think toddler has chicken pox - risk to 7 month old?

[kate1970]

4 year old DD has just come out in spots today which look to me like chicken pox - mainly on her tummy and back, pink spots some blistery. any advice on what is the risk to her 7 month old brother? obviously they have been together so is there any point trying to keep them apart now?

also does breast feeding make any difference to immunity? DS was breast fed exclusively until 6 months but now mostly on formula - just one breast feed per day. I have definitely had had CP as a child

thanks in advance

I wouldn't bother keeping them apart. She was infectious for around 4 days prior to spots.
My 5 month old exclusively breastfed daughter got chicken pox from her 3 yr old brother last year. I also had it pretty badly as a child. My 5 month old wasn't miserable and didn't have a temp but she looked awful and was completely covered in spots.

No and none

There is no point trying to keep them apart, if your ds is going to get Chicken Pox, he's going to get them.

And I don't think that breastfeeding makes any difference to immunity IME. I was exclusively breastfeeding my dd3 when she caught Chicken Pox off her big sisters, and I had them as a child, so in our case it made no difference at all.

The positive, I think, is that it's much better to get them when young. My dd was roughly the same age as your ds and although was fairly miserable, she wasn't ill.

Hope your dc are ok.

I've been told by several folks that my 5 month old can get it again when older.

dd2's just had them, she's about 7 months corrected. it was fine, great even, because now we've got both of them out of the way before school.

oh, and get calamine cream, not lotion. or eurax.

My ds2 got pox when dd was about 8 weeks old. My gp was concerned about the baby and rang paed department. They said they'd only be concerned with babies under 6 weeks.

also my ds1 had chicken pox at 4 months. It was so mild and it seems to have been enough for him to get immunity. It's been through his year 1 class and he didn't get it again.

gecko had it when she was 4 weeks
then when she was about 14 months

thanks all - you have pretty much confirmed what I thought, that if DS is going to get it then he probably already has. touch wood, DD won't get it too bad - she's quite excited about it so far!

My dd got CP from ds1 when she was only 11 months old and still being breastfed. She had far more spots than ds1, but then so did ds2 who also caught it at the same time.

I don't think your ds is likely to escape infection now, but otoh, I wouldn't worry about it too much: none of my children felt ill when they had it.