Chickenpox in adults - symptoms and treatment, incubation period, photos, first signs. Chickenpox in children: onset, symptoms, treatment at home, incubation period, prevention

How and when to swim with chickenpox.

Young pediatricians and doctors who have gone through the old school have radically different opinions regarding this disease. Young people believe that taking a bath if there is no fever or severe itching is possible, and even necessary, since this promotes the healing of wounds and does not in any way affect the spread of infection.

Why can’t you wash, take a bath, take a shower, take a bath, or use soap when you have chickenpox?

Of course, if a child has a high temperature, he feels very unwell, and feels unwell, then there is no question of a bath. Since a hot bath can increase the temperature.

The fact is that the disease develops in paroxysmal and spasmodic periods. This is due to the fact that the virus lives in the body for several days. This contributes to the appearance of rashes almost every day. Therefore, it is useless to wait for the crusts to dry.

When can children and adolescents wash and bathe with chickenpox in a bath, in a shower, in a sauna, with soap on what day?

You can take a bath at the very beginning of the illness or at the very end, there is no difference. There may be both early rashes and already dried crusts on the body.

If the child is feeling well and is dirty, then it makes sense to buy it quickly in the shower. There is no need to immerse it in the bath and lather it completely. But rinsing in the shower is very useful.

When can adults wash and bathe with chickenpox in a bath, in a shower, in a bathhouse, with soap on what day?

Bath and shower for chickenpox:

• You can't take a steam bath if you have chickenpox. This helps to loosen the crusts and increase the itching. Regarding the bath, all procedures with a very high temperature during illness are excluded. The fact is that often with chickenpox there is a high temperature, so if you take a steam bath, this can contribute to an increase in temperature.
• It is not allowed to rub sores and scabs or peel them off. Therefore, if you take water procedures during chickenpox, or bathe your sick child, in this case it is best to use tar soap without a washcloth. That is, soap is applied to the hand and then the child’s body is washed.
• Please note that chickenpox is an infectious disease that can be complicated by a variety of opportunistic microorganisms. Such as staphylococcus and streptococcus, they concentrate on the skin in significant quantities. Together with sweat and fat, their amount increases, so during the hot season it is recommended to take a shower 2 times a day.
• You can use baby soap, tar soap or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This will help destroy the infection and stop the occurrence of new ulcers.

Is it possible for an adult and a child to wash their hair if they have chickenpox?

Washing your hair when you have chickenpox, if it is very dirty, is not only possible, but necessary. To do this, use baby shampoo. After this, you can rinse your hair with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Dry your hair and scalp thoroughly, lubricate with antiseptics.

Is it possible to wash in potassium permanganate and tar soap if you have chickenpox?

You can also take baths with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. To do this, add potassium permanganate to a bath of warm water on the tip of a knife. The water should be slightly pink. You can sit in this solution for 5 minutes. Under no circumstances should you rub sores and scabs. Therefore, after a bath, it is recommended to simply blot the water.

When can you go for a walk after chickenpox, on what day?

Regarding walking during chickenpox, pediatricians have different opinions. Some people believe that you should never walk outside in order to avoid infecting children. But some doctors believe that walking helps strengthen the immune system and speed recovery. Therefore, it is recommended to walk with your child away from playgrounds and public places. You can take a walk in the park.

Choose comfortable, comfortable clothes so that your child does not rub anything. During illness, do not attend events, do not go to the circus with your child. Do not take him to any exhibitions or playgrounds. You should stay away from people and especially children.

The incubation period for chickenpox is 3 weeks. During these three weeks the child is contagious. The infection is transmitted by airborne droplets. A lot of viral cells are in the fluid that flows out after the ulcers rupture.

How to maintain proper hygiene during chickenpox and alleviate the patient’s condition: tips

Chickenpox is quite difficult for adults to suffer from. In children it passes quite quickly and simply. Can be considered a moderate disease. Some children, with the exception of the rash, no longer feel any discomfort. Many children do not even develop a fever. Therefore, before carrying out any procedures, focus on the baby’s condition.

