I had chicken pox when I was 11 years old. I remember my mother getting worried. On the other hand I was kicked that I got to stay at home for two weeks. I was missing the revision exam, how cool was that?! Chicken pox was associated with Mariyamman, so my mom tied a bunch of neem leaves outside the house, we turned away visitors, the house was cleaned twice every day, my clothes were washed separately, I got bland yucky tasteless food, my mother didn’t season any thing she cooked (even for others) for two weeks, I was given tender coconut water twice a day, no milk product of any kind for two weeks, plain boiled veggies like greens and squash, I was allowed to have a shower only after the blisters started to dry (imagine not having a shower for five days in the middle of april?!!), bath with sesame oil, neem paste and turmeric powder. My mom didn’t do her usual daily pooja because Mariyamman is already angry and she didn’t want to offend the goddess at home by praying to other Gods. And no medication of any kind, again Mariyamman gets offended.

A week back my 11 month old infant was diagnosed with chicken pox. If I could look at a mirror when the doctor said, “Sorry, it looks like chicken pox”, it would have had the exact same expression my mother had when I was down with chicken pox! Some things never change. Anyways the doctor said that good thing was chicken pox is much milder in babies and now she has life time immunity against chicken pox. Doctors directions were usual diet, apply calamine lotion if she gets itchy, give her Benadryl (antihistamine) if she is extremely itchy, Tylenol if her fever is troubling her, bathe her with baking soda, make sure that she stays quarantined till the contagious phase is over.

Though there was no treatment for the cause of chicken pox both in India and in USA, I couldn’t help noticing how different the approach was here when compared to the approach in our country. In India, chicken pox was considered as something connected to religion, in USA they treated it as a contagious virus.

I had to decide what I must do to take care of my little girl. So I tried to analyze the logic behind the practices in India. I am pretty religious, but I didn’t want to follow tradition blindly.
Neem leaf, turmeric – they are considered disinfectants, also soothes the itchy feeling.
Neem leaf tied outside the house – just to warn people to that some one at home has a contagious virus.
Washing clothes separately, not letting other people visit, frequently cleaning the house – to maintain hygiene
Tender coconut water – cooled the body
Low calorie tasteless food, no milk, boiled veggies – When you are sick you have low appetite. Also the body has to spend lots of heat digesting food high in fat. The cause of Chicken pox is considered to be the result of the body getting over heated. So why make the body work harder to digest high calorie food?
No shower – you don’t want to break the blisters. The blisters might get infected and are contagious if they are oozing.
No seasoning, no pooja at home – I have no clue why? May be make the food so bland that Mariyamman gets sick and tired of the bland food and leave. No pooja for the other Gods….well I frankly think that Mariyamman must share more.

So I followed the things that made sense to me and altered the things that I didn’t agree with. This is what I did:
• I applied Caladryl clear calamine lotion on her blisters. It did help with the itchiness.
• I was determined not to let her temperature raise more than 99. So I gave her Tylenol as per needed.
• I was able to get tender coconut in Chinese supermarkets. So I gave her about 4-6 oz of tender coconut water everyday.
• I made her sip water every chance I could get.
• I gave her a diluted version of her regular diet. Formula, rice and lentils, mashed vegetables and yogurt. I diluted the full fat yogurt and also the formula, so that she didn’t have difficulty digesting the food. At the same time I didn’t want her to end up too weak and tired after the illness had passed.
• I mixed one cup of baking soda to a bucket full of water and bathed her. This was when the blisters were fresh. Baking soda alleviated the itchy feeling.
• Once the blisters started to dry, I applied coconut oil or sesame oil on her body, gently rubbed the oil off with a mixture of dry neem powder (available in Indian stores) + turmeric powder + powdered moong daal and washed it off with water.
(I grind some moong daal, sift it in a sieve and have the fine powder in a container. I mix it with turmeric powder and bathe my daughters. It is a pain to clean the tub, but I don’t care, what is the hurry to use soap?)
• I made sure I wasn’t carrying her when I was cooking.
• All of us at home washed our hands frequently.

My baby girl is doing so good so far. The doctor said that sometimes the old blisters dry out and she might break out with new ones a few days later. We have one more week to go, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Ms.Mariyamman, I haven’t offended you right? If so take it out on me, not my baby girl. It already tore me to see her break out in 40-50 of red blisters within a matter of two hours. I certainly was no fun watch her curl up on my chest with a tired expression in her eyes.

PS: There are blisters even on the scalp. So do not comb the baby’s hair. May be gently detangle hair with fingers. We had recently shaved her head, so I didn’t have that to worry about.