How chickenpox begins: the first signs

Content

What is chicken pox
Incubation period
Prodromal period
Period of rash
Where the rash appears
Can it start with legs
What a rash looks like
When it starts to pass
Treatment

First signs chicken pox Parents whose children talked to a child diagnosed with chickenpox are especially interested. Such information is important in a situation when quarantine for chickenpox is announced in kindergarten or school. How to recognize this infection at an early stage and how to understand that a child has chickenpox? To answer such questions, you need to know where and from what begins chickenpox in childhood.

What is chicken pox

Chickenpoxwhich traditionally parents and doctors call chickenpox, represents highly contagious infection with temperature, rash and other symptoms. Most often, this disease is detected in children aged from two to ten years. Its causative agent is one of the types of herpes viruses - Varicella Zoster virus.

Infants can also become infected and have chickenpox, but most babies under six months are protected from chickenpox by their mother's immunity. They get antibodies to chickenpox from a mother who had survived in childhood, first in utero, and then through breast milk. A child older than 6 months is no longer under the protection of maternal antibodies, therefore chicken pox in infantswho have already turned six months, is quite possible.

Watch the release of the program "Live Healthy!", In which the presenter Elena Malysheva talks about chicken pox in children:

Chickenpox is also sick and over the age of 10-12 years. At the same time, in adolescents and adults, the infection is more severe, so many parents are not against communicating with preschool children with children with chickenpox or go to a health facility for inoculation against such a disease.

In the body of a child who has suffered from chickenpox or vaccinated against Varicella Zoster virus, antibodies are formed that provide him with lifelong immunity from such an infection until the end of his life. Only in 3% of cases re-infection is possible, which is often associated with immunodeficiency.

In adolescence, chickenpox is harder than that of preschool children.

Incubation period

This period is the time from the entry of the virus into the child’s body after infection to the first symptoms of infection. If you answer the question “how many days after contact does chickenpox manifest?”, Then most often this will be 14 days for children. Duration incubation period maybe less (from 7 days), and more (up to 21 days), but on average, the onset of chickenpox is noted two weeks after the first contact with the virus.

The child becomes a source of transmission of the virus to other people at the end of the incubation period - approximately 24 hours before the first symptoms. Besides, get infected A child who has chickenpox is possible during the entire period of rashes and within five days after the last bubbles appear on the baby’s skin. Transmission of the pathogen occurs through airborne droplets.

The child is a source of infection during the entire period of rash.

Prodromal period

So called the time interval when it is difficult to say what kind of disease appeared in a child. With chickenpox, it is quite short (lasts one to two days), and for many children it may even be absent. In the prodromal period of chicken pox, mothers have noted in children such manifestations of indisposition as weakness, sore throat, headache, aching muscles, loss of appetite and sleep.

Watch the video, which clearly demonstrated the rash on the initial stage of chicken pox in children:

Period of rash

The rash begins to appear on the first or second day of the clinical symptoms of chickenpox. It is associated with penetration of the virus from the bloodstream into the surface layer of the skin. At the same time, the child's body temperature rises, and the severity of fever is directly related to the abundance of rash elements, and when new rashes appear, the temperature rises again.

Where the rash appears

Not knowing if the child has become infected with chickenpox, all moms are concerned about the question "on which part of the body does the rash begin to appear?" The first elements of the rash in most children appear on the body, then they spread to the skin of the limbs, and also appear on the head (first on the face, and then on the hairy part). In some babies, the rash also covers the mucous membranes, for example, pimples can be seen in the mouth.

Can it start with legs

The first spots with chickenpox can occur on the legs and on the head, but they soon spread to the skin of the body. At the same time on the palms and feet of the rash with chickenpox almost never happens. It can appear on these sites mainly in severe form of the disease.

If the child has a mild form of chicken pox, the rash will be represented by a small number of elements on the body, and temperature often remains normal.

What a rash looks like

Chicken pox rashes are represented by several kinds of elements that occur one after another. First, small pink-red spots cover the body, and after a few hours papules form in their place. So called small bumps, resembling mosquito bites.

After some time, the upper part of the epidermis in the papules exfoliates and a transparent liquid accumulates inside - this is how single-chamber vesicles arise. Around each such bubble you can see a red “rim” of inflamed skin.

As a rule, a rash on chickenpox can be quite itchy and the task of parents should be to prevent scratching, which can infect the bubbles.

When the vesicles burst, the formed sores very quickly become crusted. From the moment of formation of a speck until the appearance of a crust, 1-2 days pass Complete healing of the skin and falling off of the crusts occurs within two to three weeks.

When it starts to pass

The duration of the rash is different for different children. In some babies, new elements of the rash cease to form within 2 days, while in other children the symptoms are more pronounced, and new bubbles appear within 9 days of the onset of the disease. On average, the occurrence of fresh specks and vesicles stops on the 5-8th day of the disease.

Treatment

There is no specific antiviral therapy for chickenpox, so the child is prescribed medications to help alleviate the symptoms of the disease. Treatment on the first day at a high temperature will be aimed at lowering it.therefore, the child is recommended to stay in bed and receive antipyretic drugs allowed at his age.

Doctor Komarovsky advises to pay special attention to the drinking regime of a sick child, as this helps to cope with any viral infection more quickly. Eating a sick baby should be gentle.

In addition, it is important to prevent the vesicles from scratching, as this causes damage to the deeper layers of the skin, with the result that traces are left after the chickenpox on the baby’s skin. For removal itch and prevent infection in the wounds of infection recommend local treatment with drugs such as Tsindol, «Calamine», Poxcline and others.

We recommend to watch the recording of the program of the famous children's doctor E. Komarovsky, which covers the topic of chicken pox in children:

Yuliya

specialist with medical education