Hygienic manipulations and tips:

• If there is a high temperature, in this case it is recommended to give the child an antipyretic. This could be Nurofen, Panadol or Paracetamol. Also, treat sores and new rashes regularly. The fact is that the disease develops in waves. That is, there can be both a new rash and an old one on the body at the same time.
• Regardless of the stage of the disease, it is necessary to treat the ulcers several times a day. This is done using a solution of fucorcin, brilliant green and other antiseptics.
• Since your body may itch when you have chickenpox, try to relieve the itching slightly. To do this, allow your child to take a warm bath and then pat his body dry with a towel. This procedure will help reduce the itching a little.
• Now there are a huge number of popular modern remedies that can be used to treat ulcers. Many doctors, young pediatricians and therapists do not recommend using brilliant green to treat ulcers. You can use modern medicines: Calamine, Acyclovir, Gerpevir.
• Very often children scratch ulcers and pimples. In their place, scars and marks often remain. To avoid this, try to distract your child as often as possible. Therefore, walk him more on the street, in the park or near bodies of water that are in your area.
• You should not take your child to entertainment centers or places where there are large crowds of people and children.
• Treatment of ulcers with Acyclovir reduces the period of illness. This is an ointment that fights herpetic rashes.
• Chickenpox is an infectious disease caused by one of the herpes viruses. This disease is transmitted by airborne droplets. Your task is to alleviate the child’s condition and promote recovery as quickly as possible.

In general, conservative treatment with wound treatment with fucorcin or brilliant green is sufficient. In severe cases, with very severe lesions and high fever, antiviral tablets are prescribed.

When you hear the word “chickenpox,” everyone has a standard series of associations: fever, green, rash, itching. One of the most unpleasant diseases due to the constant and unrealizable desire to rub or scratch the whole body. You can relieve these terrible sensations with the help of water. But is it possible to wash yourself if you have chickenpox? The answer from specialists and doctors is yes. The main thing is to follow the necessary rules.

How to wash properly if you have chickenpox

You should take a bath or shower only after the temperature has subsided, that is, 3-5 days from the onset of the illness. At this time, new rashes no longer appear, and old ones begin to dry out. Avoid excessive steaming of the skin - blisters on the body may begin to itch even more. Therefore, bathing water should be warm, but in no case hot! The bathing procedure should be reduced to a few (5-15) minutes. But no one forbids repeating it several times a day. The main thing is not to forget about basic hygiene standards: wash the bathtub and change the water before each wash. There is no need to dry yourself with a towel. The body should absorb excess moisture and dry itself. You can use a soft cloth and gently blot the skin. It would not be amiss to remember folk remedies and add tinctures and decoctions of various medicinal herbs to water to relieve itching and dry out crusts on the rash:

• Dissolve half a glass of soda in cool or lukewarm water and take a bath for 15 minutes 4 times a day;
• mix 10 drops of bergamot and olive oil and add to water, can also be used to gently wipe the skin;
• Chop calendula, celandine, chamomile, thyme, oak bark (all together or separately), brew and strain, then add to water and bathe for 15 minutes several times a day.

In adults, chickenpox is more severe than in children. A high temperature can be accompanied by insomnia, headache, fever, inflammation of the lymph nodes and even subsequent pneumonia. In this case, is it possible to wash with chickenpox in adults? If weakness and poor health prevent you from getting out of bed, you should not think about anything else other than your recovery. But when the disease begins to recede and the temperature has returned to normal, you can allow yourself a few minutes of a light, cool shower. Do not make the water pressure too strong. This can damage blisters and rashes, which will leave behind unsightly and difficult to remove scars.

A categorical “no”!

During chickenpox, the skin on the body and face becomes the most vulnerable and traumatized. Therefore, when taking a bath or shower, there are things that you should never resort to:

• use hot water;
• wash with a washcloth, rub the skin with your hands or nails;
• use soap, gels, scrubs, shampoos;
• lubricate the skin with lotions or creams after a shower;
• take a bath for more than 15 minutes;
• towel.

All this will lead to the fact that the wounds on the skin soften after water and move away ahead of time from rough mechanical movements, leaving scar-like scars all over the body.

Can children wash themselves if they have chickenpox?

In the first days of the illness, fever and weakness take away all the strength, and the child does not pay attention to the skin urges. But after a few days, vigor and well-being sets in, and it is difficult to explain to children that scratching the skin and picking at “sores” is prohibited. All that remains is to watch out for naughty hands and distract your child from the constant itching. Mom’s best helper in this matter will be a bath with warm water and her favorite rubber toys. You just need to not let the child get carried away and lift him out of the water in time. Such baths with the addition of medicinal herbs, if done several times a day, can give the child relief from painful itching for several hours and a restful sleep if you end the day with a water procedure.

Is it possible to wash yourself if you have chickenpox? Just recently, pediatricians unanimously stated - under no circumstances! But over time, information about the disease became more and more, and doctors’ judgments became less and less categorical, and today there is no longer a clear answer to this question.

