Fresh on my brain is the topic is the chicken pox. My son first came down with it a week after he recovered, both daughters broke out with the dread spots, giving me ample opportunity to try out herbal remedies.

Caused by the herpes zoster virus chicken pox incubates two to three weeks but is infectious from five days before spots appear until all scabs have formed and spots are no longer oozing. At first, only a few small red spots appear on the body’s trunk. Next comes the fever, as many more spots appear. Once the spots become blisters filled with white fluid, they drain, scab over and finally fall off. The process lasts five days to a week. By Day Five, encourage yourself that the child has just acquired immunity from chicken pox, hopefully for life.

This is a good time for parents who have had chicken pox to boost up their own immunity by taking extra vitamin C, zinc, oil of oregano, echinacea, goldenseal or Oregon grape root (if pregnant, the last is the best choice) to avoid contracting shingles, a painful manifestation of the herpes zoster virus.

During the first stage of chicken pox, a blend of warm lemon balm, chamomile, and catnip tea is beneficial. Soothing lemon balm assists in breaking the fever. Chamomile is relaxing and helps fight infection. Catnip eases nerves and promotes long naps. The more your child can nap during chicken pox, the better.

Never boil the leaves of any member of the mint family as this kills the healing essential oils. Leftovers from this tea blend can be used cool, or at body temperature, to sponge down your fevered child.

Applied externally, lemon balm is astringent, containing tannins that kill some of the surface virus. During chicken pox, I always keep at hand a fresh bouquet of lemon balm in a cup of water.
It’s also a good idea to have on hand some bendable straws to facilitate frequent sips of tea and water; cotton balls for dabbing the spots with tea; lots of bed sheets for frequent linen changes and nail clippers to keep those nails very short and clean to prevent scratching, scarring and further infection. Get a forehead-strip or underarm thermometer to be sure the fever is not above 101`F (39`C). Bach`s Rescue Remedy supports parent and child’s emotional state.

Steer clear of baths until all the spots have started scabs. I’m grateful for this tidbit of advice from a nurse; otherwise my child might have had an extreme case. An oatmeal bath may be temporarily soothing but may cause the spots to spread virulently all over the body. My eldest child diligently told me when he had touched a spot and needed to wash his hands, but with younger ones, it’s harder. Spots on the penis, vagina or anus benefit from a cotton ball soaked with plain chamomile tea, or blended with calendula and oat infusion and placed on the sensitive area to soothe. A quick warm shower with some pox powder, sprinkled on and rinsed off, is a cleansing option as long as your child feels strong enough to stand up. Especially near the beginning, the body may feel very weak.

My children shared with me that sometimes during chicken pox they had headaches, but eating fresh lavender buds from the garden helped, along with lots of water. It was easiest to nap in a quiet, cool, dark space. Getting up too fast made things worse. When headache was coupled with nausea, eating big, fresh, chocolate-peppermint leaves was a favorite activity, and a good way to get some fresh air. Indoors, we usually had a fan pumping in fresh air.

Pretending to be a swamp monster while doing the plantain external treatment was fun, too. Lanceleaf plantain has an integral role in dealing with the chickenpox in our home. Out of all the external treatments I tried, the plantain treatment was the favorite. Here’s how: pick fresh long green plantain leaves and steep, covered, in boiling water. Once they cool, have your child lie on a towel and apply plantain in long strips, fuzzy side up. Once you have covered each spot, wrap the child in a soft cotton sheet and keep the leaves on as long as tolerable. Make sure you take off the leaves before the plant matter starts to dry on the skin. Once you take off all the leaves and place them in your compost, allow your child to dry before repeating the same process on the other side. Strain off a cup of the infusion to drink before the treatment, so plantain can also assist from the inside out. If children or babies won’t go for such a long treatment, dip a large receiving blanket in the warm liquid and wring it out slightly; then lay it on the child using one cloth for the front and one for the back.

You can add other herbs to your plantain brew: slippery-elm-bark powder (this can also be sprinkled directly onto pox to sooth itch), goldenseal powder, chamomile, calendula petals, comfrey, rolled oats, burdock root (very good for skin conditions when taken internally), and whitewillow bark, a natural painkiller (don’t steep this one too long) .You can pour off a small amount of this infusion, while it is still weak for your child to drink, sweetened with licorice root or stevia.

Lanceleaf plantain (plantago lanceolata), nicknamed ribwort, ripplegrass, soldier’s herb, chimney sweep, and jack straw, is nature’s perfect bandage. Steeped in water, it softens and can be applied to any sort of wound, bite or itch. Plantain leaves can also be used raw, mashed to a pulp and pasted on. The young shoots can be eaten as a vegetable which helps heal fresh or old wounds, and promotes the coagulation of blood. The whole plant can be harvested and infused in olive oil for future use and salve-making. Ribwort’s active ingredients include mucilage, tannins, silicic acid, flavonoids, glycoside and aucubin (which has antibiotic action).

Taken internally, the herb’s astringent properties can reduce cough, mucous and congestion, ease pain in the bowels, and gently kill worms of the stomach and bowels.

I transferred the blend of plantain and its herbal helpers into a spice shaker and applied it directly to the oozing pox, even making a game of it, chasing them around sprinkling them with the “magic dust”. This pox powder is also a good shower scrub and, once the spots have scabbed, helps heal the skin in the tub.

Once the pox stopped oozing, I made a healing olive oil infused with chamomile, calendula and golden seal, which I used for a long time to heal stubborn pox.

A tincture of skullcap, St. John’s wort and oatstraw may be useful, or try a blend of oregon grape root, stinging nettles and burdock root to heal skin from the inside out.

Our bedtime blend was chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, valerian and stevia to sweeten. This medicine became fun when we used my daughter’s miniature Chinese tea set. Making the medicine fun has been the key to successful treatment of kids’ chicken pox.

The right nutritional approach plays an essential role, too. Cut sugar completely as well as dairy, except yogurt with active cultures. Use a little raw honey, xylitol (derived from birch bark) or powdered stevia leaf to sweeten.