babies & chickenpox

[pesme]

Hi, my friend is visiting on thursday with her ds who is 1 and has just developed chickenpox. my dd is only 4 months, should i not see them? i only see this friend once in a blue moon but i don't want to inflict a horrible illness on ds when she is so young.

Have you had chickenpox? If you have your son should still have protection from you.

Ds2 was exposed to chickenpox when 8 months- from his brother- so big long exposure. he didn't catch it. At the time ds1 was seeing a paed who said he would probably still have protection- lasts between 6 months-year usually.

Except DD got CP when she was 3 months old... Yes I had had CP before (twice), DD was fully breastfed and took it without any trouble. The youngest case I've heard of was a 2 week old baby who got it (brother came home with spots when baby was a day or 2 old...again, no trouble). I understand the main risks with very young babies getting CP are (possibly) high fever and immunity is less likely to take -- so they would get it again one day, although probably very mildly. I'd probably choose to get it over with myself.

I have come across a baby getting it at a few months old. She was breastfed and her mother was immune. She had it fairly badly with spots inside her mouth that made it very painful for her to feed. It will almost certainly be alright, but it's not definite, IMHO.

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no, please don't see her. My ds got it at 5 months and it was AWFUL, you couldn't see his skin for spots, he was terribly ill and ended up in hospital. It just isn't worth it, it can be awful when they are so young. Just put her off for another day, her ds should be at home being quiet anyway.

thanks everyone. they arrive quite late on thursday so dd will be in bed. so hopefully i can keep contact to a minimum. confusing issue!

My DS1 caught chicken pox when he was 3 weeks old, despite me having it myself when I was 14 and he was being breastfeed.

He had a few spots - GP checked him over and told me he was likely to get it again at some point.

However, at 18 months he had shingles.

DS1 and DD1 (who was 2 when she caught it) absolutely breezed through chicken pox without any problems. However DD2 (4.5) has just gone back to nursery after catching it - and she was very bad The GP needed to see her as she had infected spots/vomiting and couldn't move for days.

Probably not the answer to your question but I caught cp when ds1 was 2.5, we both got it on the same day. I knew I wasn't immune as I was tested when pregnant with ds2. However ds2 around 6 mths at the time didn't catch it despite me feeding/changing him while having it etc. It was nothing to do with bf as I bottle fed him and of course even if I had bf I wasn't immune anyway. He hasn't caught it since either even though has been in close contact with children who were contagious.

got my gp to prescribe vallergan syrup to relieve itchiness - worked fantastically!!! amazed aty how it stopped my 16 month old itching - and let her sleep!!

Just to update everyone. Thanks for your advice. Friend did come with poxy boy but he was probably not infections and dd did not get it. I did have a worrying few weeks waiting for her to get it (it was also boring as I stayed away from all other small babies). It was nice to see my friend as we only see each other about once a year and her baby is gorgeous. So alls well that ends well.