Shingles, can it be mild in children?

[marne2]

Dd1 has had a rash/spots for 2 weeks, to start with they looked like bites. Then like pox and now they look like patches of dry skin ( almost like patches of ring worm ). Apparently pox is going around at school and a boy dd1 hangs around with has now got the pox. Someone just said to me that children can get shingles from the pox virus but they may not be ill with it? Is this correct? Dd1 has not been ill at all, just has sports/rash around her groin, tummy and under her arm. Could it be shingles? I thought she had just had a reaction to something as she has not been poorly.

Dd1 had shingles when she was 2 and a half (I seem to remember reading having it in childhood is linked to having had chicken pox under 1yr, she was 7 weeks when she had it) and apart from the rash she was completely unaffected. I think you only get shingles from yourself, it's a reactivation of the virus or something similar but the other child could have got chicken pox from contact with shingles iyswim.

you need to have had chicken pox in the past to have shingles, you can't get shingles from chicken pox. Childhood shingles is more common in children who have had chicken pox under 1 year

You can't catch shingles. You can only develop it if you've had chicken pox already as it's the dormant virus in your body reactivating in the form of shingles. You can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles however.

Shingles only appears on one side of the body and runs along a nerve so can be quite painful.

Probably not shingles then as it's not on one side ( she's has them on the tops of both of her thighs and across the bottom of her tummy ), maybe it is just a reaction to something.

its not a reaction to the elastic of her pants is it? have you changed washing detergent?

We did change bubble bath a couple weeks ago ( as supermarket changed the one we usually have ) so it may have been that, other than that nothing has changed.

DS (7) has just had shingles. It was very, very mild - just 2 patches (like bites) around his ribs and didn't bother him at all. He was a bit pale and tired but no other symptoms.