Chickenpox stages

Incubation period The illness can last from 10 to 21 days. The child is already sick, but neither he nor the parents yet suspect it. Naturally, the question: is it possible to wash with chickenpox is not worth it at this stage.

Prodromal period lasts from 1 to 2 days and is characterized by a depressed state, a decrease in or You might think that the child has a cold or is simply overtired, because so far they are absent.

Period of rash from 3 to 5 days. At this time, the patient’s health deteriorates, the temperature rises from 37.5 to 38.5 degrees, and characteristic rashes appear. They can appear on absolutely any part of the body and head, including the scalp and mucous membranes.

When should you swim?

Bathing will relieve unbearable itching, calm the child, and prevent scratching. Many people have a question about whether it is possible to wash with chickenpox using decoctions of medicinal herbs. The answer is yes. Chamomile, calendula, celandine, oak bark, string are suitable, the main thing is that there is no allergy to the chosen remedy.

Parents of sick children are often also interested in whether it is possible to bathe a child with chickenpox in a bathtub or is it necessary to use a shower? You need to do it in a way that is more convenient for you and as your baby is more comfortable with. There are no contraindications for any of the methods. A bath is even preferable because you can add medicine to the water; you can’t do this with a shower. The main thing is that the bathing container is very, very clean, because damaged skin can easily be subject to secondary infection by any other pathogens.

So, we have answered the question of when you can wash yourself with chickenpox, now you need to find out how best to do it.

What is prohibited when swimming while sick?

Under no circumstances should you use soaps, foams and shower gels, no matter how gentle and hypoallergenic they may be - they are prohibited. Also leave the washcloth until better times - with its help you can easily damage healing ulcers. It is better not to touch the body with your hands at all, but simply rinse it briefly in the bath or shower, and then gently pat it dry with a clean diaper or towel. After each bathing, all elements of the rash should be re-treated with fucorcin or brilliant green. By following these rules, you can wash up to 4-6 times a day and the process will only benefit the patient, drying out the crusts and promoting the speedy healing of wounds.

Special attention

There are exceptions to any rule, and in our case, such an exception is people with reduced immunity. The reasons for the low level may be different, but the risk of bacterial infections increases significantly regardless of what exactly causes the weakness of the immune reactions. For such patients, it is better to replace bathing with wiping with wet wipes soaked in an antibacterial composition. When wiping, you need to go around the affected areas of the skin without touching them. Weakened patients will have to wait a while with water procedures until the signs of the disease are completely eliminated, or rather, until the dry crusts disappear.

Chicken pox is an infectious disease. It occurs as a result of entry into the body and rapid reproduction of one of the strains of the herpes virus - ꓦаricella Zоster. The disease is highly contagious, that is, the pathogen is easily transmitted from an infected person to a healthy person. Typically, infection occurs through airborne droplets, less often through household contact. A characteristic feature of the disease is its acute course: patients experience a sharp increase in body temperature, symptoms of intoxication of the body, a papular itchy rash, etc. After recovery, the vast majority of patients develop immunity to this infection, which lasts for life. For a long period of time, it was believed that one should not wash during chickenpox, as this increases the number of vesicles on the human skin. However, today it has been established that during the normal course of the disease, sanitary and hygienic procedures have a beneficial effect on the patient’s condition.

Attention! Vesicles are small fluid-filled formations on the epidermis, formed as a result of the development of the inflammatory process. The vesicles may be filled with clear cerebrospinal fluid, greenish or yellowish purulent effusion, or blood.

Chickenpox is a manifestation of the reaction of the human immune system to the penetration of the microorganism ꓦаricella Zоster into the body. Due to its high invasiveness, the disease is most often transmitted by children of preschool or primary school age. The virus then enters the circulatory system through the epithelial membranes of the respiratory tract.

With the normal development of the disease, several main stages are distinguished during its course:

1. Infection and latent or incubation period. At this time, the pathogen integrates into the cells of the epithelial membranes of the upper respiratory tract and infects them. No clinical symptoms are expressed at this stage, the patient does not complain of deterioration in health.
2. Period of appearance of the first symptoms of the disease. A huge number of viruses and virions spread through the bloodstream throughout the patient’s body. Infection is accompanied by characteristic symptoms of intoxication: the patient’s health sharply worsens, a feeling of weakness occurs, headache, myalgia and arthralgia appear. In response to a viral attack, the immune system begins to produce antibodies to the pathogen.
3. Acute period. Any herpes virus, including the causative agent of chickenpox, is embedded in the roots of the nerve ganglia. The result of this process is the appearance of a characteristic papular rash on the skin and mucous membranes. The rashes can itch and cause severe discomfort to the patient, but with proper care they dry out and disappear after 2-4 weeks, leaving no scars.
4. Recovery stage. The rash on the epithelium and epidermis dries out, becomes crusty, and the patient’s general condition noticeably improves.

