Recognizing and Treating Chickenpox and Other Skin Diseases in Children

Parenting can be difficult when your child is sick. A lot of times, we don't even know what's wrong with them. However, if it's a case of a skin disease (for the common ones, at least), it is easier to determine and the information is readily available online and in books. It always helps to know what it is and the tell-tale signs.

Because Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease that can be contracted by person to person contact or through the air (sneezing or coughing), the best prevention is Chickenpox Vaccine which has been available since 1995. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccination protects the vaccinated person and reduces the risk for exposure in the community for those who are not vaccinated which includes those with severe diseases (greater risks). In a statistic reported by CDC, of 10 people who are vaccinated, 8 to 9 of them are 'completely protected' from chickenpox while the remaining number may still get it but in a very mild case that only lasts for a few days and with fewer skin lesions.

The Department of Health describes chickenpox as a disease that commonly lasts between 5-10 days and the symptoms include high fever, severe itching (all over the body), appearance of rashes (red bumps), dehydration, and headache. The blisters start out as somewhere between 2-4mm red papule which develops an irregular outline. Then, a thin-walled, clear vesicle develops on top of the red area. After around 8-12 hours, the fluid gets cloudy and the vesicle starts breaking leaving a crust. Usually, the process takes 7 days however, the blisters do not appear all at the same time and thus, at times, the disease takes more than 10 days. Repeat occurrence of this disease is highly uncommon. Most people only contracts chickenpox once in their life.

Contact Dermatitis is an irritation of the skin caused by contact with a foreign substance that produces an allergic reaction. This is highly common among children since they are at an "experimental" and "curious" stage where they always like to touch things and see how things work. Mostly, children get this type of skin disease through contact with poisonous plants like "poison ivy", metals, cleaning solutions, detergents, cosmetics, perfumes, chemicals, latex rubber, and certain foods. There are two subtypes of Contact Dermatitis. According to www.eMedicineHealth.com, these types are Allergic Dermatitis (the rash is usually only confined to the area of contact to trigger) and Irritant Dermatitis (the rash may be more widespread throughout the skin).

Your skin may blister or get 'raised red rash' and it will itch and sometimes, burn. Irritant dermatitis will tend to be more painful rather than itchy and contact dermatitis tend to appear 1-2 days after the exposure.

As a child, I went through both diseases. My chickenpox came when I was in the third grade (the vaccine wasn't in the market yet). It started out with a high fever and a few itchy reddish spots on my arms and legs. We went to my pediatrician right away and he diagnosed it as chickenpox and gave me an anti-viral medicine to prevent it from becoming full-blown. I believe I was lucky because the pills took the itch away and the disease only lasted for about 4 days. Best to say, because the itch didn't last long, it prevented me from painful scratching and saved me from dreadful scars.

My contact dermatitis was brought about by my allergy to Skipjack Tuna. This was my worst skin disease as a child and it lasted the longest. It started out blisters on my hand and later on, it spread all throughout my body. We didn't know what it was and we didn't check with the doctor. When we finally did, the doctor gave me anti-histamine and before I knew it, it was gone. Now, looking back, it worsened primarily because of negligence on our part.

There are other types of skin diseases among children. Kids Health for Parents names some of these diseases along with their general description, symptoms, and treatment.

Scabies is a skin infection with an animal parasite. It causes small red itchy bumps, pus-filled bumps, or blisters because of mites that burrow into the top layer of the skin and lay their eggs. This is contagious and can be transmitted through skin to skin contact and is most likely to spread in child care centers or school where there is constant close contact among children. It's most common symptom is severe itching which worsens at night or after a hot bath. To treat scabies, apply a sulphur salve for five consecutive nights from the neck to ankles as well as the hands after taking a scrub bath. On the morning following the fifth night of applying the salve, give the child a thorough bath and make sure to put on really clean clothes.

Pediculosis or in simpler terms, Lousiness which is common among kids ages 3 to 12 years old and is more apparent in girls than boys. Lice bites become really itchy and then your kid starts to scratch. After scratching, small, red bumps or sores appear on your child's scalp. The rash may have crusting and oozing may then develop. Treatment include topical or oral antibiotic. However, because the presence of head lice in your child may be reflective of a not-so clean environment or an unhealthy hair regimen, you may want to improve on these aspects.

Sources:

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/hp.asp
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/default.htm