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Eczema meets Chickenpox

My girl, two year old, just passed the 14 days medical certificate required for chickenpox. With some sanity finally restored in the house, I could post a short account of what happened.

Before the 1st Day of Chickenpox

Actually, her pre-school already had a round of toddlers getting chickenpox and the teachers thought Marcie’s tiny red spots somewhat resembled what the other kids got. I took her to the doctor and he said it’s eczema and not chickenpox. To me, she normally didn’t have so many tiny red spots but it clearly didn’t look like chickenpox. Here’s her picture during this period.

Marcie posing under a christmas tree in a mall (and I’m surprised she knew how to pose!)

First 3 Days of Chickenpox

About 15 days later, we noticed her high fever and red spots clearly didn’t look normal. Brought her to doctor and confirmed chickenpox. Though she had fever, felt very hot at night, she managed to retain her good spirits and appetite. The chickenpox started on her face and neck.

Next 7 Days of Chickenpox

These were the days when it got worse – the chickenpox itch and the eczema itch. Parts of her skin which normally were fine started becoming dry, peeling and turning reddish – brought back memories when her eczema was severe. The chickenpox spread to the whole body and we had to cool her down by letting her play in the indoor playpool. I think most people don’t bathe and limit spreading lotion/water from one part of the body to the other, but with Marcie, we bathed and moisturized her as usual. We did apply calamine lotion and gave her anti-itch syrup from doctor.

Frog Play Pool

After 14 Days

This is a picture of her, finally able to go out, happily playing with a number-block book while waiting for her noodles!

Finally! There’re pox scars everywhere but as long as it’s not itchy, I’m glad.

4 replies on “Eczema meets Chickenpox”

Hi Karin, I know! Marcie never fell ill once for the 11 months I took care of her myself and after 3 months at preschool, started running nose, slight fever, cough, stomach flu, HFMD (I’ve blogged on this) and chickenpox, the latest!

Hi Kiwi, the GP did want to give med to suppress chickenpox but when he offered it, he sounded hesistant. As such, I opted to let Marcie go ahead without any med.

Separately, I heard stories of how chickenpox vaccine, chickenpox can affect eczema/asthma. So, just thought I’d reduce one more factor to consider should her eczema worsen. But you’re right, another doctor did recommend that Marcie may want to take med to suppress chickenpox. My guess is noone can study chickenpox + eczema on children given it’s difficult to find sample children, so doctors also aren’t sure of how chickenpox interacts with eczema.

hello, just curious. How come the doctor didn’t give Marcie the chickenpox pill (Acyclovir if i’m not wrong) to stop the chickenpox from getting worse? Has it something to do with ezcema?

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