After suffering from chickenpox, a person most often develops immunity to this type of virus, which usually lasts from several months to tens of years.

Features of clinical symptoms of chickenpox

Hygiene for chickenpox

Chickenpox is a long-term disease. In general, from the moment the first symptoms appear until the rash completely disappears, it takes from 14 to 35 days. At the same time, due to the rash, patients experience severe itching and discomfort. Observing the rules of personal hygiene during illness helps relieve discomfort and improve the patient’s condition.

Attention! If there are no complications with chickenpox, then water procedures are necessary, especially after the body temperature has normalized. Washing makes it possible to cleanse the skin of accumulated dirt, sweat and skin secretions, thereby speeding up recovery.

When can you wash yourself if you have chickenpox?

You can take a shower with chickenpox after the end of the acute phase of the disease. As a rule, improvement in well-being occurs 3-5 days after the first symptoms of illness appear. Experts recommend performing water procedures only if the patient’s body temperature does not exceed 36.6-36.9°C.

Attention! The patient is contraindicated to wash if hyperthermia is not detected, but chills persist. In this case, you should wait until you feel normal before taking a bath or shower.

However, even during an acute period of illness, the patient's skin must be cared for. Otherwise, the person’s condition may be complicated by the penetration of contaminants into the opened or combed papules and the addition of a secondary infection.

Sanitary and hygienic treatment for hyperthermia should be carried out as follows:

1. During the day, the patient is allowed to wash his hands and feet if necessary with warm water, antibacterial soap or gel. In this case, after the procedure, each vesicle should be treated with brilliant green, fucorcin ointment, Tsindol, etc.
2. Small children can be washed several times a day, but drying their skin with a towel is not recommended. Disposable wipes or absorbent diapers should be used. After the procedure, calamine lotion can be applied to the skin. It soothes the skin and relieves itching.
3. Adult patients may shower for 2 to 5 minutes at a low-grade fever, not exceeding 37.5°C, if they experience severe itching due to severe rash and accumulated secretions and debris on the skin.

Washing for chickenpox

1. Taking a shower for the first time during illness should not last more than 3-5 minutes. If dizziness, tachycardia or weakness occur, you should stop washing.
2. You should not use gels, scrubs or other cosmetic care products while washing for the first 10-12 days after the onset of symptoms of the disease.
3. The head and body must be washed separately.
4. Taking a bath is allowed only if the patient does not complain of any health problems other than a rash. Typically, this condition occurs after 5-6 days of illness. It is worth considering that foams or lotions cannot be added to bathing water; decoctions of medicinal plants are allowed for use.
5. You cannot use a washcloth until the crusts fall off from the vesicles.

Washing your hair for chickenpox

If you have chickenpox, you can wash your hair only after the rash on the skin begins to dry out. At the same time, this procedure should not be postponed for too long, since otherwise sebum secretions and dust accumulated on the hair can lead to contaminants getting into the opened papules and the development of the inflammatory process. Most often, washing your hair is possible on the 5-10th day of illness. It is recommended to do this as follows:

1. The scalp must be treated with a drying and disinfectant, carefully lubricating each papule.
2. Shampoo and other detergents may be used only after the crusts formed on the vesicles have fallen off.

Video - What water can you bathe a child with chickenpox in?

Contraindications to water procedures

There are a number of contraindications in which patients with chickenpox are not recommended to take a shower or bath:

1. The patient continues to have a high body temperature or has chills and severe weakness.
2. The patient has a weakened immune system or has cardiovascular or kidney problems. In this case, you can take a shower on the 6-7th day of illness for 2-3 minutes.
3. Secondary infections are associated with chickenpox.

In this case, water procedures should be replaced by treating the skin with special medicinal foams, herbal decoctions or wiping with wet wipes.

Chickenpox is a long-term infectious disease. During chickenpox, it is extremely important to maintain good personal hygiene. During the acute period of the disease, during which severe hyperthermia is noted, washing is not recommended. You can take a shower 3-5 days after the first symptoms of illness appear. Keeping your skin clean will reduce the symptoms of the disease and speed up recovery.

Video - How to treat chickenpox