To let my baby catch chicken pox?

[Rumplestrumpet]

In brief, my husband, baby and me are due to go away for 3 days with another family next week. They're a lovely couple though, tbh, our husbands have nothing in common, so it's really just us wives pushing it. She told me yesterday that her son has come down with chicken pox. Our baby is almost 6 months old and has never had it, though DH and I have.

I spoke to my HV today and she was very relaxed about it - they have to get it at some point, at least now you're on mat leave so won't have to take time off to look after her. She is exclusively breast fed so you can comfort her with the breast - it's your call.

DH would happily ditch the whole thing, but I feel like I still want to go... But then I will feel terribly if baby catches it and is in a lot of pain....

Anyone had a small baby with chicken pox? Is it really awful? ie worse than when they're older?

Welcome advice please!

But you don't catch shingles directly from someone with chicken pox - it's not an old wives tale

Dixie I also came on to mention that earlier thread about the hard to wake baby. I believe he made a partial recovery but was left with some degree of brain damage.

My two were older when they had it one after the other. I had a formal warning for the time I had to take off because they were so ill.

I had it at 6 months old and have never recaught it. Personally I'd of preferred mine to have it when they were babies instead of being so ill with it later. It's easier to keep scratch mittens on babies then six year olds and my dc are both still full of scars.

My two spent a lot of time playing in the bath when they caught it. That kept them distracted and helped with the itching.

To several PP's:
You cannot catch Shingles, you develop Shingles.

Also, if you develop chicken pox more than once as happens rarely it's most likely due to an inadequate immune response rather than because you've encountered a 'mutated' form. (I believe!)

That's right, Blue.

"... inadequate immune response" the first time, to make it clearer.

You can catch cpx from shingles, you cant catch shingles from cpx.

There are a few similar illnesses eg hand foot mouth where the blisters might be confused with cpx. I suspect this is behind a few of the 'had cpx twice (or 3 times!) storied