Five days ago my daughter had a fever of 102.5 that lasted about 6 hours and was gone. Immediately I was suspicious. She has had a couple fevers in her 2 1/2 years, but they normally last a couple days. This one came and went quickly and I had this horrible feeling something else was coming.
She woke up in the morning with a couple red bumps which I assumed were bug bites. Boy was I wrong. As the day progressed those couple red spots multiplied. She had some on her face, her arms, hands and feet. Even in between her toes! The poor thing was itching like crazy. OMG the Chicken Pox!!!
In one way I felt thrilled!! YES, let's get them out of the way and she will have a natural immunity to them. The other was my poor miserable child and I had to help her feel better. But what to use? What would be safe?
So let's get to what's on the market that you are "supposed" to use on chicken pox. Calamine. Well, when you read the back of this there is Calamine 8%, Zinc Oxide 8%. So what's in the rest? What is the other 84% consisting of? And the Zinc Oxide, is it the non-nano uncoated like the one that is safe that is in my daughter's sunscreen? Then there is the Caladryl. It contains calamine 8%, pramoxine HCI 1%. But here comes the fun part, it also contains fragrance, polysorbate-80, propylparaben, methylparaben. Hmmm. So it contains cancer causing, hormone disrupting ingredients and I am supposed to apply this to my 2 1/2 year olds open wounds? I don't think so!!!!
So being the Green Mommy I am I had to find another way. I had to find a non-toxic way to help my child.
I read about the benefits of drinking water with some lemon juice (organic of course) added to help with chicken pox. It balances the PH of the body which helps with the sores from the inside. So I started to add a little to her sippy. She loves lemons so that was helpful. I swear the sores started to look less red.
Then of course there is the soothing baths. I gave her oatmeal baths and also apple cider vinegar baths. I love Braggs Organic Apple Cider vinegar, with "the Mother". I actually drink a glass of water with a teaspoon of it every day for health benefits so I thought why not try it for this. Add a cup of either and let them sit in it. It will totally help with the "itchies" and the apple cider vinegar will help the skin start healing.
I then started to apply the organic Coconut Oil that I use for EVERYTHING to her skin. I would just slather her down with it. Coconut oil is an anti-microbial so I thought why not? What do I have to loose.
As my daughter sat in her bath on the third night I saw that there were literally about 60 tiny red spots. I could think the warmth of the bath made them show. I thought "My God here comes another round and it looks awful". So after her bath I slathered her down with coconut oil from head to toe. I was just waiting for the misery as the bumps came in.
That night there was no crying because of "itchies", which I was totally expecting after the sight in the tub. In the morning there was not one red bump from the night before that had flared up on her legs. NOT ONE! I swear. I was stunned!
The original bumps that came in on day one were the ONLY ones that appeared. I was THRILLED!!! Is this really all that is going to happen? Is this really all there was to it?
Now five days later the spots are literally disappearing. The worst of her spots is on her foot and it is healing nicely. There doesn't appear to be anything that will scar, however I purchased Emu oil which is supposed to be a great scar reducing in case anything needs it.
It's funny, I had chicken pox as a child like everyone else did. These days we are all told how "dangerous" it is and that you should get the vaccine to make sure you child is safe. I am so much happier that I went this route and, like me, allow my child to get the disease. And using the products I did, it wasn't so terrible. My daughter survived the chicken pox and did it with as little pain and misery as possible!
Till Next Blog........
