My Kids Got Chicken Pox?

Last night, tiny red dots appeared on Ryan's body. I noticed some of these red dots the day before but I thought it was just mosquito bites as I had quite a few myself. Well, yesterday, more dots appeared on his body... were these mosquito bites (coz Ryan was sleeping with his pants off the night before and maybe the mossies had a feast on him?) or is he having chicken pox (One of his classmates is down with chicken pox)?? Panicked - brought him straight to the doctor. What if Raymund catch it? Worse, what if Rachel gets it? Sure going to be a domino effect! Headache! 

The doctor couldn't quite tell. He said that it looked like chicken pox and we will know if it is chicken pox if it spreads the next day. Because he had chicken pox vaccination earlier, the infection will be quite mild and so, there is nothing to worry. As for Raymund, though he had a jab, it has been more than a year since and he would have already been infected. Again, it will be mild too. As for Rachel, the one I worry about most coz she has yet to have the vaccination, surprise, surprise! She is LEAST likely to be infected! Why? I had chicken pox before and at birth, my antibodies would have passed on to her and it has only been 6 months ago. I read somewhere... "At birth, infants have protection against certain diseases because antibodies have passed through the placenta from the mother to the unborn child. After birth, breastfed babies get the continued benefits of additional antibodies in breast milk. But in both cases, the protection is temporary." 

So what if Ryan gets it? What to do? 

1. Drink lots of water. Drink 'leong sui' (herbal drink) or even fresh coconut water. The idea is to cool down the body to control to outbreak. I bought Ryan and Raymund fresh coconut water and made 'chuk je sui'
2. Apply calamine on affected areas. I'm quite relunctant to apply calamine on the face. I used Hazeline Snow instead.
3. Do not let him scratch
4. There is an option to take anti-viral medicine to suppress the infection. But some says that suppression may not provide immunity later. So, they advised me to let it break out. Forgot to ask the doc about this
5. Quarantine him. No school. No playground. No outing. Poor thing!

[This section is for my couzy, Vivien :) ]  

What about pregnant ladies? When I was pregnant with Ryan, my colleague had chicken pox and I was in close contact with her just before the spots showed. Panicked big time! Will it affect my baby. The first question that my gynae asked me was have I had chicken pox before? And whether I was in the early pregnancy stage (1st 3 months) or almost delivery stage. Since I had chicken pox before, my antibodies would have already been passed to my baby though the placenta and there is nothing to worry about. However, if you are NOT immune and at the early stage of pregnancy or almost delivery stage, there is a risk of birth defect or may be even worse if you are at almost delivery stage. Call your gynecologist immediately for advice. And also google up for more information.