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Spy
03-02-09, 06:32 PM
Since both my kids were lucky these past holidays to have dealt with chickenpox (courtesy of the younger one who picked it up from a vaccinated classmate :D), I got more than my fair share of urban legends from the extended family, including the notion about 'the more pox you get the more severe the disease is'.

My little one had really only a handful of spots, a bit like Hilary's boy on that picture in the description topic (mostly on his back as well) and was not even uncomfortable. His almost 19 year old brother on the other hand, was expected to have a more severe disease (you know, the usual 'it gets tougher as you get older'), and probably he did, compared to his brother, but still I would call it mild, he may have had a weeks break from his hard partying life... :rolleyes:
The thing with him though was that for the first two-three days he didn't have much pox (maybe three at first with one-two a day for the next couple days) but had some fever and didn't feel very well. When I used a homeopathic remedy in the end of the third day, he got up within 30 minutes reporting major improvement in general condition but higher fever, and by the morning he had good, full rash all over. His fever didn't go down for a few more days but his only source of discomfort from that moment on was his skin and mouth (he scored a few there too).
I couldn't help noticing this major improvement in the way he felt coinciding with proper pox showing up, whilst my MIL and DH were in sheer horror about the amount of pox and therefore the perceived 'complicated disease'. At which point my homeopath-by-correspondence actually told me that way before vaccination era (not specifically chickenpox vaccination but the entire modern time with vaccines and symptomatic drugs) there was a term for 'rash failure' which was considered a complication, whilst full rash was actually a sign of a good, proper way of healing of all rash diseases. Which got turned all upside down now and weak or no rash is 'normal' and good, full pox is 'complication'.

The only 'complication' my son experienced was a significant headache on day 5 or so, which turned out to be the result of his failure to take SA (sour tablets didn't go well with pox on his tongue) and was gone as soon as he got back on track after a lecture from his evil mother. :giggle:

Wonder-Full
03-02-09, 06:45 PM
Just last night I was pondering what happened with my two when they got CP a few years back.

DS got it first, had a reasonable covering but flew through it as he normally does with things like that.

DD got it 2wks later and had a really tough time - moderate fever for 4 days, really tired, totally covered in spots (but not *in* places as far as I could tell) - she even had all the spots in her nappy area get infected and had a huge coverage in there (due to the moist heat I imagine since she was in cloth nappies). I took her to the homeopath several times but she just eventually had to work it through on her own and I got rigorous with the colloidal silver to clear up the infected spots.

Is there possibly any thing with longer exposure time causing a heavier dose - hence a child in the same family who catches it second?

Spy
03-02-09, 06:56 PM
What about children in the family who don't catch it though in spite of all possible exposure? :D

My son's friend had chicken pox a year or two ago and managed to sleep over at our place (in my sons room!) twice within this time. I never had chicken pox to the best of my knowledge and after two full exposures this time (forget the previous 40 years) am still standing. There has to be something besides exposure details working there... :cool:

Momtezuma Tuatara
04-02-09, 07:37 AM
have a look at this paper (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/vandenhof.htm)from 2001. (I've attached it for the records..)it's really interesting. Look how few specimens they took, and yet how many people developed immunity yet showed no clinical symptoms.

Sure, it's measles, but the same applies to all diseases IMO.

I never had clinical whooping cough as a child, or when my kids had it, but I'm sure I had clinical whooping cough four years ago. :shrug: