I feel like a dreadful mother...my 12 yr old has Shingles.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

The doctor told me its because she is probably run down. We have moved twice in the last 6 months and I probably fuss over the 1 year old and the 8 year old and think she is ok.

What can I do to make her better? She is taking ibuprofen for pain and I have got a loan out for the amount of fruit and veg i bought today.

I feel so bad.

[Blandmum]

It happens. My ds had it at the age of 4!

lots of rest. Ibuprofen and you can put in paracetamol as well for the pain

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

is that all I can do?

I cant find anything about it on the net except it can give others chicken pox.

[McDreamy]

Aaaww that's rough poor wee thing but don't be too hard on yourself. She'll be just fine with a caring mum like you sound

[LaylaandSethsmum]

Its not your fault just give her some extra love and let it run its course, its all you can do

[YeahBut]

Poor dd and poor you. We can't often do much about the circumstances of our lives so don't blame yourself for this. It's one of those things and she'll get over it with lots of rest and cuddles.
BTW, you have to be in very close contact with the pus from the rash to contract chicken pox from shingles so its much more of a theoretical risk. Don't fret over that - I had shingles running through my boob after I had ds and I was breast feeding at the time (yes it was as painful as it sounds!) but he never contracted chickenpox.

[francagoestohollywood]

Your poor dd . I thought it was the other way round: you get shingles if you had been in contact with someone with chicken pox and you've already had it (cp)

[chipmonkey]

ds1 had it when he was 5. Don't feel bad, anyone who's had chicken pox can get it, IIRC he hadn't been particularly run down beforehand.

[colditz]

3 - Who will get shingles?
Anyone who has had chickenpox can develop shingles ? and most people have chickenpox in childhood: it is one of the common childhood illnesses and is usually trivial. (Chickenpox in adults can be more distressing; but it is generally no more serious than in children.)

Shingles is more likely to occur in older people and by the age of 85, around 60% of us will have had shingles.

People who have not had chickenpox cannot get shingles. (Some people with shingles claim that they have never had chickenpox. This simply means that their original bout of chickenpox was so mild that it was not diagnosed at the time ? or they have simply forgotten because it was such a long time ago.)

4 - How do people get shingles?
When you recover from a chickenpox infection, the virus retreats to a 'junction box' in the nerves beside the spine. It remains there in a dormant state for the rest of your life. Something 'triggers' the virus to reactivate (perhaps when you are run down or unwell, but no one really knows why) and it comes out as shingles.

5 - Is shingles infectious (catching)?
People do not catch shingles from each other. A person with shingles cannot give another person shingles, nor can you catch shingles from someone with chickenpox. In fact, it has been found that when people who have had chickenpox encounter the disease again, it increases their immunity and means they are less likely to develop shingles.

Chickenpox is infectious - people can give it to someone who has not already had it. Someone with shingles may give another person chickenpox if that person has never had chickenpox before, through direct contact with the shingles sores. This is because it is the same virus. Once people have had chickenpox, they do not usually get it again.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

Well it is running just along the bottom edge of her little growing boobs . The doctor said she is fine to go back to school as long as someone doesnt touch the pusy bits (I just wrote pussy instead of pusy ).

I am going to keep her off until next week. This will maybe give her a chance to rest. Does that sound right? My friend who is a nurse said she should not go back for about 3 weeks!! That cant be right can it?

PS Thanks for being so kind everyone

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

Thank you colditz - very informative.

Mind you - she has had chicken pox twice, but both bouts were fairly mild.

[Blandmum]

ds had a very mild bout of chicken pox when he was around 4 months old, and then shingles at 4.

He was off school for a week, and then it was half term. By the end of that time he went back to school and was fine.

Make sure that her clothing doesn't get stuck to the shingles sores if they are infected. Poor old ds had his pj bottoms 'stick' to the sored and taking the pjs off was nasty for him!

