it at home and when you need to see the doctor. So that is all covered in part one. In part two I'm gonna talk all about the vaccine. I separated these because the vaccine became a 20 minute chat by itself and I know a lot of people are just trying to figure out whether or not they should get their child vaccinated for chickenpox.
Speaker 0 00:00:55 So I decided that it would be best to do that as a separate episode so that people who are thinking about vaccination can jump straight on there, whereas people who are dealing with chickenpox can just listen to part one. And I'm sorry that I did this after I recorded, so you will hear me refer to, I'll talk about that in a minute or <laugh>, I'll talk about that at the end. So please note that everything from vaccination to listeners' questions are all contained in part two of the Chickenpox podcast. It's just that the conversation I felt was just too big to be squished into one episode and I wanted you to be able to access the part that you wanted most. So I hope you find that helpful. This week I am gonna be talking all about chickenpox. I'll be explaining the symptoms, the treatment, the complications, and when you may need to see the doctor.
Speaker 0 00:01:54 And I'll also be discussing the vaccine at the end. I'll be discussing some of the questions that were sent into our podcast WhatsApp number, which is oh 8 6 0 3 5 3 4 6 2 or sent in through Instagram where I put up question boxes last week. Chickenpox, basically it's an infection which is caused by the virus seller zoster virus in Ireland. The incidence of varicella is seasonal and it is usually most prevalent. So most common between January and April. It's normally transmitted through the inhalation of respiratory droplets or through contact with the fluid that's in the spots. It's actually really, really infectious. The likelihood of another child or adult who hasn't had chickenpox catching it off, one who does is actually about 60 to 90%. So yeah, very hard to stop it spreading amongst your household. So with chickenpox, it's infectious for about two days before the rash starts to come and it stays infectious right up for about seven days, but it can be a bit longer.
Speaker 0 00:03:12 It really is dependent on how quickly the spots dry up. So they need to be kind of fully crusted or scabbed, sorry, horrible words. For the infectiousness to have gone from coming in contact with someone who has chickenpox, the incubation period is basically 10 to 21 days. Most commonly if you come in contact with someone who has chickenpox and you haven't had it, it'll normally be around two weeks later when you start to get symptoms, but it can even be up to a month. So just to bear that in mind, you might think you're in the clear and still be affected. So what are the symptoms? I'll start with the rash cuz that is unfortunately where the name chickenpox came from. It's a really, really horrible rash. It starts with small red dots and about 12 to 14 hours after the little red spots appear, they start to fill with fluid and become fluid fill, fluid filled blisters.
Speaker 0 00:04:14 At this point they can become really itchy and uncomfortable. I remember my own children riding in discomfort in bed at night while blisters were forming one to two days after the blisters form, they start to become cloudy and start to dry up. They most commonly occur on your chest, back and face, but they do also affect arms and legs and even inside ears mouths. And in the nappy area it gets a little bit tricky here because you might find that some spots are starting to dry out and others are just arriving. This is because chickenpox tend to come in clusters for about three to five days. So you can have new spots arriving every day and that means that the rash can be at different stages of blistering or healing other than the distinctive rash. And I have to say that for the first day it just does look like small red spots and sometimes people might even think it's mild heat rash or maybe a general viral rash starting.
Speaker 0 00:05:16 And I've often had it where people come into the pharmacy and I'm like, I think that's chickenpox. You know, gimme a buzz tomorrow because I think there's gonna be blisters forming by the morning other than the rash. You have flu-like symptoms, so you're talking a higher fever, feeling sick or just nauseous. A child or adult can be very irritable, go off their food a headache, you know, so they get all those lovely regular viral symptoms on top of the delightful rash. I'll talk about the treatment in a minute, but just some basic advice. Your child will need to stay off school until they're feeling better and all of their spots have scabbed over. Be conscious that while they're still contagious, do try to keep them home as much as you can so that you're not putting anyone who is immunocompromised or pregnant at risk of catching the virus as it can be more dangerous for them.
Speaker 0 00:06:11 It's also a good idea to keep infected children away from young babies. This is not always possible. I do understand that I have a little horror story of my own here where chickenpox was kind of hanging over me as a new mother and I, I just, I suppose I was kind of eager for the kids to get it younger once they were in the kind of toddler stage. So anyway, my eldest, I actually only had two kids at the time, so my eldest child who was about three had them and you know, she had a really mild dose and she was completely breezing through it. I was like, look, this is grand and this is great cuz there's nothing like the natural immunity you'll get from actually having chicken pox. So, so I said, do you know what I'll do now? I'll get the other one outta the way.
