These days we parents are lucky not to see our children succumb to the illnesses that plagued the childhoods of our grandparents and even parents. Those of us who immunise our kids, that is. My mother tells me of the days when it was common to see a baby or child choking to death from whooping cough; or a child brain damaged or rendered blind through suffering complications from measles. She herself saw two classmates contract polio and spend the rest of their lives in an ‘iron lung’. Not too long ago there were entire wards of children and adults confined to these contraptions, now thankfully a thing of the past. There was not a lot that could be done medically for those who suffered these diseases back then and all that a mother could for her child was resort to the many old fashioned remedies that existed in those days.

These days though we still have chicken pox hanging around and in the last three weeks two of my five sons have been struck with it.  Now there really is not much you can do to treat this unsightly looking affliction and the doctor will probably only prescribe some paracetamol for any fever. Even the pharmacist said there was no lotion that would do the blisters and itchy sores any good.

Actually there are two excellent treatments that came to my mind and very effective they are: calamine lotion for drying out the spots and the good old potassium permanganate, or, ‘condy’s crystals’ as they are better known.  You run a luke warm bath and sprinkle a pinch in then bathe in the purple water for a while. The latter cleared my elder son’s skin within 48 hours, got rid of the itch and he has no scarring at all.

I’m surprised both doctor and pharmacist never thought to recommend this to me themselves, maybe we are all so used to drugs nowadays that the old remedies are forgotten. Anyway, I think I’ve educated the pharmacist at least on this one.