Jasmine’s hands are teetering on the brink of being scratched into oblivion, not helped of course by the fact that she sucks her thumbs leaving them uncomforatably raw. The join of her right ear lobe is a recurrent bad spot but thankfully the extent of her troubles seem to abate there.

Willow’s little patch on her left cheek has returned and she’s added to that with a couple of patches just above her buttocks and a couple spotted across the rest of her back. She also showed the first signs of any real scratching of her thighs (though nothing to see there yet) which is saddening to see. It brings the memories of Jasmine’s torment crashing back home.

I’m hoping that this is just a minor blip, some part of the recovery of chickenpox. I expect we’ve another couple of weeks of this at least yet. Then again, it could just be the journey into Winter, something Jasmine’s skin has never coped overly well with.

On the plus side, the girls are for the most part a bubbly as ever (bar Jasmine’s boundary testing). Willow is turning into a real little character and it’s so nice to see Jasmine interact (well) with her. Jasmine is becoming more and more grown up by the minute with her 4th birthday fast approaching. It’s going to be a very busy 2012 methinks! Good times! =]

Well, I got my wish and just as predicted little Willow succumbed to the pox just after Christmas. She had considerably more spots than Jasmine though I would still consider it a mild case. I don’t think she’s experiencing an itching yet but it’s hard to gauge at this stage.

Jasmine’s has essentially recovered bar a cheeky little late comer on her face. I’m applying a dab of vitamin E oil to each ‘scar’ in the hope that there’ll be no permanent marks.

Generally speaking they both coped very well with it (still a little more to go with Willow). Both have pretty much shaken the nasty cough and the upset stomachs seem to have abated. Appetites have returned for the most part and life has almost returned to normal.

Despite being poxy the Christmas break went very well and we even had them sharing a room for the 1st time with a mixed bag of reactions. The 1st couple of nights were fine, the 3rd was hell on toast but in all honesty I’m putting that down to poxy afflictions.

We’re currently about 5 days into the ordeal since the 1st spots appeared and she’s coping with it all very well. There have been no bouts of sickness or anything untoward and beyond the spots she’s only really become more ‘cuddly.’

So far she’s not really shown any sign of itchiness (some spots have scabbed already) and for the most part she seems to be leaving them alone. I wonder if years of her consiously trying not to scratch has almost conditioned her to cope better with chickenpox???

I have noticed that the dyshridotic eczema on her hands seems to have worsened slightly as the pox has progressed and I’ve been spraying this liberally with hydrogen peroxide (food grade 3%). I also zapped a couple of the spots with this too in a bid to dry out the blisters and keep any secondary infection at bay.

We’ve kept her diet as usual as possible though topped up her drinks with vitamin C to the tune of 2-300mg a day. We also utilised a homeopathic approach given Pulsatilla (30c x2 daily), Rhus Tox and Ferrum Phos (30c both x4 daily).

All in all she’s fine and beyond looking pox’d you wouldn’t have noticed there was anything amiss.

the pox!

I am curious as to whether she’s caught a truly wild strain of the virus or whether she’s merely caught the shedding from a vaccine strain. If so then would immunity be more/less permanent (I know it is possible though rare to catch chickenpox twice). I’m not even sure it’d make a difference as the vaccine uses a live virus albeit cultured unnaturally. Food for thought though.

I’m happy she’s contracted the disease now as it means she’s less likely to catch it again when she’s older where it can be considerably more serious, particular if/when she is pregnant (I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself but it’s reassuring to know).

I’ve heard anecdotally that some children with eczema noticed an improvement in their condition upon recovering from chickenpox. I hope we notice a similar trend though in all honesty Jasmine’s eczema is not massively evident at the moment (joins of ears and spotting across hands).

We just have to wait and see if little willow succumbs and given the incubation period we should expect to see spots appearing bang in the middle of Christmas! …perfect for the family photos

We had a couple of Student docs sitting in with us who helped keep Willow amused whilst I talked shop with the dermatologist. I explained the history of atopy and our experience with Jasmine so far. I explained that we’ve not really ever tried Willow on dairy, egg, kiwi or potato and that he skin is doing very well on the whole bar a small stubborn patch on her cheek and occasional breakouts on the upper arm.

I mentioned our treatment approach of Canestan HC based on the eczema patches similar appearance to that of ringworm (the cream contains a small amount of hydro-cortisone too [hence the HC]). I stated that we apply it after her bath every evening in a tiny amount on just those areas that demand attention, and he didn’t seem overly concerned at our consistent use, though did recommend trying just a moisturiser after a week or so to see how that worked (we use Aveeno).

