Chickenpox is a disease caused by a virus. It is highly contagious. If your child has chickenpox, then your child was exposed to the virus 14 to 16 days earlier.

Symptoms of chickenpox include:

• multiple small, red bumps that become thin-walled water blisters; then cloudy blisters or open sores; and finally dry, brown crusts (all within 24 hours)
• repeated crops of these sores for 4 to 5 days
• sores or crusts that are usually less than 1/4 inch across
• rash that is on all body surfaces, but usually starts on head and back
• some sores possibly in the mouth, eyelids, and genital area
• fever (unless the rash is mild).

New sores will continue to crop up daily for 4 to 5 days.

The fever is usually the highest on the third or fourth day. Children start to feel better and stop having a fever once they stop getting new bumps. The average child gets a total of 500 chickenpox sores. It may take 2 weeks for all of the scabs to fall off.

Chickenpox rarely leaves any permanent scars unless the sores become badly infected or your child repeatedly picks off the scabs. However, normal chickenpox can leave temporary marks on the skin that take 6 to 12 months to fade. Once a child has had chickenpox he will usually never get it again. Very rarely, a child may have a second mild attack of chickenpox.