4 month old exposed to chicken pox

[poxypoxer]

I met a friend last week with her 4yr old DS, and they played a lot with my 4yr old.... friend has just messaged to say her DS has come out in chicken pox, my 4yr old has had it already but his 4 month old sister (who was also there) hasn't. How worried do I need to be? Is it likely to have been passed on? Is it very dangerous to babies? I'll call the health visitor later but just wondered if anyone has experience on really little ones catching it?

Mine caught it at 5 months I think. He didn't have it any worse than my 4yo at the time. The worst part was not being able to go out with them.

I think it's only dangerous in very new newborns, or if your baby has a health issue like if she was premature or low birth weight etc.

Have you had chickenpox? If you have your baby will have immunity from you for up to a year. That's what our GP said when my boys got chickenpox aged 6 and 4 when I also had a 2 month old baby. The baby didn't catch it.

They are contagious 1-2 days before the spots come out so it depends when they had contact. At 4 months it's not as much of an issue as it would be if they were newborn.

My ds had chickenpox at 5½ months old when dd gave it to him. He then had shingles age 3

I don't think this always works... my son was only 5mo and still pretty much exclusively breastfed and he still caught it.

Maybe it was milder than it could have been, but he still had it and pretty much similar severity to my 4yo.

Thanks all - this has been somewhat reassuring, I've had it - baby is combi fed with breastmilk and formula so hopefully any immunity she has from me will help, especially as they weren't up close and personal too much as her DS was running around everywhere with my older one.

There was a thread on here recently and the OP was concerned because she had a holiday coming up. She was advised she might be able to prevent the CP if they obtained a CP vaccine. ( paid privately I assume). I have no idea of the rules of the vaccine regarding ages etc but it’s apparently an option even post exposure.

My two year old caught it when my daughter was 2 weeks old.
The health visitor told me she wouldn’t get them because I was breast feeding and she was using my immunity. (I had them as a child)

edited to say she didn’t get them and is 9 now, still hasn’t got them.

My eldest got it the day my youngest was born. My youngest had it at 2 weeks so the immunity thing was not true! She was fine. It was a nasty dose but just keep an eye out for infected spots.

@Divebar2021 the baby is too young for the vaccine. Think it's ok from 9 months but countries that do have it on their schedules generally give it around 12 months

Agreed, it's not the case. My 6 month old got it while still exclusively breastfed. It didn't help even a little bit, she was absolutely covered (over 100 spots on her scalp alone), when my 4 year old had about 10 spots in total.

That being said she wasn't that bothered, maybe one day or two of fussiness but it passed quickly. She wasn't itching at all and has no scars, so overall it's not a bad age to catch it, don't worry OP.

It's been round nursery about 4 times since and she's not caught it again (I'd been told of they catch it before 1 they may get it again, but it's not been the case for her).