Newborn baby and chickenpox in the house.... argh. Advice, anyone?

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DSis has just had her DD2 - so far, so lovely. Problem is that her DD1 was sent home from nursery with chickenpox the same day DSis and DD2 came home :/ I am staying with DSis, DBIL and the children as family support in any case, but this is a new and unwelcome complication.

We've set up a rough infection control protocol (DSis and DD2 stay in separate set of rooms to me, DBIL and DD1 as much as possible and are only allowed in the living room in the evening after it has been cleaned and aired), but are winging it a bit. All the adults have had chickenpox before, and DSis is trying to breastfeed as much as possible for the immunity benefits.

Any advice/tips from anyone else who has been in this situation please? If nothing else this thread might be a useful record for future parents in the same situation....

Namechanged for this thread, but I've been here forever!

I was nearly in this situation as my sister unknowingly brought her kids to see my newborn when they were potentially infectious as they developed symptoms a few days later. I mentioned it to my midwife who said it was highly unlikely the newborn would develop chicken pox due to residual immunity from the womb, then BF protects even further (assuming the mother has had chicken pox/a vaccination of course!) So hopefully the baby should be fine. However I would probably call the midwife and check if they have any further advice.

From NHS common health questions:

The amount and type of antibodies passed to the baby depends on the mother's immunity.
For example, if you have had chickenpox, you should have developed immunity against the condition and some of the chickenpox antibodies will be passed to your baby.
But if you haven't had chickenpox, your baby will not be protected.
Immunity in newborn babies is only temporary and starts to decrease after the first few weeks or months.

So if mum has had chickenpox then she will have passed some of her immunity to her newborn.

We had this many years ago. DD was 3 and newborn DS didn't seem to catch chickenpox from her. I was breastfeeding and had chickenpox when I was a child.

DS is now 19 and still hasn't had it though there were multiple cases of it in his classes when he was in nursery & primary school.

Yes, we had this when DC3 was 4 or 5 weeks old. DD2 was 3 years old and had been all over the baby for cuddles etc right before the spots appeared.

I had chickenpox as a child and was breastfeeding; the baby never developed chickenpox. There were no infection control measures, other than hand washing. Hopefully your baby niece won't catch it either, but don't make the older child suffer by missing out on attention from mum when they are feeling ill.

We had a nightmare with chicken pox. DS1 caught it from nursery one week before I had DS2. I developed it one week after delivery when I was breastfeeding ( it can apparently be dangerous if you have active chickenpox during delivery). I hadn't had it as a child. Then DS2 developed it at 3 weeks old. As he was so young they took him into hospital and gave him IgG passive immunity antibodies. He got better without being too ill but obviously didn't get full immunity as he got another mild case when he was 8. My father also got it as he was on steroids for another condition and was quite ill.
I wish they would bring in the vaccine for it. It's quite a bad infection for babies and the immune compromised and there is the risk of shingles when you are older.
If your baby gets it you could inquire about the IgG treatment. This was 20 years ago so I don't know if they still do that.

Like a few others DS1 got it while DS2 was little and still breastfeeding, and like PP didn't get it from his brother. Seemed to have immunity in that period. He then got it as a toddler from nursery when the immunity was gone. Hopefully the same will be true for your Dsis.

Another one here with a toddler getting chickenpox when we had a newborn and no subsequent chickenpox in the newborn. I was BF and had chickenpox as a child. We had no infection control procedures either.

This is very reassuring, thank you all! We will see how we go. DD1 (well, sister's DD1, but Dniece1 is a mouthful) is currently spotty, so I reckon we have up to 3 weeks of watching DD2 with bated breath for any spots (and of course fever etc).

FinnJuhl - DSis has already wavered a bit and been hanging out by the living room door chatting away to DD1 because she misses her, so I think DD1 will be ok from an emotional standpoint; they have had a few hugs too when DD2 was safely in bed. But this was a reasonable point to note!

I will update the thread if anything exciting happens, but no news is good news and all that.

Updating mostly for my own record-keeping. Midwives came over yesterday (Day 3) to see how Dsis and DD2 were doing; Dsis greeted them at the door with news of chickenpox (she did try to let them know by phone beforehand as well).