Speaker 0 00:07:01 And I mean we probably didn't even n need to go to these extremes, but I popped the two girls in a bath together <laugh>, while the eldest was infectious. So the other one then was maybe coming up to two. She was, there was only, you know, uh, 15 months between them. And um, yeah I have to say I really, really regretted that because all of the imagery that you see on my social media that I'm using for chickenpox actually come from the second child. She ended up with a really, really severe dose and it was just awful. She was so sick and so uncomfortable. She got so many spots like I think on average the normal amount of spots that a child would get when they've chickenpox is 200 to 600 and she was definitely the higher end of that. It was just awful. I think I got my great idea from, you know, the chickenpox parties of old, I don't know if you were sent <laugh> to any house that happened to have chickenpox in it, but yeah, that was I suppose one way of making sure that you got the chickenpox virus out of the way early.
Speaker 0 00:08:14 Cuz as we know, it is something that children come across and it is a disease that tends to be milder when you're younger. So I didn't want my children becoming kind of teenagers or adults and suffering from chickenpox because the disease can be more severe in adults and I'll talk a bit of more about that in a minute. But yeah, that's where the whole concept of I suppose the chickenpox parties came from in the past. You probably don't need to go to the extremes that I went to to spread infection. I'm gonna move on to treatment. This is an interesting area and I am going to give you a holistic view of how to treat chickenpox on the basis that if your child is really uncomfortable, you will try anything. And obviously I'm a pharmacist and bound by a code of ethics, so I am not going to suggest things that are hazardous or dangerous to your child.
Speaker 0 00:09:12 So don't worry about that. I'm gonna give you some advice which comes from two places, one from scientific evidence and the other anecdotal evidence. But I will caveat that with the fact that I have researched any of the anecdotal evidence that I'm about to give and have gotten comments from the companies of the products I have. So I am happy to talk about them because anything that can help during that blistering awful, horrible uncomfortable stage is useful. Okay, so the first thing I wanna talk about is the treatment of the flu-like symptoms. And the only difference to treating flu-like symptoms in someone who has chickenpox and someone who doesn't is that you do not want to use ibuprofen where possible because there is a couple of studies which suggest and further research is needed. So this is not, you know, absolutely confirmed, but there is a study that suggests that the use of ibuprofen for the treatment of fever or pain during chickenpox can actually increase the likelihood of a bacterial infection developing within the rash.
Speaker 0 00:10:32 So the choice of painkiller in this case is not ibuprofen containing products like Nien, anything like that. So what you want is a product that contains paracetamol like Calpol or perin. These are the products that you're going to use to deal with any kind of pain, fever, aches and pains in your child. Okay, the next product I'm gonna talk about is for the treatment of the rash. So there is a product on the market and I will put the link in the show notes called Pox Clean Cool Moose. And this really helped with my eldest daughter and she definitely got relief from it and you know her spots healed quite well without any scarring. The one thing I would say is that my youngest daughter had absolute insult to injury <laugh> after I gave her a horrendous dose, she then had allergic reaction to the pox clean.
Speaker 0 00:11:31 So that was not ideal and definitely did not help the stress levels in our house. Now luckily because myself and my husband are both pharmacists, we were kind of conscious that putting on any new product can be kind of, I suppose risky. So we did do a patch test so we only did it on one area of her, your spots and it got red raw. I would say that child has a lot of allergies and this is not the norm in my experience in the community pharmacy. So to emphasize I would've no hesitation in recommending pox clean moose. I would just say that it is worthwhile doing a little patch test. So applying a small amount to a small area of the rash and then leaving it a couple of hours and seeing if the area gets very irritated and sore more than it was before you use the moose.
Speaker 0 00:12:25 It does contain an antibacterial agent, which is two cure complex and this is good because not only is the moose cooling and soothing, so it gives your child instant relief from the irritation from the spots, but it also helps to prevent infection and because it helps to prevent infection and calm down the itching a little bit, it does help then to reduce scarring. Another thing I'd say is make sure and clip your child's nails and make sure there's no sharp edges because obviously a young child cannot be told don't scratch they're going to. So do bear that in mind and try and reduce the potential for scratching and bleeding because that kind of activity increases the likelihood of scarring. There is another product called Fire Soothe Cooling gel. Unfortunately this is not available at the moment. It doesn't seem to be discontinued but there's equally no sign of a coming back so I'm not gonna spend too much time talking about it.
Speaker 0 00:13:30 I did like it because unlike the pox clean moose where you're just lathering it all over the virus, sooth was suitable for kind of spots around the neck or face so you could just apply a little bit of the gel to each spot. And again it helped to reduce the risk of scarring by soothing the irritation and it was also a bit cheaper so you know, it maybe wasn't as good, it didn't have the same antibacterial properties as plin but it was definitely good for spots that were particularly inflamed. So I do hope it comes back into stock but unfortunately at the moment it's a no calamine lotion. I was going to say they're an oldie but a goodie, but I'm not a hundred percent sure that it is a goodie really. First of all, it's an absolute disaster to apply. Oh the mess on the pajamas and the sheets and everything and okay it helps you feel like you're doing something to relieve their pain but it didn't seem to really have much effect on my own kids.
Speaker 0 00:14:32 It is good for weeping spots, they actually do a cream. I would use it for spots that are particularly weepy or irritated. I'm just not sure I'd recommend slathering it all over your child cuz I'm just not sure that the benefits outweigh the inconvenience of it. They do a cream as opposed to the lotion and that's a little bit easier to use. The reason I'm saying put it on some of the weeping spots is because it dries them up a little bit and that is helpful. Another thing which is extremely helpful, this is one that's really good for any kind of rash. So even if your child just has particularly bad nappy rash, this is an old favorite of mine and it does help baking soda. Baking soda obviously does not come with scientific evidence, but we do know that the main component of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and this does have some mild anti-inflammatory and antibacterial action.
Speaker 0 00:15:28 So what I do for any kind of rash that's really irritated, it could even be sunburn or as I said there, nappy rash or obviously chickenpox or anything. Anything that's itchy and irritated and red and angry. I put a couple of tablespoons into a tepid bath. So definitely important. Don't use it in a hot bath because hot bats are just irritating to the skin. So just a a luke warmer, a bit above that bath and just at a couple of tables spoons and hopefully it'll help to calm the situation down. Another product which is really useful is Aveno Dmex bath ent, so you can use that and the baking soda, there's no problem with that. I really like the Avio dmex range for things like this. I wouldn't find it to be the most effective moisturizer for very dry skin, but certainly it can be soothing to irritate it skin and this is something that you just add to the bath and I will pop a link in the show notes in relation to oats.
Speaker 0 00:16:31 Oats are actually very useful in this situation unless you have a celiac child obviously. So the easiest way to use oats, oats help to promote healing. So what I do is I get like a pop sock or a knee high sock and I put a couple handfuls of oats into that tie it. And the reason that you're doing this is because you can't just add oats to a bath. It would be a disaster in terms of messiness and plugging up your drain. So you're gonna keep them all together and secure within a stocking. Ideally, if you can get some warm water, could even kind of boil the kettle, let a cooler bit and then get a big sauce pin, put that sock full of os into the water for about an hour or so. So it gets all the kind of all softened and releases all of the goodness.
Speaker 0 00:17:22 And then take the whole sauce pin and add it to the bath. And this can be really helpful to promote healing, uh, in the, and again reduce some of the irritation. I do realize <laugh>, these aren't all kind of medicinal solutions, but a solution is a solution and when you have child writhing in pain with chickenpox, you'll do anything on that note of interesting product recommendations. <laugh> head and shoulders. Yep, you heard me right? Head and shoulders original shampoo. So I did a bit of research into this because a couple years ago, you know, a whole social media post went viral where people started claiming that head and shoulders was the knees for bath treatment for children with Chuck chickenpox that it really helped. So needless to say, a couple years ago, my poor youngest got the chickenpox and I was like, well how timely I've seen this online about the head and shoulders.
Speaker 0 00:18:22 I had no hesitation in trying it with him because he didn't have particularly sensitive skin. So I lashed, well actually he lashed head and shoulders into the bath and look, I'm not gonna say it was a miracle cure, but he seemed like it and he seemed to say that it eased his discomfort. I'm not sure that wasn't just the fun of squirting, you know, the shampoo into the bath, but obviously before I wanted to recommend this, I contacted the manufacturers about using head and shoulders for chickenpox relief and in essence they can't recommend it because they've done no clinical trials and no research into its use for chickenpox. But it does contain zinc pyy, which is known for its anti-inflammatory effects. So that probably helps when you're using it as an anti-D of shampoo just to calm the scalp. This ingredient promotes healing and reduces itching.
