Guest guest Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Herbal chicken pox treatment by Gallagher So, there I was with two children covered in chicken pox. I felt grateful that they were both getting them over with while they were young, and nervous about my ability to treat them effectively on my own, without over the counter remedies. This was definitely the most serious illness I had yet faced as an herbalist parent. How I wished for a chicken pox treatment page like the one I’m about to write, a page from another parent saying here’s what I did, and it worked. Luckily, my herbalist husband was on hand to remind me to trust the plants and to use the plants we know. Chicken pox, we discovered, is a herpes related virus, so we chose St. ’s Wort as our primary healer, since we know it to be effective against herpes. We brewed up teas for their baths – decoctions of St. ’s Wort (dried leaves, stem and flowers), dried burdock root, and dried licorice root. To make the decoction we would put one large handful of each into about a gallon of boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Then strain out the herbs and add the tea to the bath water. I would also fill a thin cloth bag with oats, calendula flowers and baking soda and put that into the bath. The kids would squeeze the oat milk onto their skin and even rub the bags over the irritated areas. These baths did wonders to relieve the itching and calm the children. What a great herbal chicken pox treatment! We also had the children drink the St. ’s Wort, burdock and licorice tea as much as possible while they were broken out. Still, we had times when the itching and burning was very uncomfortable and made sleeping especially difficult. At these times, St. s Wort oil offered some relief. We didn’t come up with the perfect anti-itch formula, but have since learned that tea tree oil can provide amazing relief, and that chickweed poultices are effective for cooling and calming the itch. We did try a mixture of baking soda and water and found it not only ineffective, but irritating to the children. This is actually a popular chicken pox treatment for some reason. Hailey had the easier time with the chicken pox. At one year old, she didn’t get nearly as many as her six year old brother, and for the first few days was happy and playful and still practicing her walking. She did get quite a few pox on her butt and genital area, probably because of the heat from her diaper. Then, just about the time that Rowan was beginning to feel better, Hailey got a fever and we noticed one of the pox on her leg where her diaper wrap was rubbing was very red and swollen. We took her diaper off and began using poultices of calendula flowers and plantain leaves (crushed in a mortar and pestle with a little bit of water) directly on the pox. The swelling and redness went away by the end of the day and her fever was gone by morning. We then used these poultices (attached with gauze and tape) on any of the more angry looking pox until they were healed. Another worrisome occurrence that happened for us, was that Rowan sat up in bed near the middle of the night with his eyes wide open, yelling nonsense. It was a very unsettling experience for me as a mother, but after doing some research on the web, I found that it is not uncommon during chicken pox. I simply calmed him and he went back to sleep and woke a few minutes later with no memory of the episode. The worst of the virus had passed within a period of about four days, and they were intense days for me. My suggestion to you is that if you call on whatever support system you have during this illness. Find ways to get rest yourself, drink nourishing, calming teas, and rest assured that the remedies on this page worked for our family and that your children will get better given love and herbal nourishment. We hope our herbal chicken pox treatment works for you. Suzi What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. health/ http://suziesgoats.wholefoodfarmacy.com/ http://360./suziesgoats __________________________________________________Do You ?Tired of spam? has the best spam protection around http://mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 Hi , At this point you've already been exposed to it so there's no sense in avoiding contact with your mother now. First find out if it is in fact chicken pox, then find out if you had it as a child. My guess would be no, otherwise your mother would have likely caught it herself from when you had it, therefore you should inquire about starting anti-viral drugs now. If you did have it as a child then you're immune and have no reason to be worried. Could it be shingles that she has instead of chicken pox? One clear sign would be if it's only on one side of her body. Chicken pox doesn't discriminate and will go all over the body but shingles restricts itself to only one side. If she had chicken pox as a child then it's very unlikely that she would get it again. If it's shingles, you don't need to worry as its an autoimmune response to the dormant chicken pox virus and not actually contagious to anyone who has already had chicken pox. You can catch chicken pox from someone who has shingles (if you never had chicken pox) but you can't catch shingles itself from anyone. Any way you look at it, you both should see a doctor to find out for sure what it is and if you could benefit from taking antiviral drugs. Hope that helps a bit, Tracey > > hey everyone. My mom and I live together and she has broken out in a rash that we suspect is chicken pox. On Gleevec should I be around her. thank everyone for being so helpful. God bless. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 Oops! Tracey is absolutely correct. My answer was written in haste and was misleading... I am sorry. Someone with an active shingles infection can pass on a case of chicken pox, not the other way around. Troxel > > > > hey everyone. My mom and I live together and she has broken out in a rash that we suspect is chicken pox. On Gleevec should I be around her. thank everyone for being so helpful. God bless. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 Hi Sue, I'm afraid that all the hand washing in the world won't protect someone from catching chicken pox if they've never had it before. Chicken pox is an airborne virus which means that you can catch it from being in the same room as someone infected, even if you never actually touch the person. http://tinyurl.com/n5ne8a Shingles on the other hand, is NOT contagious to anyone who's already had chicken pox so I'm not sure why your doctors advised you to avoid contact with your mother during her outbreak. Perhaps you can ask them to clarify. http://tinyurl.com/msjq4g Take care, Tracey > > just gave you some great advise > > Wash hands, keep away from Mum I would suggest, keep for yourself separate cups, plates, knifes and forks etc > and wash them separately. > > Use surgical gloves when washing dishes etc. > > I have had shingles at times, not just from glivec. > > My Mum also had a bout of shingles last year and both GP and Haem said keep away from her. > However Mum needed some assistance as she is very old. > > I even wore a mask at times > > You need to be very aware of management issues. > > Do not kiss your MUM while her chicken pox is active and do not touch her sores with bare hands > - or if dabbing chicken pox with lotion like calamine - then have surgical gloves on and destroy after. > > You must be very very clean. > > Sue ( Aussie) > > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4353 (20090820) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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