Could This Be Chicken Pox?

My boys weren't sick when they had chicken pox, they got them at Easter and I did not know of any other cases. With bed bugs I don't think you go from having no bites to twenty bites at once. It is very possible it is chicken pox.

Hi Lisa,
Hope so much that if it is chicken pox, that it won't be a bad case, and that there will be at least 60 pox (you want at least that many to help keep him from getting it again). I would definitely get a diagnosis - you actually need that for filling out future medical forms, like school forms.

When you call the doctor, tell them that you think your child has chicken pox. They won't make you wait - they may even take you in a separate entrance in order to prevent him from exposing others.

If it's something else, at least you'll know.

Good luck - it's tough having it!!
Dawn

Has your son had any prescription medication? When I was a child, the doctor prescribed sulfa for me when I got sick, and I broke out in an allergic reaction that looked very much like chicken pox. It itched like crazy too, but didn't make blisters like genuine chicken pox.

This is not chicken pox because he doesn't have a fever. Chicken pox is a viral infection. I've had chicken pox. I was miserable with a fever, chills, itching, oozing spots, eyes sensitive to light, etc.

Here is a web site describing chicken pox. It does say that some children do not get fever as a first symptom. One of the articles I looked at said take the child to the doctor so that you'll have documentation of having had chicken pox. Schools require that the child has been vaccinated and having had them carries the same weight as a vaccination.

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/symptoms/a/06_chicken_pox.htm

Has your son been exposed to chicken pox. Incubation period is 11-14 days meaning that one comes down with the illness 11-14 days after exposure. Chicken pox is rare and I should think you'd know if he'd been exposed.

There are several other things this could be. Take him to the doctor who will be able to diagnose the cause of the spots.

It very well sounds like chicken pox. Please, make sure to be cautious if you nor your husband has had this either. Unfortunately it is easy for the virus to be passed along especially within families. Thankfully, unless any of you are immunosuppressed it should not be too huge of an inconvenience.

Just note that if he does have chicken pox it is possible to develop shingles after the fact. I'm a 30 year old woman w/o an oppressed immune system and I am just now getting over a mild case of the shingles. Best wishes for your little one and family.

Chicken pox ITCH something awful and it starts with a sore throat and fever.
You get water filled blisters/lesions and you should not scratch them.
I had them when I was 6 and to this day I have 2 scars from where I scratched.
Although it can start on arms, legs, torso with chicken pox you will get pox inside your ears, on your scalp, inside your mouth - just about everywhere except soles of your feet and palms of your hands.
You can catch chicken pox anytime of the year.
The symptoms so far don't all line up with chicken pox.

Are there any tiny dark red/black smears on his bed sheets?
That would be a sign of bed bugs.

There are a lot of things that an cause rashes/welts.
You can develop an allergy at any time which can bring on hives.
Measles can cause spots, but a fever comes with that.
Some causes are serious and others are annoying but not so serious.
Have your doctor check it out to be on the safe side.

It is possible that it could be chicken pox. Normally with chicken pox they will be most prevalent in the warm spots of the body first. By warm spots I mean armpits, back of the neck, creases of the legs. Typically that is where you see them first. They do look like little red bumps and then they form little pussy tops on them, what most would recognize as a "white head" pimple. A lot of kids do not act sick until the pox are more pimple like. Sadly, if they stay just little red bumps everywhere, it could still be chicken pox, but it may be a mild case and he could get a full blown case when he is older.

my 16yo son has had 2 full-blown rounds of chicken pox + a couple of other rounds we now believe were actually minor cases. His body does not maintain the antibodies as it should.

With the full-blown cases, he had fever/cold symptoms for the 1st round... but not the 2nd. In fact, with the 2nd, he'd been on a Scout hike & we thought he had chigger bites. No fever, no funny nose! Just broke out with pimply bumps. An RN friend diagnosed him & we headed to the dr!

When my son got chicken pox, he didn't seem ill... I didn't even notice the spots! It was his big sister that commented... "Nick sure has a lot of ant bites!" (We live in Texas where fire ants are common, and a fire ant bite results in a small pustule....)

I took a look at his back, and sure enough, he had chicken pox! (This was before the chicken pox vaccination was commonly given....)

At that point, there were probably less than 20 on his back and torso....

Sounds like it could be chicken pox. Many kids don't feel bad when they have it. Some develop a fever, usually mild, and feel yucky for a few days. A few, like my daughter, get a worse case, with a fever that lasts longer and general crankiness. Do take him to the doctor, not for treatment (they won't do anything), but for documentation if he does have it. That way, when he needs proof of vaccination in the future, he has proof of having gained his immunity the old-fashioned way.

By the way, if your doctor is young, it is possible that he/she has never seen a live case of the chicken pox. The doctor in the clinic where we went when my daughter had it (we were traveling, so ended up at a ready care) had not seen it before. I recognized it because I grew up pre-vaccine.