Speaker 0 00:19:19 So I suppose it does make sense that what's good for the scalp is good for the general skin and I can see that it could have a beneficial effect. Clearly the manufacturers don't recommend its for its use, so they can't make any claims about its benefit and either can I, but I do see the sense in it and I don't see any harm in trying, so there's no reason if your child is suffering a lot that you can't add a bit of head and shoulder shampoo into the bath along with your baking soda and a bit of aveno dxa derian and you're stalking full of os. Look it, I think that is the most aggressive approach you can take to trying to soothe their pain. I would caveat that with potentially doing a little patch test of the head and shoulder shampoo on your child's skin as well, just to make sure they've no allergic reaction.
Speaker 0 00:20:09 The last thing you want to do is make things worse. One last thing on this and it's to do with spots in the mouth. Now it's not overly common and you know there are other viral illnesses like one I'm talking about next week, which is hand, foot and mouth disease. There are other viruses that cause more spots and blisters in the mouth, but it can be possible for chickenpox to occur in the mouth. And the best thing to use is a bit of difflam spray. So you may know that from being a sore throat spray and absolutely it is. It basically eases pain in sore throats by being sprayed directly into the back of your mouth. So what you're gonna do with it here, because there is no minimum age on difflam, so it is suitable for toddlers and that kind of thing, I just wouldn't go spraying it into their mouth.
Speaker 0 00:20:59 What I would do is either spray one or two sprays onto either your fingers or theirs and tell them to rub it where it's sore. They're not gonna love the taste of it, but if their mouth is very sore, it is no harm doing and you can do that maybe 15 minutes before it's time for drink or food depending on what age the baby or child is. Now just before I talk about the vaccine, because I know a lot of people are very interested in the vaccine and whether or not they should get their child vaccinated. Just before I do that I'm gonna take a little break just to talk about my amazing season sponsor. I just want to take a little break for a second to say that I'm delighted to partner again with one of my all-time favorite products. Salad Plus. This is the world's first a hundred percent natural dry cell therapy device. It's clinically proven to relieve a wide range of allergens and respiratory conditions. The salt therapy method has been trusted for generations and is now hugely popular worldwide. As more and more people recognize the superb results achieved from a natural and non-invasive method, this device will help you breathe these easier and sleep better.
Speaker 0 00:22:09 Two, also remember that antihistamines can be really useful to help produce the itch. There are different ones depending on the age of your child. So I'll put a couple of links in the show notes to ones like Energen Zyrtec solution or any other Satine product and even Perin tablets. So I'll pop link links in and you can check out which one is most suitable for the patient that you are treating. Okay, so that is all of the main treatments for chickenpox. The next thing I'm gonna be talking about is having chickenpox during pregnancy, the relationship between chickenpox and shingles when someone needs to see the doctor if they've got chickenpox. And then finally I'm gonna talk all about the chickenpox vaccine
Speaker 0 00:22:57 Chickenpox during pregnancy. If you happen to be a mom who finds yourself pregnant and has chickenpox, what does that mean? Chickenpox infection during pregnancy, dos carry an increased risk of pneumonia, which can develop in some small amounts of cases of chickenpox and the risk is a little bit higher in the second and early third trimester. There is a potential for the chickenpox to pass from the mum to the unborn baby, but it's worth saying that this is rare. Regardless of whether it's rare or not, the risks are significant and a baby can go on to have growth issues, skin scarring and cataracts and other issues. So if you're pregnant and you haven't had chickenpox when you were younger and you haven't had a vaccine, then it's definitely a good idea to try and avoid any cases of chickenpox that are going in the community. This can be really difficult on a practical level because it could be that even your own child, an older child comes home with chickenpox and what are you to do?
Speaker 0 00:24:09 So be reassured that the risks of any issue are low, but because there are risks, of course we urge caution. If you think you have chickenpox during pregnancy, it's really important to see the doctor. The time where the risk is highest for a child to be exposed in utero to a mother's chickenpox would be a week before and after their delivery. However, if a newborn catches chickenpox 10 days after birth, their symptoms are typically mild. But we do know that with any newborn baby, we remain vigilant because their little immune systems are still quite delicate. If you're planning a pregnancy so you're not yet pregnant and you're not sure whether or not you had chickenpox as a child, you can ask your doctor to do a little immunity check. This will help you to make a decision on whether or not you want to get a chickenpox vaccine before you conceive.
