15 month old with shingles

[crocodarl]

DS3, age 15 months, has shingles. He's completely fine, and healing well - was just a line of 6 or 7 spots at the left side of his forehead. No itching, no temperature, no drama.

He was exposed to chicken pox a year ago when he was a tiny baby and both of his brothers had it. He didn't show any symptoms of chicken pox (I had it when I was a toddler so obviously he still had immunity from me).

I've heard that shingles is very rare in children, but I've also read that babies who have chicken pox/are exposed to it or immunised against, when they are less than 1 year old are more likely to develop shingles than children who have chicken pox when they are over 1 year old. (Well obviously, because seemingly you can't have shingles without chicken pox exposure).

HOWEVER, it can't be that rare for babies under 1 year to get chicken pox if they have older siblings, chicken pox being such a common illness and older siblings not exactly a rarity either.

Has anyone else's kids had shingles when very young?

I had it as a child but not a baby, I was about 12. I had alot of pain and am glad your little one seems to be relatively OK.

My DC had chicken pox at around 10/11 months and got shingles twice. Once aged 1 and once aged 2 or 3. No pain with it or temp...just the cluster rash. Now 6 and not had a repeat so far

Ds had chicken pox at 6 months and shingles age 3

I've never heard of this! DD had chickenpox at 10 months old, no drama apart from one sleepless night. She's 4 now and has been exposed to CP via school friends but no shingles or anything. I'll have to keep an eye out!

You don't get shingles from chicken pox exposure. It is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus so you have to have had chicken pox in the past to get shingles. If a child gets chicken pox under the age of 1 then they are more likely to come out in childhood shingles.

To add to dementedpixies post, the conceen is the other way round...exposure to shingles can trigger chicken pox in people who have not got immunity from the virus. From what I read it is literally exposure to the rash so for instance when my DC had shingles rash on their leg they were not contagious as it was covered (happy to be corrected if I've misunderstood)

Yeah, sorry, I didn't word that very clearly! I meant, you can't get shingles if you've never had chicken pox (or, in the case of my kid, been previously throughly exposed to it). You can't catch shingles from someone with chicken pox - although you can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles (if you haven't already had chicken pox).

That is interesting about the age of getting chicken pox.
DS1 caught cp at 3 and never had shingles.
My younger dc caught cp at 7months and 16 months. Both have had shingles.