To post here about newborn having chicken pox?

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Sorry but posting for traffic.

Newborn has been admitted to hospital with chicken pox, which he caught from my 2 year old DS, who caught it at nursery.

Has anyone's children ever had this at such an early age (exposed at day 4, now day 20)?

He has been put on IV antibiotics, which they're saying they want to do for a week!! (Such a long time when I have another baby at home, and we were already away from him for a week having my newborn). They're also saying they're going to call London and oxford trust to discuss more medication with specialists because of the dangers on chicken pox at this age.

I feel so unclear as to whether we are going to end up with lasting side effects. I'm petrified.

At the moment he is calm, content and showing no signs of not feeling well, but the pox are multiplying

Oh you poor thing. I have no idea I'm afraid but it sounds like he's in very good hands. If it helps my newborn had a suspected infection when he was born (not CP) and they were really going overboard bombarding him with medication, fluids, infection control etc and it was all a bit scary and felt very serious but all turned out to be precautionary as he didn't have any infection at all.

Mainly posted to bump your thread.

No experience of pox at that age, but know the stresses of having a small baby admitted to hospital. My local hospital consulted with GOSH and DS received excellent care as I'm sure your DS is. Unmumsnetty hug.

My baby hasn't had pox, has come into contact 3 weeks ago but it hasn't come. She's 7 months and I'd be worried!

I don't have anything helpful to say, just wanted to wish you all the best. The doctors will what's best, baby is very, very young. I've only seen advice on staying away from babies under 1 month old if you have chicken pox.

By which I mean, newborns are so tiny that the doctors tend to respond in a manner which 90% of the time will be an overreaction, as a precautionary measure. So try not to worry that them throwing everything at him means he is seriously ill, it might be a mild case but they are looking to avoid that awful 1% chance scenario. But obviously keep talking to the doctors and finding out what they know.

My middle DD had chickenpox at 4 weeks old, she was 5 weeks early though so wasn’t even at her due date. My eldest dd had come out with them the day after baby was born, my 3 ds’s then got it two weeks later and my baby dd 2 weeks after them.

She had it very mildly though, only 12 spots, doctors weren’t concerned, they prescribed a minuscule amount of calpol that I could give her if she was unsettled but she was absolutely fine. My niece who was born a month after my dd got them at about 3 weeks and was also fine.

My dd has had no lasting effects of having them so young, she did get shingles the following year at 16 months, which anyone can after having chickenpox, but again was absolutely fine with that and in no pain at all.

I hope your ds continues to feel well and cope ok with them

This I was nearly 12 years ago though so things may have changed in the way that they treat chickenpox in a newborn now

My ds2 caught chicken pox at 5 weeks old (from ds1 who started with it when ds2 was 3wks old). Had he been from birth to 4wks he would have been given the anti virals but because he was that week older instead we had to take him to be checked over by the gp (who took advice over the phone from senior paediatrician at the hospital) every day for a week (waiting in the staff kitchen so not to expose anyone in the waiting room). I was pretty frantic as he had a worse case than his older brother (gp joked when she first checked him out that every time she turned him over more spots appeared) and had a massive one on his fontanelle which I was convinced was going to cause lasting issues but it was all fine and he got over it like he would have done if he was older. Whilst it was really stressful at the time, the worry about the chicken pox and looking after an older child we got through it and ds2 is 8 now and has never had chicken pox again despite lots of exposure (we were told he might have been too young to develop immunity). Try not to stress too much x

My ds caught chicken pox when he was 6 weeks old. I took him to see the gp who shrugged his shoulders and said it's nothing to worry about and advised I bought calamine lotion.

My DS2 caught chicken pox from my elder child when he was 3 weeks old, having been very unwell at birth and only home from hospital for 2 weeks. The GP prescribed the chicken pox antiviral medicine which worked very well and he recovered fairly quickly. No talk of admitting to hospital and no mention of any long term side effects.

