Can a two year old have a patch of shingles directly in the middle of his forehead?

[linspins]

My two year old had chicken pox as a baby. Yesterday he had a reddish patch in the middle of his forehead which just looked like he'd bumped it. Today he woke up with a patch of very fine blistery looking rash. This evening it's a bit more blistery looking. A child at his childminders has recently had chickenpox.
Could it be shingles? I thought that appeared on your body, and only on one side, whereas this is dead centre on his forehead.
Or could it be the dreaded impetigo?(...again.) In a large patch.
He seems fine in him self today, although was a but grumpy at the weekend.

hopeful bump?

I had paediatric shingles but it is vv rare. It took three doctors before I was correctly diagnosed so prob not.

If it starts to spread across his head then it may be shingles. More likely to be impetigo as I also had that on my forehead as a child!

The child with chicken pox is a red herring - you can't catch shingles off someone with chicken pox, although you can potentially catch chicken pox off someone with shingles.
Doesn't sound like shingles - my Mum's got it at the moment, so I've been forced to read up on it in order to be sufficiently sympathetic.
Here's an info sheet about it.
Sorry, no helpful suggestions as to what it might be.

Sincerely hoping it's not impetigo, again, as he's had that 3 or 4 times since last september, and this is a substantial patch if it is that. Will have to wait until morning to see if anything has developed...
Thanks for info that you can't catch singles from chicken pox. Arkady, hope your Mum feels better soon. x

doesn't sound like shingles as shingles comes along a nerve branch so does't cross the midline of the body.
also as previously said shingles comes from within, not from being in contact with chickenpox.

Definitely not typical of shingles. Does sound like impetigo

Agree, shingles doesn't cross the midline, and can't be caught, it is a reactivation of previous chicken pox.

If you have already had chicken pox then recent contact with a person with chicken pox reduces the chances of shingles by strengthening the bodies immune response to the chicken pox virus.
If you haven't had chicken pox then you cant get shingles.

DS had shingles when he was 2, it was on his back, there was one really deep nasty looking spot, then a rash of smaller spots following a line around his side. He was really out of sorts when he had it.

NHS Direct info

I would get it looked at by a GP because if it is then he may need some anti-viral treatment. DS had anti-viral cream to put on it.

Should say the awful spot was in the centre of his back, the rest of the rash then went round one side and not the other.

shingles can cross the midline, unusual as it travels along the band of nerves but if more than one nerve area is affected the skin blisters may cluster together. have seen it a few times across the tummy and covering a fair amount of the face head and neck.

Well it's morning now and it hasn't spread at all, and he is well apart from this blistery rash. It might be a little redder than yesterday, it's hard to tell. If it does turn out to be impetigo again, he'll prob end up on antibiotics as previously this has been the only thing that shifts it. Big sigh. It can't be good for him.
Will leave it one more day and then take him to docs I think.