Icky Sicky Chickenpox

Blogging while nursing tonight. I have so many things in the pipeline I want to get out there (including a sale on some great ebooks to tell you about), but I just haven't had the emotional energy or time to sit down and do it.

The "little" boys both came down with the chickenpox on Monday. Dude has them really bad in his diaper area. I put his nighttime diaper on him and he just thrashed and kicked his legs, poor guy. I took his diaper off and slathered him in salve. I have him sleeping diaperless on a waterproof pad and towel, hopefully I don't regret it by morning. He's still restless and not all the way asleep but much closer than he was diapered pre-salve. Poor guy. He has been running a fever and *really* cranky all day. I think he's finally passing out from sheer exhaustion.

Hopefully tomorrow will be easier and I can work on some other things for you.

Made Up Chicken Pox Salve

My poor girl is just miserable. Her pox are itchy and she's not happy about it. The boy, well, he hardly fussed over his. Anyway, she's desperate. She had a 4am oatmeal/baking soda/lavender bath and a noontime bath, and she's still desperate. I started looking online for what else I could do for her and it appeared that a salve might be the best option. Then it was a matter of figuring out what I had on hand that would be useful because I don't know of many places locally I can find bulk herbs.

Most salve recipes have you soak herbs in oil for days or weeks.  Obviously that wasn't an option for my poor girl.  Then I found this recipe that says you can cook the herbs in the oil, strain them off, and use them the same day.  On to what I used: 0.3oz catnip, 0.3oz chamomile, 0.2oz lavender, and 0.2oz oregon grape root.

Catnip appears to be a good treatment for the chicken pox, though the only catnip I had on hand was some I had bought for making some cat toys.  I read on the package that it's organic, and since it is just going to be used externally I decided to go with it.  Chamomile is anti-inflammatory and antiseptic.  One of the biggest risks of further complication associated with chicken pox is infection of the blisters.  Lavender essential oil is cited several places to use in topical application or baths, and oregon grape root is anti-viral according to the recipe.  Since chicken pox is a virus, it seems logical.

Don't judge my dirty stovetop. My sink was shiny last night and that's good enough for a mom single parenting for 2 weeks with 2 chicken pocked kids.

I used my mom's old double boiler and cooked the herbs for about an hour, then strained them through a fine mesh strainer.  The oil came to about 6 or 7 oz, I added beeswax to 8oz so it would fit in a half pint canning jar.  I also added 5 drops of tea tree oil, as tto seems to also be indicated in several places online.

Filtering herbs out of the olive oil

Does it work?  Well, while the salve was cooling I used what was left over in the measuring cup to put on her sores, it was still warm and she seemed to appreciate it.  Once since she has come to me with a festering pock and I put some more on it.  She's in her third bath of the day right now, the bath I think relieves her pain while she's in there.  I'll slather her again when she gets out.

Meanwhile, the boys are downstairs watching a movie.  My kids have watched so much tv this week.  I feel terrible, I keep justifying it by the fact that they need rest.  Also watching tv means they're not messing up the house.  And since we're having a birthday party for Dude on Sunday for 19 people (can you believe he's going to be 1?!  I still haven't written down his birth story) I'm okay with less mess-making.

Anyway, here's hoping the pox are on the upswing and this salve actually does some good.

Finally, Something They're Good For

Handsome has these ugly green(ish) army socks to wear with his ACUs. They're ridiculous, to be honest. These darn socks fade to all shades to all shades of olive green and yellow, to the point that I can't even try to match colors in the laundry, I just match styles. And they're like 2.5' long. Well, I found a good use for them, besides covering Handsome's feet and aggravating me in the laundry.

Oatmeal baths. You put a canning funnel in the top of the sock, pour about 2c of oatmeal inside, tie a knot, and drop in the bath water. Yep, you guessed it, we have the chickenpox. Well, the Monkey and the Squirrel do, anyway.

Aside from oatmeal and baking soda baths we've done some essential oil ointment, rosewater sprayed on, lemongrass in the humidifier, and sodium ascorbate (vit C). I don't know what's actually helping, but the baths seem to soothe the itching. Proven by the fact that I'm up at 4am sitting with a bathing girl. Poor thing.
It's interesting how this has played out differently for them. My Monkey started off on Monday with a few spots, getting more throughout the day. Then I think he got more overnight Monday and Tuesday nights. Thursday he was pretty well scabbed over so now he's more or less just healing. He watched a lot of TV and didn't complain much, took a couple baths and had me spray him once in awhile.

My sweet girl, on the other hand, has had a pretty different experience. She had I think 2 or so that showed up late Monday. And as of Wednesday night she had less than a dozen. But Wednesday night they went all crazy on her and Thursday she woke pretty well pocked up. Hers seem to be more irritating. She complains more and really seems to get relief from the bath. So here we are in the wee hours of Friday and she has yet more pox and can't seem to sleep. If it follows a similar pattern I'm hoping she'll be scabbed over Saturday and starting to feel better.

Poor kids. It's hard to know what to do for them. Neither of the little boys got it. I've been exposing Mr Blue again, but Dude still nurses tons so I think he's getting my immunity. Which is awesome because he's not quite 1 yet and it'd be ideal for him to wait a bit. He turns 1 tomorrow. Pretty weird. But that's another post.
In the meantime I had better steal a nap. Being up for more than an hour in the middle of the night isn't going to do much for my sanity.