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

[CPHelp]

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 think it's weird in this country that the chicken pox vaccine is not more common.
Sorry if that's not applicable here as baby is probably too young.

I got both my kids vaccinated. And they have not had chicken pox. Magic.

A Swiss friend said exactly this to me 10 years ago when we both had our babies. She was horrified at the fact that we're just expected to get on with it!

I haven’t read this but I had this exact same situation, GP told me if mum has had chicken pox before then baby is immune for 6 months. If mother hasn’t had it they were more concerned about mum catching it as it’s brutal in adults than the newborn, GP said newborn would highly likely be absolutely fine

Things are going along here, more or less. DD1 is a bit more obviously under the weather with CP. DD2 is consuming large amounts of milk and sleeping most of the time. DSis and DBIL are eyeing her suspiciously today as it is possible she has spots on her face which we don't think were present yesterday. They're monitoring her temp and are poised to seek doctors if needed.

As for neglecting DD1; the infection protocol has lapsed a bit, but we're still trying to keep her from touching DD2 at all. DSis is spending time with her but is being careful re cuddles/handwashing. So there is a middle ground being observed really. As the visiting aunt I am a useful distraction in this matter :D she should come out of it emotionally unscathed hopefully.

@CPHelp chicken pox is also airborne spread so usual thing of opening windows and getting fresh air.

Astounding of the midwives to insist everybody went to a&e - the baby I could understand if a risk but they’ve insisted an actively infectious but otherwise fine older child be in a hospital?

Anyway, for those whose kids haven’t had CP yet, the vaccine is available in the U.K. but only privately. Mine had it at about a year old but wasn’t cheap - I think about £150 for the two doses. Much cheaper though than unpaid time of work several times.

Chicken pox can be horrid. More people should be vaccinating. Bringing it in on the nhs can’t come quick enough

The Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisations has recently recommended that the chicken pox vaccine is introduced to the UK NHS schedule, so hopefully it will be brought in soon!

My partly breastfed daughter was about 6 weeks old when her 2 year old sister got it. The toddler had loads of spots, the baby only got one. She's now 14 and hasn't had it again. It's been at the back of my mind that she might not be immune, and weirdly I was talking about it with a friend only yesterday! Boots do chickenpox vaccines for £150 and I think I'm going to get her jabbed.

I had my eldest vaccinated when I was pregnant with my second, largely to avoid this situation. The GP (private) providing the vaccine predicted it will come in on the NHS in a few years.
To reassure OP, (hopefully this isn't outing) my dad was somehow born with chickenpox and fortunately had no medical complications at all, in case a happy ending is helpful. I hope everyone is better soon and not too bored or stressed.

Ds1 had just got over CP when ds2 got it. I came out of hospital with dd1 and dh got CP that day. He was so unwell and spent the week in bed leaving me with ds1, ds2 with CP and newborn dd. At a week old dd got CP only a few spots but she has never had it again so obviously enough of a dose to give her immunity.

My baby DD did get chicken pox from her brother, however she was 5 months old at the time. If babies are born with some immunity from the mother that might explain why she got it because she wasn't newborn anymore. I was breastfeeding and she didn't get it nearly as badly as he did.

Oh and she came down with it three full weeks after he had it. They aren't wrong about the long incubation period. But what that means is that your nephew was probably already contagious before his sister was born so with any luck your sister's immune response was already kicking in when she was still pregnant.

We had this. DD1 came down with chicken pox when DD2 was six weeks old. I was breast feeding and have had chicken pox and DD2 did come down with it but it was very mild - very few spots and fine in herself. It’s done the rounds twice now and she’s not succumbed including when it wiped out her class and left around 10 left! I will probably get her vaccinated at some point because DH has had it twice and the second time was horrible (as an adult.) I really hope they roll out the vaccine at some point.

I quite agree. It is applicable because had the older child been vaccinated, they wouldn’t have this situation now.

CactusMactus, modgepodge

Well, you're right, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Also, I would note that if the cultural norm is to just deal with chickenpox as it occurs and not vaccinate against it preemptively, then that is what most people will do. I used to be a microbiologist and worked for years in scientific research. It still did not occur to me that CP vaccination might be a good shout for my DC until DH came home with it one day (at age 40)!

I am very pleased to hear it's been recommended for addition to the regular childhood vaccination schedule though, that is great news.

Update - 9 days in, still no spots. We are watching DD2 warily. DD1 is all crusted over so hopefully we are past the worst of it from her perspective.

Dsis is alarmed to discover that one of her big toes has several itchy spots on it - they don't look like chicken pox or shingles to me, in fact they resemble nothing so much as ordinary acne. Since she is not prone to toe spots though, we're regarding them with suspicion. Any ideas/experience of this, anyone?