Helen Flanagan has revealed all three of her children are ill with scarlet fever. The Coronation Street favourite confirmed their diagnosis on Instagram with a photo of her three-year-old daughter Delilah sleeping.
The Rosie Webster actress, 32, from Bury, took to social media to say Delilah, her big sister Matilda, six, and baby brother Charlie, 13 months, have all come down with the contagious infection. The news comes as parents were warned over a sharp rise in cases of scarlet fever.
Helen, who is engaged to Preston North End footballer Scott Sinclair, said she had been worried that Delilah had 'not been herself.' Alongside the snap of her daughter she wrote: "All the kids have Scarlet Fever. Glad to know what it is after Delilah not been herself and the medicine to treat it."
READ MORE:
Health experts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) explained cases of both scarlet fever and chicken pox are up compared to last year. Scarlet fever is caused by a bacteria called group A streptococcus and can cause complications with other skin conditions such as chicken pox.
Scarlet fever, which is most common in children but can still affect adults, causes flu-like symptoms including high temperature, sore throat, swollen neck glands, rash and headache. A total of 3,488 cases of scarlet fever were reported between September 2021 and March 2022 in England compared to an average of 8,605 for this same period in the previous five years.
Scarlet fever is treated with antibiotics. And symptoms can be relieved by drinking cool drinks, eating soft foods, painkillers such as paracetamol to bring down a high temperature and using calamine lotion or antihistamine tablets to ease itching.
Days ago Helen sought the help of her fans after admitting Charlie 'will not eat'. In a recent post to her Instagram Story she explained: "Charlie will just not eat. I'm going to take him to a specialist this week."
She continued: "He eats nothing and I'm still feeding him like he's six months. I've tried not feeding him with milk so he'll eat more but he just has no interest in food and he just wants the boob."
But she did have some comfort in the fact she faced the same struggle when her eldest daughter was a baby. "Matilda was exactly the same though when she was a baby and fine now, so that eases me," she said before ending the message with: "If other mums have had this please message me. I'll share the messages x."
Helen has regularly shared her breastfeeding journey with fans. And she shared a photo of herself on holiday sitting on a sun lounger in a black swimsuit as she celebrated a year of feeding Charlie.
"One year of feeding you my precious baby boy," she wrote lovingly. "I’m not too sure when our feeding journey will come to an end... I am thinking I will keep nursing through the summer.. I think it’s a comfort to him with his teething... it’s great for trying to calm him. I love breastfeeding as I like the bonding (I know you can bond with your babies in lots of ways of course).
"I like that it’s just something that I can do and that my baby needs just me. He’s likely my last baby and I want to soak this all up. I feel quite emotional about stopping. My hormones are stable when I breastfeed and I love not having a period and pms."