Midwives listened and said "Well you (meaning DSis, DBIL and both DDs) all need to go to A&E for assessment right now." They then asked to take DSis's (generally high) blood pressure, which she politely declined explaining that it wasn't going to be low after an instruction like that 😂 (she did let them see a photo of a reading she took earlier and they accepted it).

Anyway, they all trooped off to A&E and apparently spent a lovely few hours waiting to be seen by various experts. Eventually they were told to go home again and wait to see if DD2 develops spots/a fever/anything in 7 days' time and to bring her in immediately if so. The Drs commented that DD1 has barely any spots (and is v perky) and 'does she even have chickenpox'. So a bit of an odd visit.

The A&E Drs told DSis that there is apparently contradictory guidance on this, hence the midwives telling her to get both her infectious child and her newborn in the same car and take them to a place with lots of sick people for no immediate clinical reason 🙄 but least they are all hone safe and sound now.

What?? Why did the child with chicken pox and the healthy parents need an and e????

My older child came down with chicken pox when my baby was three weeks old. I have had it as a child so must have passed on some immunity to the baby. He had no symptoms at all so I thought we avoided him catching it. But when he was six month old he came down with shingles so he must have caught chicken pox off his brother.

Seems like ludicrous advice from the midwives.

Why indeed!

It really did! But DD1 loved the trip out, she was bored at home. So there is that :D

Madness

I had this with my kids. My son was 2 and had chicken pox the week my daughter was born. She was fine and didn’t get it, but she did get shingles at 9 months old which the dr thinks was related! Again she was fine and no complications but I think what your doing is the right course of action as a precaution

My baby caught it from my 5yo at 10 weeks. It was very very mild, only a handful of spots. GP advised it was probably due to my immunity that it was mild. They did say however she might get it again when shes older since it was so mild.

My 6 week old caught it from older sibling and only had a handful of spots. Like the poster above we were told he might get it again as it was so mild but he is now an adult and never has.

I gave birth to my DS2 whilst my DS1 had chicken pox and the consultant told me not to panic as baby would have my immunity and children are no longer contagious once the spots are out. It was all fine.

My 2 and 4 year old both had chicken pox a few days after I had baby number 5. I rang the doctor and he told me that if baby is fully breastfed and mum has had chicken pox, it's very unlikely that baby will get it. This proved to be true. The two little ones had already kissed and cuddles their baby brother so there wasn't much point trying to keep everyone apart as they were infectious before the spots came out!

It seems like madness to have two healthy adults (one post partum) and a chicken pox infected but otherwise healthy nursery aged child go to A&E. I mean why?? All that would have done was risk spreading chicken pox to anyone compromised in A&E surely??

If mum is BF the newborn should be getting some immunity hopefully. I wouldn’t be excluding my first child in those circumstances to be honest. I’d consider her being excluded and kept away from mum more of a risk (to her emotional well-being and adjustment to having a sibling etc) than the risk of the newborn catching chicken pox. Surely just keep some sensible hygiene in place but don’t stop a young child interacting with their mum who has just had a new baby. That seems much more damaging for both parties (I remember feeling incredibly guilty when I had dc2 around dc1 missing out on me which wasn’t true but that’s how I felt at the time and if my dc1 was kept away from me I’d have spiralled worse).

That seems batshit to me to take the whole family into a&e ,seems like an utter waste of nhs resources,2 adults who’ve had it before are unlikely to catch it again …..I’d be far more worried about them picking up something worse from other people there! My baby caught it from my oldest, barely any spots so she ended up catching it again when she was older.

It happened to me as well. My toddler caught chickenpox and passed it to my baby. It was fine just used calamine lotion on both of them

Really irresponsible of the midwife to send you straight to a and e for a non emergency with chicken pox.
I hope someone seriously ill who's not immune doesn't catch it now.
Greatest overreaction ever.

My 12ish week old ds caught chickenpox from 4yr old dd. He had a decent showing of spots... no mention of the need for medical from anyone... (He was bf and I'd had chickenpox as a kid.)

Ds is now 10 and hasn't had it again since despite numerous rounds in school.