Adult Chickenpox & 6 months old baby

[Toni9010]

Hello,

My 7 year old had chickenpox, me and my 6 months old baby never had it before and we have never been vaccinated ( my mother told me I was vaccinated, but I now found out it is not true).
I made an appointment to get the vaccine, but the pharmacy refused because I am breastfeeding.
I am VERY worried that me and my baby will be severely ill, has anyone else experienced chickenpox as an adult? I am so scared I will be hospitalised and no one will take care of my kids. Please no scary experiences, I am only posting for reassurance because I read too many nasty stories! 😥😥
thank you

So, since no one replied, I’ll reply to myself so I can share my experience with anyone else out there who is worried about adult chickenpox and babies.
My 7 year old had chicken pox and exactly 14 days later my 6 months old had 2 spots on his neck. He is now day 3 and he is completely covered, literally from head to toe.
No temperature, just very lethargic and no appetite, he’s refusing bottles but I do breastfeed frequently.
I started to have temperature, cold and hot sweats and 10 spots have appeared on my body. I just hope I will be well enough to keep breastfeeding and looking after my kids.

Hi OP. I'm sorry you are going through this.

I had adult chickenpox after catching it from my 5yo last year. I had never had it before.

I started feeling I'll 2 days before spots appeared. Lethargic and temperature. Once the spots appeared I was very very itchy and still lethargic. But after a few days apart from being itchy I was feeling a lot better. Within a week I felt fine and the spots were all healed.

I had a daily bath with bicarb of soda mixed in to dry the spots, and I would cover my body in head and shoulders to stop the itching. I was also taking antihistamines to reduce the itching. I found a daily tablet didn't work, but having liquid piriton a couple of times a day did help. I think it's because there is different types of antihistamine. Baby can also have bicarb baths and piriton, just less than you. Other people recommend oat baths but I never had one.

I hope this reassures you that whilst it does suck, it doesn't usually last that long. Just take it easy and rest when you can. Keep up your fluids, especially if breast feeding, tv is your friend.

Thank you so much for taking your time to reply and share your chickenpox story!
I am sorry you had this too 😟😟😟
The way you describe it, it doesn’t sound too bad 🤣 It is definitely reassuring! I have called the GP asking if I could have antivirals, but they said they cannot prescribe them and if I do get worse I need to go hospital and they might give me some 🤔 I Don’t think I’ll get to that point. I’ll keep posting updates.
Can I ask you a few questions if you don’t mind?

• do you have any scars left from the chickenpox? How long did they take to disappear? I am very conscious about my body so I worry I will look like a monster for ages…
• from a scale of 1 to 10 how bad was the itching? Mine are not itchy yet as they have just appeared. I am more concerned about the genital area 😱

thank you son much

@Figmentofimagination Oh I can only take claritin antihistamine, no liquid Periton because I am breastfeeding.
My baby is 6 months old and he can’t have any antihistamines, I am giving him calpol for his throat and calamine cream on his body, I also bought some oatmeal bath soak from Amazon, still to arrive.
I have never heard of head and shoulders on the body! I will definitely try it and also the bircabonate of soda baths!

Apologies for the wrong information regarding piriton. I forgot it was age 1 upwards. My DS was on it before age 1 with a tiny dose because of other allergies.

I do not have any scars luckily. My DS has 3. 2 on his face that he picked and 1 on his stomach where his underwear band rubbed but they are hardly noticeable. It took a few weeks for them mostly disappear but after the first 10 days they were very mild.

I felt like my body was on fire, especially my back so probably about a 7-8. I had them from the top of my head to the tops of my thighs. Wasn't really bad on the genital area but very sore around my bum.

And yes, head and shoulders really helped. I had the itchy scalp one. I would have a shower and rub it into my body, stand with it on for a few minutes and then wash it off, making sure to avoid genitals. It cooled my skin and soothed the itching.

Hello @Figmentofimagination
No need to apologise about that!
Just a quick update:
Today is day 4 for my baby Daniel, his temperature comes and goes, he can’t sleep, cries a lot and he’s just very miserable. 😭
We took him to A&E to get him checked because at one point he looked a bit purple/blue-ish, he’s fine thankfully.
I know it will pass, but it breaks my heart seeing him like this 😢 I have been crying loads because I keep thinking that this could have been prevented.
I could have my older son vaccinated for chickenpox as soon as it started spreading at schools and his cousins had it.
I am originally from Italy and everyone is vaccinated there (including newborns), for this reason chickenpox has become “an old disease” and no one has heard of chickenpox in a long time.
I love the NHS in this country, but I cannot understand why the chickenpox isn’t part of the vaccination program for newborns?
I read that it isn’t really “cost effective” as people will get shingles when they are older.
Although chickenpox is usually mild, it can be life-threatening, and when it comes to newborns and pregnant women no one should talk about the “cost effectiveness” of the vaccine.

@Figmentofimagination I don’t know if you agree with what I mentioned earlier, my husband is British and he has a different point of you because he explained to me that in this country all kids have chickenpox at some point.
He’s very sorry for baby Daniel, but for him, it is almost like this is something that he would have to go through anyway and “ the sooner the better?”

