How worried should I be? (Chickenpox)

[Sux2buthen]

I have a 4 year old
2 year old
And a four month old.
Two days ago they were playing with 4 year old cousin.
Today I get a call and at the end, very casually 'ooh cousin has come out in horrible chickenpox. Anyway got to go'
Am I doomed. Am I going to have three under 5 with chickenpox?

Hi OP

Try not to worry. On the whole it's better to catch chickenpox when young as it tends to be less unpleasant. Babies under a year of age are less likely to catch it as they will have inherited some temporary immunity from you - especially if you are breastfeeding.

Whilst chickenpox can be nasty, and very occasionally there can be serious side effects, it is usually a fairly mild and completely normal childhood illness.

The incubation period is usually 2 to 3 weeks, so it would be a while before your DC came out in spots if they have caught it.

My DC (aged 1 and 3 at the time) were both very slightly off colour (grumpy) the day before the first spot came out. They both had a fair amount of spots all over, but they didn't even seem itchy or unwell in any way. We did use calamine cream and gave them an oat bath at bedtime. They were over it and back out in the world within a week.

If you weren't planning on vaccinating they were bound to pick it up at some point.

Hope if they get it it's a mild case... oh and they may not get it at the same time - you could have a 2 or 3 week gap between each child!

BI x

My 3 and 1 year old recently had chicken pox. 3 year old got it first then when his went the 1 year old got it. Apparently they don't get it together is what I've been told

They can get it together if the exposure was from the same child at the same time. You might be lucky as they are only contagious for 1-2 days before the spots appear and until they crust over.

My ds got it at 6 months and then had childhood shingles at age 3

I'm hopeful that they will skip it this time, partly because I obviously don't want them to be poorly but also because my son will miss the end of term and the first birthday party he's been invited to attend. I realise that's silly lol.
Ooh shingles is horrible pp.