Tuesday, June 03, 2008

chicken pox

my poor baby ezekiel, got the chicken pox. counting back, it was probably during our trip (maybe at that play place at the Seattle airport?).
May 31 saturday

here he is just after we found out for sure it was.

june 1 sunday

he has calamine lotion all over and more spots showing up all the time. i would try to give him a soothing bath, and he wouldnt even sit in the water and would cry the whole time.



checking out his spots

june 2 monday

hammin' it up with all the balls in the house.
he had a soothing oatmeal bath (for which he actually sat down and kind of played--he normally LOVES bathtime) that evening.

that morning we went to my doctor's appointment for baby and it was supposed to be his 18 month immunizations but alas, he was far far too sick for that.

ezekiel could have been immunized from chicken pox at one year but i decided to postpone the decision until 18 months.

i had already decided not to immunize diedre on my doctor's recommendation. he suggests that it is better for girls to have chicken pox rather than the vaccine since the vaccine is only about 20 years old and we dont know yet if people will need boosters or re-vaccination at a later date. the concern is that if the vaccine wears out by her mid-20s when a woman starts having kids, and then she happens to contract chicken pox, it could be very dangerous for her and her baby. so basically, to follow the old way of doing things and just have chicken pox since it rarely has complications, it doesnt kill you, it only lasts a couple days, and then you're protected for life, seemed to be the better choice in our opinion.

of course, i was doubting myself when ezekiel was in the thick of it a few days ago. basically, we had 2 nights of very little sleep because he was restless, or would sleep for only 20 minutes at a time. we gave him infant tylenol and advil to keep the fever down (he didnt have much of one really) and to help with pain and itching.

after visiting our family dr. on monday, i was informed that polysporin could be used all over the body, even in the eyes, ears, private parts. so i smeared it all over his spots yesterday and there is considerable improvement. he slept all night last night and his facial spots are looking much better today, not to mention his disposition is basically back to normal (happy) except for the odd "ouch" if i pick him up wrong and just needing more time "up" than usual.

the doctor said diedre will definitely get the chicken pox too, so i guess there'll be pics of her too coming soon...maybe by next week.

7 comments:

mellenger said...

poor guy. i'm glad he's starting to feel better.

ramblin'andie said...

awww...poor little tyke. He still looks sweet and happy though! My doctor told me pretty much the same thing yours did (except about the warning for girls/pregnancy). So Davey got the Chicken Pox and Tink had the needle.

I'll be thinking of you in the next while. Hope you manage to get your rest in between all the nursing sick babies!!

Lisa's Diet said...

Aww poor little guy is right, I still remember having the Pox as a child. Hmm this is making me feel better about Chase getting his first set of shots today.

Anonymous said...

Hope your little guy is better and that Deidre doesn't get it so bad. My four all had it one after the other even though they had been vaccinated. Hope you can get some rest in between.

derek salmon said...

really? oh crap! dont tell my friend joanna that...she is still letting her boys play with my kids b/c they have been vaccinated...uh oh...but we also discussed that if the vaccinations did not "work" that now would be the best time for them to get it (being 3 and 4 years old) rather than school age.

how old were your kids when they got vaccinated and then how old when they got the pox?

Anonymous said...

they were vaccinated at 1 year and were 8,7,31 months and 5 months. The 5month old hadn't been vaccinated and just had a mild case, way less than the others. I think he had about 8 spots in all .

Michelle said...

my doc is against the chicken pox vax, because it is much worse to get CP as an adult, for boys and girls. much better to get "wild CP" and have natural immunity. CP for kids is no big deal, while CP in adults is very serious.