May I ask if you Do you have another child or just one 5 year old?
Thank you

Can't comment on the adult chickenpox - we all had it as kids. But I hope you're feeling better soon.

On the baby front mine had it at 4 months (picked up from school aged sibling). He was under the weather for a few days and then was fine. He hasn't caught it again since however and it has gone round nursery/preschool then school multiple times since then. With some very wound up small children who have much more of an understanding of feeling rough and not being able to do what they want (go to school/play with friends etc)

@LittleOwl153 thank you for your reply ☺️
I am so glad your baby was fine! Usually newborns turn out to be fine because they carry the mother’s antibodies.
I never had chickenpox and I was not vaccinated, my mother told me I was, but recently discovered that the vaccine did not exist back then.
Newborns are more much more at risk if the mother does not have the antibodies for chickenpox (like me).
For breastfeeding mothers who has chickenpox , as long as you breastfeed your baby will be protected from the disease ( in theory).
More then 90% of adults had chickenpox, my suggestion for everyone out there who does not remember if they had it or not is to get an antibodies test and a vaccine if needed, this will protect all mothers and their future babies 👩‍🍼

DS2 caught CP off his brother at one week old. I was bf but he still caught it, albeit mildly.
He's now almost 18 and never had it again.

Hi OP, I do not have another child. Just my 5yo. I and I'm very sorry you and your baby are suffering so much.

I had considered getting the vaccine for myself and my DS, but hadn't got around to it, as like your husband I also had the mentality of sooner rather than later for my DS.

I never caught it as a child even though my sister had it, and my mum tried to get me to catch it from her as she also thought of sooner rather than later. This was another reason why I didn't jump at the chance to get the vaccine, because I wondered if I was immune already.

But I will say that my friend is a children's nurse in the NHS and she has got both her daughters vaccinated. She feels it should be a routine vaccine, and was the person recommending it to me.

@cptartapp thank you for your reply! Wow that must have been very scary! Your baby has been very very lucky.
If you had chickenpox yourself, your breastmilk must have protected him and therefore he had mild symptoms, but still it must have been terrifying for you 😥😥😥 I am lucky that my baby is 6 months old, nearly 7 actually.
thank you for sharing your experience ☺️ glad your baby was fine

@Figmentofimagination
thank you for replying 😊
the good thing is that if one day you will decide to have another child you won’t have to worry about your older child and yourself getting it!

In my case, me and my 2 kids are having it almost at the same time 😂 we will look ridiculous for sure.

I do agree with your friend and hopefully things will change and all kids will be vaccinated in the future, who knows!

My baby seems getting a bit better now, which is good, I am having more and more spots but no other symptoms or itchiness for now. I expect to be a lot worse tomorrow but we will see!
My husband will try to get some time off hopefully as I don’t have any family members here.
I feel very lucky that my husband’s family try to help as much as I can.

Thanks again for your support, it is highly appreciated ☺️

Hope you are all doing ok!

I caught chickenpox for the first time as an adult and whilst it wasn't pleasant, it was ok. I was tired and very achy for a few days, and was covered head to toe in spots. My DD and DS were 5 months and 17 months old at the time and they both had it too. They were fine apart from lots of spots!

DD has a small scar on her forehead from it (impossible to stop a baby itching) but we all escaped relatively unscathed.

I was breastfeeding at the time and could only take paracetamol. When the itching started the doctor said I could take anti histamines but it might make DD a bit sleepy - I took them and all was good

Meant to add they are now in their late teens and haven't caught it again

My mum caught CP from my brother at 39, she had it really bad, was covered from head to toe.

Hello @HeyJudeNanananana thank your for replying and for sharing your experience.

Wow, did you and your kids had it at the same time? 😱😱 At least you didn’t have any severe symptoms, but still it must have been horrible for you 😣

My baby is feeling much better today (Day 5).
I am so happy to see him smiling and playing again.

I had mild fever and body aches last Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning with around 10 spots on my body, since then, I have been having 1-2 spots everyday, but they did not become blisters (apart from 1 on my tummy).
I find all this very strange, because I feel perfectly fine.

My mam spoke to her doctor and she told her that I probably will be very ill at the end of the week because adults can have a delayed reaction 🤨🤒 we’ll see

@Nat6999 poor your Mam, so far I haven’t found any adult saying they only had a few spots and they felt perfectly fine 😓

After 5 weeks I can say that my baby boy is healing really well and the spots are almost gone! You can still see marks on his body, but nothing like it used to be.

Before we got chickenpox, I was worried sick for weeks thinking me and my baby would be severely ill, I even thought I could end up in a coma!

These worries kept me up all night and I cried everyday.
Yes, I did get chickenpox but I had no symptoms.
Internet is full of really bad experiences, couldn’t find anyone saying they were totally fine.
I only had 15 spots (maybe) they were not itchy and they were not even noticeable.
I still can’t believe I have been so lucky, wish my baby had it mild too but he’s fine now and he won’t remember when he’s older.

Sorry no experiences to share but I'm so sorry you and your beautiful boy have been poorly. Your son is looking much better now thank goodness. He is a cutie!