4 month old with chickenpox

[Cathycat7]

My DS (3) had chickenpox 2 weeks ago and gladly shared with his almost 4 month old sister. She seems to be getting much more than him and he was pretty bad :( has anyone had any experience with CP at such a young age? GP didn't seem worried, just said use calamine, calpol and oat baths. I'm just looking for some reassurance 😭 we're on day 4 and last night was horrible for both of us! She looks terrible too, I hope the spots will all be gone in a month. My son still has some that seem to be taking ages to fade.

I had similar, but dd2 was 6 months.

I was told that the second child in the family does tend to get it worse. I was given two theories, I have no idea whether there is any scientific fact in it:

1. Length of time they're in contact with the sibling. So the longer they're in contact, the more chickenpox germs they pick up, so the worse they have it.
2. The disease is designed to quickly evolve to the host's DNA. Because the sibling has similar DNA they get it worse.

Scientifically I would suspect 1 is more likely. Ds (#3) also had it badly and he caught it from his best friend, and had spent a lot of time with her in the last week. He was older though.

Dd1 had it mildly (less than 50 spots), dd2 we gave up counting after 500 spots. The next day I'd describe her as having one spot-it just covered her entire body.

DD2 does have a couple of scars (she's 19yo now) left, one on her eyebrow, but they're skin coloured, and just a little dent and no one has ever noticed them without them being pointed out.

What I found was leaving her naked (which as she was crawling was a bit of a nightmare) helped as the nappy area ones really irritated her. I made some ice lollies just from water which she would suck on when her mouth was sore too.

Pretty much as above, DS was 6 months old and I had counted over 100 spots on his scalp alone. Eldest only had about 15!

He looked terrible, and I called 111 on day 4 as I was at a loss what to do (he was crying constantly, usually a happy baby), then suddenly the next day he magically got much better. You're probably at peak horribleness now and may find she starts getting better from now.

I found an oatbath really helped and wished I'd done it sooner (I'd stupidly dismissed it as a grandma trick that probably wouldn't work) but it made the redness and irritation go down massively.

Good luck!

Oh and also, unbelievably, DS didn't have a single scar. He had so many spots on his face I was quite worried but it was all fine in the end.

Thank you both for your replies, it's really put me at ease today reading them. I've found it hard to get any information on CP with infants. I thought (bc so many people said it) that it was almost impossible for her to get it bc she's under 12 months and breastfeeding 🙄 just goes to show!
I cannot believe how much worse hers is compared to my son! I believe either of those explanations above at this point 😅 it's shocking how different their reactions have been.
I'll keep with the the oat baths and ordered calamine cream bc I've read it's easier to apply than the lotion which is pure liquid. Here's hoping this is the worst day and we're left with little to no scars! 🤞🤞