GD has chicken pox.

Thank you every one for your advise and particularly HildaW for your wise words. All taken on board and I will be there on the end of the phone as a calming influence.

Oh I've got some adorable pictures of daughter on the mend a few days later. Big grin, hair tied up in a little top knot and short cotton dress on....she looked adorable but was covered in scabs.......in places you really don't want to know about....but she was soon back to her boisterous ways and luckily without a single scar.

I have a studio photo of DS aged about 8-9mths. DS has a lovely grin on his face and several healing Chicken pox scabs
My point being the fretful stage doesn't last long as Hilda says. I too left him in just a nappy as much as possible.

Poor little girl but the upside is that the fretfulness usually passes quite quickly and then you can get into a little game with the crème of letting her squeeze it out of the tube. I agree though juts the nappy on a cotton sheet in a warm well ventilated room, lots of drinks don't worry about food her appetite will come back of its own accord. Hope she feels better soon.

Howjado, I do understand how you feel. I can distinctly remember my daughters having it and although the first 48 hours were unpleasant we all got to grips with it and I distinctly remember not phoning my Mum up in tears.

Chickenpox varies from child to child and I do appreciate that sometimes it can be quite nasty but your daughter just needs the reassurance of you being calm on the phone. I find that I have had to learn to trust my daughter (Mum of 2) to cope when her children are poorly. We discuss symptoms and treatment...I might make the odd suggestion....but its much more about staying calm and reassuring them that they are doing the right things. If you get over emotional and panicky from a distance you will do no good whatsoever.

All of the above must go out of the window however, if things change for the worse, baby does not respond etc etc. Then you can offer more practical help.

P.S. when younger daughter had it at 18 months...we just put a very loose nappy on her, left her clothes off and let her sleep, when able to, in her cot with no blankets etc....just ensured the room was at the correct temp. Calamine lotion was used....it gets everywhere...but who cares. I've always been one to sort of 'surrender' to the illness by doing everything to make life easy for the patient and abandoning everyday procedures.

The doctor prescribed Piriton when my son had a bad dose of chickenpox but he was 11. Don't know what the dosage would be for a baby. When one of my GC had it very badly, the doctor prescribed an anti-viral drug because he had spots on his eyeballs.

There are products that your daughter can buy over the counter to relieve the itching. I don't know how much more effective they are than calamine lotion. She could also give the little one oatmeal baths as that helps sooth the itching too. If all else fails there is always piriton to fall back on.