Chicken Pox potency and immunity

[MayDayChild]

DS1 is 9 months old and still breastfed twice a day, morning and night.
He has chicken pox which I am happy about - get it all over and done with etc.
Only trouble is he has about 30 spots compared to the girl he caught it from and my own DD1 (2 years ago so I'm a bit hazy) who both had more like 300 spots.

Is it an old wives tale that you need to get a really good dose of the pox (300 spots) in order to be immune?

I also hear that under ones do tend to get it more mildly (tho not the case again from the girl he caught it from who is 10 months) and the breastfeeding may well be a factor in his seemingly mild case.

Should I consider this to be enough of the pox to believe that he is now immune?

TIA

I wouldn't: he may have "fought" it using your immunity and not actually developed it himself.

Ds had a couple of spots during an outbreak when he was 6 months old and still BF. Since then (he is now 10), he has been exposed a number of times and not caught anything - but we still don't know if he's just been lucky or whether he really does have imminity.

The only real way would be to ask the GP to do a blood test - but that tends not to be done in the UK.

I'm not sure. DD2 is 5 months and just had it, but I have also heard that if under one they may not be immune to it. She certainly didn't have it mildly though despite being EBF!

Not much you can do about him getting it again anyway, it's pretty hard to avoid once they get to nursery/school.

My DD got it when she was 2 and got it v mild, few spots. I'm hoping she's immune now!! I think the younger they get it the milder it is!!

dd had about 40 spots, and am sure it was enough for immunity - she had a mild fever, bad cough/cold with it, and was miserable! She recovered very fast though. That said, she is 4.5 and I think that makes a difference...not sure a mild case under 1 is enough.

My friend's ds had very mild cp, by which I mean about six spots, as a 6 month old baby - and he hasn't had it again (been exposed several times) but did have shingles at the grand old age of 2! Again, pretty mildly.

Children who have cp under the age of 1 are more likely to get shingles in childhood.