First off, this is not a debate about inoculations. At all. This is just a story about how we helped our son, alleviate the symptoms of chicken pox when he experienced them.

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon. I had just spent the last 6 weeks working my buns off and finally, on this bright shiny day I had decided to step out of the office and spend some time with the hubby in the garden.

I had strapped my workbooks on for less than an hour and the phone call came.  “Please come and pick up your son, it looks like he has chicken pox”

We had heard it had been going around the school, but since our son was inoculated, we never once thought he would get the virus.  When I got to the school the teacher asked if I thought it looked like “the pox”

Never having seen the chicken pox, I hadn’t a clue. I told her I trusted her judgement, and went home to consult “Dr Google” on what our plan of attach should be and find out how to treat chicken pox, naturally.

We knew we had, at minimum, a week home with our little dude. We knew he would be itchy, and possibly feverish. Both hubby and I remembered our chicken pox experience (and have the scars to prove it) and we wanted to do what we could to ensure our little boy would get through it quickly and without too much discomfort.

Our first plan was to battle the itch from the inside.  Using Orange Naturals “Bites & Stings” for kids, homeopathic remedy we had little dude drink a little mixed in with water 3 times a day. Normally used for itching and swelling from insect bites and stings, we were hopeful that this would help him with the chicken pox itching.

Next it was to deal with the spots externally.

After a stop at our local pharmacy, we were provided with two solutions.  The Aveeno Oatmeal bath provided instant relief to the spots, soothing the skin and calming our little guy (although it did leave a mess in the tub)  He would bath like this twice a day and we let him stay in there as long as he liked.

After a gentle air dry, we applied a cream made by our local pharmasave called “tom’s cream” A blend of camphor, menthol, Lidocaine, and Diphenhydramine, it not only soothed the spots, but also cooled them.

We were lucky with our little guy, since he never broke a fever and only ended up with about 30-40 “spots”  They came on hot and heavy in the first 24 hours, and then healed in the next 2 days. A “light” dose of chicken pox.  He was back at school the following monday, with slight scabbing and scarring for the following 2 weeks.

He didn’t end up with ANY lasting scars, and only scratched one or two spots to the breaking point. He spent his days outside with us, enjoying the sunshine.

He did have “fussy” moments where he was irritable, and was very frustrated at the itch for those first 24 hours, but as long as we kept his mind off it, he managed just fine.

Luckily none of the other people in the house got any form of chicken pox or shingles (all members of the household are fully vaccinated) In fact, the biggest worry my son had was if he could actually give his chicken pox to his chickens.

I am not sure if it was a combination of our homeopathic remedies, or if his experience with chicken pox after being vaccinated would have been the same without the treatments, but I do know that we got off lucky with our little dude and I would do the same again, if needed.