Chicken pox for a 15 month old -- how bad would it be?

[YourMam]

Supposed to going to visit some friends but their son has chicken pox, they just texted t see if we were were ok with that. My 15-month-old DS has never had it. How bad is it if he gets it now? I know ideally you want them to get at some point in childhood but I am just wondering if we should wait a bit till he understands being told not to scratch etc.

Now I type this out it seems tremendously PFB, but would love to hear what you think! Thanks.

It varies from child to child.

However, I think preferably you would have it when the child is not in nappies anymore because the sores are more difficult when they are wrapped up in a nappy.

My DS had it aged 4, my DD had it when she had just turned 2 and was stil in nappies. It was not too bad, both of them could understand instructions etc - do not touch the spots. I don't think I would go to visit these friends with a 15mo. Bit young to do it knowingly, although if he caught it, he would probably get over it quite easily.

DS had it when he was 9 months. He scratched only two spots and they had hardly visible now. It wasn't too bad.

DD got it from him when she was 4.5 and was a complete nightmare. I don't know if it is because the itch is worse when they are older but she seemed to suffer and certainly complained far more than her baby brother.

I'd say let him have it now.

Generally, the earlier you get it the less severe it is. I have heard of children ahving it again, though, if they had a mild dose.
The most infectious period is before the spots appear. Depending on how long your friends child has had the spots, he may no longer be infectious.

I wouldnt knowingly expose a child to chicken pox. Both mine have had it - dd was 3 and was quite bad with it and ds was 5 1/2 months and had it fairly mildly. He has also had shingles aged 3 which wasnt nice.

DD had it at 15 months and overall it was fine, but the spots were concentrated in her nappy :( On the whole though I'd say getting it at this age is fine.

ds had it at about the same age and it was fine, he did have quite a lot of spots but didn´t really seem bothered by the itchiness and was just a bit grumpy/ out of sorts. It was summer so I could let him run around in very little clothing to minimize discomfort.

I remember my sister getting it at about 4 yrs old and she really suffered with it.

I´m still not sure I would knowingly expose my child to it just in case they reacted particularly badly or something.

Children who catch chickenpox at under 2y dont always develop immunity to it. So even if your dc caught chickenpox you wouldn't have it over and done with.

So IMO there is no point in exposing an under-two to chickenpox. If your dc was older I'd say go ahead.

What day is your friends' son on, and what is the state if his rash? If he is still infectious, I wouldn't go. If not, then go and have a nice time.

Ms DS 2 (18 mos) had it a couple of months ago. He had spots everywhere - in his hair, mouth, ears. He was pretty miserable with the itching for a few days despite Poxclin etc and couldn't understand what was happening. I wouldn't go.

DS had it at 18 months and although he had lots of spots they didn't seem to bother him very much - I just smothered them in sudocreme as soon as they appeared. Fortunately there was no scarring either, even though he did catch a couple of them.

I wouldn't deliberately expose any child to a disease in this way to try and innoculate them though, in rare cases CP can be a serious, even life threatening condition. You have no way of knowing in advance if that could be your child. Not worth it.

I am all for them getting it over with young but it does seem pointless before two if they will then catch it again.

DS had it at 10/11 mos, caught from dd. He wasnt too bad but I am unduly miffed that he will probably have to catch it again to develop immunity

My DS had it at 18 months and he also had bad excema but it really was a non event. He had a few spots which didn't seem to bother him and bizarrely his excema seemed to calmed down during it.

His younger brother got it when he was three and he was much worse with it but not horrendous.

My brother on the other hand was 36 when he got it and it was absolutely awful. he was really ill for several weeks and is really badly scarred.

I would go out of my way to ensure kids got it when they were young.

This comes up regularly, to intentionally expose your child to cp is a risk. My born perfectly normal niece is severely brain damaged as cp attacked her cerebellum. A recent posters daughter died tragically from cp.

If your child gets it thru normal exposure, it's just fate, if you intentionally introduce a disease, which is what it is, you have the potential guilt for the rest of your life.
My SILs live with this daily. They mixed their kids together on purpose.

Thanks everyone for your replies. He's had quite a poorly Christmas with a hospital stay so my instinct was to bail, which I think you have confirmed. Thanks for all your replies.