Chicken pox? Does my daughter have it?

[oldcrunchymom]

Does anyone have any pictures of these or know where I can find some good pictures of mild/average cases of the condition?  I think my daughter might be developing CP but when I Google, all the pictures seem to be of extreme cases.  For the last five or so days, she has had a cold, sore throat, and now she has acne-like bumps on her face/chest/back/upper arms.  She's 13 so honestly I'm not sure if it's just a sudden case of acne (she has her period at the moment) coupled with the cold or something more.  I checked this morning and the bumps don't seem any worse than they were last night.  She says she's itchy but only since yesterday.  The acne/bumps are more widespread than Saturday but not that bad.  Her appetite is fine.  She had a low fever (101--low for my kids, who run HIGH fevers) Friday night but it broke before she woke up Saturday morning.  She was well enough to do a dance competition on Saturday.

I don't know what to look for since I never had CP symptoms myself, even though I have the antibodies in my blood.  My mom also has the antibodies but never showed any signs of the disease.  My son (15) has not had it yet (he hardly ever gets sick).  My kids were on the tail end of the generation that didn't get vaccinated for CP.  My daughter never had her MMR booster either so I guess we could be looking at measles too, although that seems unlikely.

[Marnica]

It doesn't sound like CP - but that doesn't mean it isn't. CP blisters have a pretty distinct look to them and they will crust over when they are healing. I don't think of acne like bumps as crusty yk?

Also CP blisters will generally be all over the body (whether there are only a few or tons) not just on the upper body.

I suppose the only way to know for sure if she had them would be to get a titer done - and that is not 100% a relaible way to tell either.

[Chloebelle]

When my kids got CP, it started with a couple of little blister-like pimples. It was a gradual progression of the spots multiplying all over their bodies and peaked at about day 3 or 4. They did not have a cold or sore throats beforehand. 

[Emmeline II]

It can be difficult to separate the different rashes. What is easier to examine is:

• The order in which the symptoms appear.
• Which symptoms are concurrent.
• The progression of the rash.

Fever with Rash viruses:

• How many days ago did the fever begin?
• High, low, stayed high, stayed low, etc?
• When did the rash appear?
• Was the fever gone when the rash appeared?
• Where did the rash originate? Head, Torso, Extremities?
• Where did it move to, from the point of origin? Head, Torso, Extremities?

In a mild case, it is more likely not to have all the clinical symptoms.

When I had CP as a child I had a little cold and felt very tired; I had CP a year or two later than most children in my school--I think I was 8 or 9yo.

I think it is possible that it is chicken pox though. You may want to try to have it documented in her medical records if it is CP. I'd write down the answers to those questions while your memory is still fresh.

Kid's Health--Chicken Pox (with drawing of an average looking case)

Chickenpox causes a red, itchy skin rash that usually appears first on the abdomen or back and face, and then spreads to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp, mouth, nose, ears, and genitals.

Here is a photo of CP blisters and the dried scabs

Dr. Sears -- Rashes

Kid's Health, Infections -- scroll down to Bacterial and Viral Infections

Edited by Emmeline II - 4/5/11 at 8:41am

[oldcrunchymom]

Thanks for the replies.  I think it most likely is CP, but a mild case.  She was really itchy yesterday but today is less so.  The rash started on her face and quickly progressed to her upper back/chest/neck.  She has some on her upper arms and a little bit (much milder) on her tummy, with just a few blisters here and there on her legs.  It seems to have stalled out at present.  The fever ended by Saturday morning and the rash appeared sometime soon after that.  I looked at the pics of measles and it doesn't look like that at all, seems much closer to CP.  We're keeping her out of dance just in case.  It looks most like the pics on these pages:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/chicken_pox.html#cat20028

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Chickenpox-in-Adults-and-Teenagers.htm

Kind of in between those two, which would make sense as she's 13.

[oldcrunchymom]

I just wanted to update this.  It was indeed the chicken pox.  My 15 yo son got it as well after my daughter did.  They both had pretty mild cases, but maybe that's not surprising since I apparently had CP as a child and never even showed symptoms.  Anyway, I'm glad they caught it and hopefully they won't catch it again!