Can you get chicken pox twice?

[sandyballs]

Half of DDs year 1 class is off with chicken pox. She had it badly when she was two so I presumed she would now be immune. She feels ill today though, headache, loss of appetite, very tired.

Has anyone elses DC had it twice?

You can get it twice, but generally only when you haven't been in contact with it for years, so I would say it is unlikely that she has it again.

I think it is possible when child has it the first time very young, I'm sure I read about it somewhere on here.

yes u can

I had it twice. A very mild case first time round and v.bad 2nd.

She should be immune. Is there anything else going around? I believe dcs can catch it twice but only if they don't develope full immunity due to getting a mild dose the first time -I'm expecting my ds to get it again as he got a mild dose as a nb.

as one of my friends had it when he was a young kid an then had another when he was 20

Yes you can, some people are just more susceptible than others, my husband has had it twice, second time quite bad.

Hopefully she wont get it - but the signs are not good are they?

Take care X

only usually get it twice if you had it very mildly the first time

Ds1 and ds2 both had it twice. Several children in ds1's class also had it twice.

think its pretty unusual to get it twice.lets keep fingers crossed
there seems to be lots of " viral" type things around at the moment- my 2 came back from school, with sore tums and huge case of the grumps which usually indicates they've picked up something. And the baby seems to have had the snots forever!! fortunately this affects others more than her!

DD has had it again but only mild.
My dads had it twice, dh twice and my SIL 3 times.
!!!

I had it twicwe when i was younger. within a few weeks. I had it then my sister had it then my neighbour had it then i got it again

Loads of kids are off with it in DD2's class too, she had it two years ago, really really bad, the worse case the GP had seen, so I hope she doesn't get it again. She has a skin immunity problem, and I don;t want to go through that again.

I dont believe you can 'catch' chicken pox twice as it's a version of herpes and so once you've got it, you've always got it so it can flare up again.

I was given chicken pox by my dd when I was 33 - had never had it as a child. It was horrendous and the doctor told me then about not being able to catch it again - ie If you had had it in childhood you wouldn't be suffering like this now.

Thanks for all your replies. I do hope she doesn't get it again, it was horrible for her first time round, spots absolutely everywhere, couldn't see any unaffected skin. It seems to me that kids with eczema get chicken pox worse.

My DS has just had chicken pox and my DD 24 weeks has now. My dh had mild as child so I was interested in wether he'd get again. Every medical person I've spoken doctors, H.V's, nurses, pharmacist all say you can't catch twice. They say it lies dorment and reoccurs as shingles but can't be caught from someone. I'e you can't catch shingles from someone with chicken pox but you get chicken pox from someone with shingles.
I was told that if even very mild you still have immunity.
Mind you I know some one who had it every year of my collage course and claims has had 6 time