Speaker 0 00:25:09 I do urge you to discuss this with your gp if you have any uncertainty, I'll talk more about the vaccine in a couple of minutes. First of all, I just want to explain to people the relationship between shingles and chickenpox. It can be very confusing because people know they're related but they can never remember which one you can catch off the other. If you come across someone or your child comes across someone who has shingles, it is possible to catch the chickenpox from the shingles. However, shingles isn't generally as infectious as chickenpox because the rash is not all over your body. With shingles, it's generally in one area along a nerve line and it is possible for people to put a dressing over that rash so that they're not touching or at risk of touching the rash and getting any of the infected fluid on their hands, which would increase the risk of spreading the virus within a household or amongst people.
Speaker 0 00:26:15 I urge anyone who has shingles and are around children that they don't wanna catch chickenpox with to bear that in mind and keep their rash covered and keep washing their hands. So now we know that we can catch chickenpox off chickenpox and we know that we can catch chickenpox off shingles if we haven't any immunity to chickenpox. Can you catch shingles off? Chickenpox is the only one that's left and the answer really is no. So the way that you actually catch shingles is that when you have chickenpox beforehand, at any stage in your life, the virus remains in your body. And if your immune system is lowered at any stage, it is potentially possible then for that virus to be reactivated. And the second time round, it doesn't appear as chickenpox, it appears as shingles. So I just wanted to cover that relationship because I know it confuses people a lot.
Speaker 0 00:27:19 And you know, even saying it there to you <laugh>, I'm trying to make sure I'm not jumbling up my words, but hopefully that's clear. Okay, before I move on to the vaccine, I just want to talk about when you need to see the doctor, if you've got chickenpox or if your child has chickenpox. So obviously I mentioned there if your pregnant and you have chickenpox, do see the doctor if your child is extremely unwell, the same as you would with any flu-like disease. If your child is developing dehydration. So they're really unwell, they're drowsy, they're lethargic, they're really struggling, and they're not as responsive as they normally are. These are all signs of dehydration. And in babies you also have to watch out for a sunken fentanyl. So that's the soft spot on the top of their head. And also when a child that's dehydrated cries, there's no tears.
Speaker 0 00:28:12 If you have any worry about your child's flu-like illness, then you do contact the doctor. But obviously make sure to call them and tell them that your child has chickenpox first. Another reason why you might need to see a doctor if you've chickenpox, is that it is possible for the rash to develop a secondary bacterial infection. So if any of the spots become extremely red or are weeping or very hot around them and extremely inflamed, then it is possible that your child has a bacterial infection on where the viral spot was. And that requires a GP visit. If your child is struggling with their breathing when they have chickenpox, that's another reason you would see the doctor. And also any child who is under one month of age who develops chickenpox should be seen by a doctor. In addition to all of that, anyone who's immunocompromised or has lung disease or heart disease or are on any immunosuppressants or steroids, should see a doctor if they develop chickenpox.
Speaker 0 00:29:16 Children with skin conditions like eczema, if it's particularly severe, can be more susceptible to bacterial infection with chickenpox. So important to remain vigilant there for any redness, swelling, or puss oozing outta the spots that you're just not comfortable with. Okay, so for part one of this episode, I'm gonna leave it there. So I've covered all about chickenpox and how you treat it and how you manage it. And if you found this useful, I would be so, so grateful if you could review this podcast. So just a couple of comments really help to get the podcast hosting people, all the platforms to improve it in its ranks and share it with more people. And my goal is to make healthcare accessible to everyone. So the more people that can listen, the better. If you have questions about chickenpox vaccination, well fear not Part two of this podcast, which is being released the same day as this episode part one, and it contains a huge debate that I have <laugh> with myself and the evidence all about chickenpox, vaccination.
Speaker 0 00:30:22 And you know, whether or not it's going to be on the childhood schedule or whether you should consider getting it privately, whether you should consider getting it at all and all of that sort of information. So that will also be available. And it also includes a lot of the questions that come in from listeners through the Instagram chat box, which you can find at WBA care I r l. And we also have a podcast phone where people can pop in messages so that they can have their questions answered by WhatsApp. Well, they'll be answered in the podcast through WhatsApp. And the number for that is oh 8 6 0 3 5 3 4 6 2. That's oh 8 6 0 3 5 3 4 6 2. And I'd absolutely love to hear from you in either way. Keep an eye on my Instagram stories because for a couple of days I keep question boxes open about the topic that I'm gonna be talking about next. Thanks so much for listening and don't forget to leave review. Bye.