Do you know why they admitted him and what the antibiotics are for? Are the spots infected?

Agree with @BertieBotts they tend to err on the side of caution, my DD spent a week in hospital when born with a suspected infection, IV antibiotics, scans for all sorts, spinal fluid extracted shudders at the memory but all turned out to be nothing they just wanted to treat it as worst case in case it turned out to be, she didn't actually have anything in the end but I think they'd suspected meningitis although no one said that to me at the time.
So hopefully they're just being super cautious and slightly OTT and all will be fine. Do you have family to help out with DC at home?

They're saying that chicken pox at this early age can cause damage to the brain, pneumonia and meningitis. So essentially it sounds like they're trying to catch it, before it catches him.

Between DH and grandparents, DS1 is cared for but he was only just starting to settle after me being away from him for a week during the birth, and adjusting to having a new sibling. I just feel torn with one being in hospital and one being passed from pillar to post. Me and DH are going to swap for a few hours tonight and he's going to have a sleepover at my parents.

They're saying they want to keep DS2 on IV for 7 days minimum because of his age. It all does seem extreme considering I have the antibodies, which they're saying will have been passed to him. Hopefully, like lots of you have said they're treating for the worst and working their way backward, just to make sure

I'm sorry OP. He's in good hands. It's not extreme. He needs a lot of medical attention. Chicken pox can be very dangerous. It's care worse in a neonate. How is he?

Far not care

I had chicken pox when I was approx 12 weeks old. My mum saw that the spots were internal as well as external so took me to the GP who sent me to the hospital. I was in an incubator for a day or two and in hospital for around a week. Potentially had the onset on pneunomia as I was full of mucus and it was being suctioned away. This was over 26 years ago however. I cant say I have suffered any long term effects from it except for a fear of my DD contracting them! (Although shes 4 and has been exposed at least once and never developed any spots.)

A boy in my mum's group had it at 2 days old, he was kept in hospital and they said it was a bad case, but he recovered well and is now absolutely fine. It's scary, but far better to have doctors treating him and monitoring him for meningitis than taking any risks at home. Your poor toddler must be struggling without you, the swap so you can give him some cuddles will do him a lot of good. I hope they both get better very soon.

@bananasinpyjamas18 - if she's 4 then you could get her the vaccine, babies can have it a month after MMR. She would need to have it twice or there's a risk of adult shingles.

Boots sell chickenpox vaccine

DS2 caught CP off his two year old brother at a week old. A very mild case, he wasn't even unwell and now thirteen, he's never had it again. No treatment.

I caught it at 3 weeks old from my sister. (A looong time ago) My mum had to take me in to the medical centre every day for a week to keep an eye on me. But I'm fine, there were no complications

IV for a week is standard, that is what DS2 had as well. Unfortunately it was very humid and he kept getting swelling at the IV site and after 5 days they ended up taking him off it. Essentially, annoying and uncomfortable but far far better than the alternative of a serious infection developing because they had taken a wait and see approach.

My DS had it as a newborn. No treatment - very mild - no after effects.

PSA: if your children had CP prior to their first birthday, there is a risk they may get it again - CP at this age often does not build lasting immunity. Check with your provider to see if your child would benefit from the CP vaccine.

As some people have said, I think hospitals are very cautious with newborns when they think there is a risk of infection let alone a confirmed infection. My son had symmetrical IUGR diagnosed at birth with an unascertained cause and one explanation would have been infection, most likely cytomegalovirus. But they didn't have time to test before treating him so he had broad spectrum Abx almost from birth for 5 days, it was originally going to be 10 days. Scary at the time but he had no infection in the end. Newborns can be very vulnerable and deteriorate very fast so I think they would err on side of caution. Poor you though, what a difficult situation I hope little one is well soon.

How are you op?

Op. See if they will consider a long line of a PICC line. Aciclovir isn't nice and he will go through a lot of cannulas. A better line will save repeated cannulations. (Peads nurse)