The dermatologist suggested blood IgE tests for dairy, egg, kiwi and potato. Wheat was suggested but going on Jasmine’s apparent tolerance of it I deemed it not necessary, at least on this occasion. I was a little concerned about the blood tests given how hard it was to get Jasmine to consent when she was a similar size. Thankfully though we had a couple of grandmotherly nurses who made the whole process as swift and painless as possible and with just a little cry when the need went in, Willow was back to her charming self within seconds. Brave little monkey.

We’ll have to wait up to 3 weeks for any results and even then the test is not conclusive and is prone to false positives. Hopefully they won’t cock it all up as they did with Jasmines when we had her bloods done for wheat.

The little bouncy castle was a big success though Willow was tad overwhelmed by it, particular when the older kids (Jasmine et al.) turn the gentle bouncing into some sort of cataclysmic species extinction event. The castle even survived to tell the tale =]

Steph’s 4 months worth of baking prior to the event went down a storm though Willow did opt to gag’n'follow-through on a sausage skin …fail.

Essentially is was a really nice day with plenty of friends and family and she bagged a stack of loot to boot! We just need a couple of weeks off to recover in time for Christmas!

Steph is frantically baking ahead of Willow’s party tomorrow. It’s the usual egg and dairy free frenzy which is always a challenge.

Unlike Jasmine, Willow is waddling away having started walking at the start of the month. Hopefully she’ll enjoy all the bits and bobs we’ll be setting up for her and I’m sure she’ll be spoilt rotten with gifts.

Bring on the chaos…

I’m guessing the nose dive towards winter sends the body into snot mode, I’m just glad they got a decent vitamin D shot in Turkey before the nights started to close in. I wonder if the colds and general winter nastiness would be as prevalent if we weren’t shut inside all the time, covering up everything bar or faces. Might have to look at a couple of sun lamps…

Jasmine’s skin is doing very well. We noticed her knuckles and susceptible areas (join of ear to cheek) worsened on her return to nursery (we’re still using modrosone in the evening for tricky patches). I think stress plays it’s role, but I’m fairly certain the majority of the knuckle flare is a result of the cleaning regime i.e. before snacks, after snacks, toilets trips etc… It only serves to dry out those hands that are so exposed to painting, play doh, glues and the general messy play you’d expect from a 3 year old.

Willow was doing very well too but seems to have fallen foul of a minor flare that has reappeared in the usual areas (around her chin and cheeks). We’re using a canestan cream (applied daily as necessary) as this combines anti-fungal and steroidal components. We use anti-fungal as I believe there is a similarity between the appearance of ringworm and the appearance both the girls’ eczema patches can takes as we’ve a number of times before.

Diet wise things are progressing well. Steph is still a master chef cooking everything for the most part for both the monkeys. Willow soon moved away from her pureed goop as she always wanted what everyone else was eating. She adores Jasmine’s food so we’re working on the principle that assuming it’s okay for Jasmine, the chances are that it should be okay for Willow. They’re still very much egg and dairy free. Willow is still on her formula feed (neocate) and we’re hoping she’ll continue to take this for some time yet.

Jasmine is a fantastic influence on Willow who mimics squeaks and squawks to Jasmine’s mannerisms, loyally crawling around after her trying to stealing everything she starts playing with. Willow is on the brink of walking having already taking those few tentative steps with no support before face planting. Willow is a complete mummy’s girl and is fast earning the nickname limpet.

I can’t wait for them to get over the colds!

We are a little worried about how efficiently they’ll enforce the dietary side of things but I think we’re just going to have to take a leap of faith. Either way we’re 2 days in and there’s no fatalities yet! …gotta be a winner. I’m looking forward to more of her adventures following todays: ‘I was dressed as a mermaid at nursery… everybody was staring at me… [daddy - aww, did your friends dress up too] ‘yes as policemen and I stopped being a mermaid coz there’s no sea at nursery’ She’s going to be fine =]

We’ll need a bigger freezer though, we had 4 works of art after the 1st day!!

Willow had her 9 month check today and all is going along swimmingly. She’s doing really well though we need to feed her more >.< She'd everything given half a chance. The madam is currently weighing in at 19lbs 4oz and is steps away from walking properly. She loves the sound of her own voice and similarly to Jasmine her first words seems to be teddy! cute!

We think willow may well have a few issues with chicken though we suspect it’s more the protein. It seems to stodge her up making her strain to pass a poo and she then develops flare patches on her cheeks and chin.

Maybe her digestive system is too immature for those proteins or maybe there are deeper issues. We’ve suspected Jasmine had protein issues so there’s a high chance willow will exhibit similar traits.

On the whole though willow has benefited having gone through the mill with jasmine and using her experience as a

benchmark. Similarly with jasmine, willow is a happy little soul and thankfully her skin has never reached the levels Jasmine’s had. Long may that continue!

I think willow approves of strawberries!

Despite numerous opportunities however I missed every single ‘sour’ face