[summer111]

dd had chicken pox aged 3 1/2 and then a very mild dose of shingles aged 9. The GP never mentioned anything about her being run down and I have to say, she is a great eater of very healthy diet!!! So I wouldn't beat yourslef up at all. My GP suggetsed I cover the area and let her go back to school which I did. The area was about the size of a 50p piece so only warranted a relatively small bandage. Interestingly enough, I later found out that another child in her class had had shingles just before dd, so I'm not sure if there was any connection between the two.

[pointydog]

you're not a bad mum at all.

dd2 got shingles in teh summer (aged 8) and I didn't have a clue what it was, didn't even seek medical advice, just put moisturiser on it and we all carried on with our busy hol as normal.

I am RUBBISH when it comes to general health of my children.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

Pointydog - you sound exactly like me.

I thought she was making a fuss and just sudocreamed the living daylights out of it. But she then started "going on" about it hurting so badly just to have her school shirt on it. She was really lathargic and heavy eyed and so I made her get ready for school and told the school she would be in straight after .

Still - tonight she has had her fav dinner chicken, mash and a shed load of brussels (I know - wierd eh?)

[mobileslostisitinthefreezer]

Oh, the poor wee lassie, it makes me want to just want to hug her (and you), if wouldn't be so painful for her. Give her my best.

[BeautifulBoysGalore]

ooh, i had that when i was.... um... 14? 13?

yep. run down they said. burning the candle at both ends they said. what a joke! i had no social life then!

mind you, i was pretty depressed/stressed and bottling it all up back then so in retrospect, it makes sense. (there was a lot going on for me back then and i had been battling/hiding mental health issues for some time by then, so im not saying your dd is depressed at all!)

i will never forget how much my head hurt. i had a migraine for a week. moving my eyeballs (to look at another spot on the wall) hurt. like mad. was hellish.

my 'rents filled me up with herbal sleeping tablets every time i woke up - valerian root capsules, available in health food shops i believe. was the nicest thing they could have done - being awake was hell on earth. the capsules stink like manure, but they did the job.

you get it again, each time you get run down, once youve had it. but it gets less severe each time. in my case much less so. phew!

i would say; dont feel bad about things you cant change - try to be positive and help her now. im sure you didnt do anything to cause it!

[smartiejake]

dd1 has had shingles 4 times and she is only 11 (Bouts from about the age of 4-9). generally v. healthy. Eats a fab diet and regularly had tantrums in the vegetable aisle when I wouldn't but broccoli or brussel sprouts! She had a bit of pain but lucky not too bad. Seems to run in our family as Dh and dd2 have had it. Don't feel bad! We used the same cream as for cold sores (it's the same virus)seemed to help.

[expatinscotland]

i don't get it.

one fo my landlords had it two years ago and they gave her anti-virals at the GP surgery just down the road.

can they not give her something like this?

[BeautifulBoysGalore]

i spotted a circle of little red spots under my arm and my mum saw them and said 'go to the doc and say youve got shingles'

i was like, er, ok. didnt feel ill then. went to the doc (about 4 doors down then and we knew all the docs in that surgery really well, was a hell of a wrench finally leaving them, but i digress. point is, its less harsh than it sounds, her 'sending' me there)

anyway, i told the doc and she said 'oh yes, so you have', wrote me a 'script and said 'go home and get into bed'. i was a bit as i didnt fee anything then... but BOY was it a shock when it hit. and yes, it lasts for ages - and v weak for ages afterwards.

-Funny bit; - i saw the medical term for it was 'herpes zoster' when the doc was scribbling something, and thought that id heard of herpes before (did not know what it was, just had heard the word) and that it sounded far more 'serious' and glamorous than 'shingles'... so i told people i had herpes for a few days, till my mum overheard me on the phone and explained i might not want to do that

[LadyOfWaffle]

Don't feel bad, I had it at 16. I had vit B supplements that are supposed to help.

[LadyOfWaffle]

pmsl @ boysgalore. I had a tube of treatment in my bedroom for "herpes" (my shingles at 16) and my dad hit the roof! I have it again now but don't want to go back for my herpes cream now I know abit more what it is