Chicken pox at the shop

[EG2018]

Posting here for traffic.

My little girl is nearly 5 months old and I saw a small child at the shop with chicken pox the other day. I can't quite remember if the spots looked scabbed over or not..

I'm a little nervous of my baby catching it so young, what are the chances?

Was your baby in a pram? You would need to be in the same room for 15 minutes to catch it or be very close to them e.g. close enough to have a conversation with them

Low. I wouldn't be worried at all.

My youngest had them 3 weeks ago, he still has scabs, so you may assume he is still infectious. He isn't. They just take a while to go. My other child now has them, and his is far worse. We will be leaving the house in a couple of days, but he will still look like he has really bad CP. But NHS guidance is 5 days after scabbed over. Which we will stick to. However, again, you may think he is still infectious. He won't be.

They need to have contact in some way, either physical touching or coughing/sneezing so that your lo inhaled the vapour. It's highly unlikely. My older one was in nursery when there was a major chicken pox outbreak. 16 of 25 children out sick with it including her best friend who she spent 8 hours a day 5 days a week with. She didn't get it. She did finally get it about a year later when it came around again, so wasn't immune. So even with regular contact 40 hours a week with children who would have been infectious at the time, it isn't a given. I don't think you have anything to be worried about.

Are you sure it was chicken pox? One of mine had hand foot and mouth and everyone thought it was chicken pox (only found out it wasn't from a doctor) and the same happened to a friend's baby a few weeks later

@dementedpixie baby was in pram yes.

Thank you everyone. Feeling slightly reassured!

@AmIRightOrAMeringue it's what it looked like. You are right though, I could be completely wrong!