Chicken Pox Care - How To Reduce Itchiness And Diet Restrictions

When I when to see the doctor for Chicken Pox, I asked the doctor whether there was any diet restrictions for Chicken Pox, he said "None, however you may follow the believes of your race." Then he gave me some calamine lotion and pills to reduce itchiness and that was that.

I am Malaysian Chinese and as a Chinese we have many diet restrictions for all sorts of ailments. These are usually brought down by word of mouth from generation to generation. However, since my mom died when I was 10, I never learned any of these diet control methods from her and the secrets were not passed on to me. I am clueless on such things, so I had to ask around some friends and relatives including asking in a Facebook Mom's Group.

Here are the answers I got from them:

To reduce itchiness from Chicken Pox

1. Use neem leaves to slowly caress or rub on body to reduce itchiness
2. Bathe with warm salt water and apply salt to the pox to have less itchiness
3. Calamine lotion although some say Calamine cream is better than the lotion and heals faster
4. Collect neem leaves, wash them and pound them with some water to get a paste. When bathing, put the neem paste on the spots and leave them there for a while. Neem has a natural anti viral/fungal properties. Then rinse off the neem. You can read more about the benefits of neem leaves here.

Diet Restrictions for Chicken Pox 

1. Drink lots of cooling herbal drinks and other cooling drinks especially coconut water to cool your body down
2. Avoid dark soya sauce as it will leave black marks on  your body
3. Avoid chinese chives as you may get chicken pox again if consumed
4. Take lots of easy to digest food including lots of liquids, soups and smoothies especially if there are painful ulcers in the mouth
5. Take lots of Multivitamins and Salmon Omega3 and water
6. Take lots of Vitamin C and Wheatgrass powder and  anything that can boost the immune system
7. Avoid eggs, chicken or prawns and certain kinds of fish that are considered "poisonous" or "bisa" (in Malay)

Did I follow these? All I can say is I lost all my appetite and didn't feel like eating anything so it was not a problem for me to avoid eggs, chicken or prawns etc because I didn't feel like eating at all! I drank lots of water and cooling coconut water because my lips were dry and cracked and I was thirsty all the time. 

I bathed twice a day because it so happens its the hot season here and sweating makes me more uncomfortable and itchy. After the bath, I would apply calamine lotion which was soothing.

If you are reading this, which part of the world are you from? Do you have any diet restrictions for Chicken Pox? 

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Adult Chicken Pox

All those things they say about adult chicken pox being harder on adults than kids are true. I am 45. I have chicken pox. I guess that means I qualify as an adult with chicken pox. I got it from my daughter who had breakthrough chicken pox. She had it easy. She was given 4 days of time off from school. Add in the weekend and she had 6 days off. After the first 2-3 days of fever and cough, the rest of the days was like a holiday for her. If not for the fact that she had to quarantine herself, she was almost enjoying her time off from school. Breakthrough chicken pox is chicken pox in someone who has had the chicken pox vaccination. She has had one jab and we missed the booster one. What a big mistake that was!

I have it much tougher than her being an adult with chicken pox

• I had high fever for 4-5 days.
• My face, neck and upper torso was covered in chicken pox. They looked like harmless mosquito bites at first, and then into the more sinister looking blister like rash and finally turning almost black before crusting over and falling off. 
• I was extremely tired and lost all my appetite
• My stomach felt bloated and full even though I had eaten nothing accept medication.
• I felt nausea like I was having morning sickness

I was given anti-viral Aciclovir (if taken within 24 hours of the first rash would help reduce the severity. It won't kill the virus but it may reduce it from multiplying). I think it was too late for me but I took them all the same. I also took antibiotics for any secondary infection plus cough and fever medication and anti-itch medication. Anti-itch, Anti-biotic, Anti-viral. My stomach was anti-food at the time. The medication made me feel even more sick!

I bathed twice a day, then gently pat the pox dry before applying calamine lotion all over and lay down aahhhhh to rest. 

They say that having chicken pox as an adult is tough. Yes, it is. I felt terribly sick but the worse part was.....

there was no one to look after me! No one to give me my medication, no one to sponge down my fever or give me cooling baths or make cooling drinks for me or warm food. No one to help me apply the calamine lotion in the hard to reach places like my back. Plus, I had to quarantine myself from touching the family which was hard especially with the little boy saying "Just one hug, mummy. Not even one touch?" Then he would run around and try to accidentally touch me. Oh, how I do miss hugging my family!

In addition to having no one to look after me, I still had to look after the house and the family. That was the toughest part about having chicken pox as an adult mum!

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Breakthrough Chicken Pox

My girl just recovered from Breakthrough Chicken Pox. I had not heard of this term before this. "Breakthrough Chicken Pox" actually means Chicken Pox that occurs in a person who has had the Chicken Pox vaccination. The symptoms of the breakthrough Chicken Pox are very much milder.

My girl only had the pox on her back, a few on her shoulders and a few on her face. I think she only had less than 5 blister like pox. The rest were mostly flat looking ones. It didn't seem to itch as much. She did have a fever and a cough which the doctor said was common. However, her fever, cough and cold was worse than normal  because she may have contacted that from her little brother and me who were both having a cough and cold virus with fevers.

The doctor gave her 4 days off from school to quarantine her. That was from Friday to Wednesday. Actually, I started noticing the spots on Tuesday but it was sparse and not causing her very much discomfort, I thought it was just a normal rash, and we had just been to to the doctor with the boy on Monday which is why I only took her to the doctor on Friday when the spots didn't go away.

Anyway, her symptoms are quite mild and by the time she is back in school on Wednesday, most of the spots are all gone. The doctor says her brother may get it too. He has been vaccinated twice. Once before plus a booster jab. The girl missed the booster jab.

I found this information about Breatkthrough Chicken Pox quite useful. Pin It