Chicken pox in very young baby

[laughorcry]

My toddler has been playing with a little boy who has just come down with chicken pox. I'm not worried about her getting it, but also have a ten week old ds. Does anyone know whether it is dangerous for little babies?

Also, would there be any point in having my toddler dd vaccinated if she was only exposed to the virus yesterday? Could that protect my ds?

Sorry if these are dim questions - I rang my doctor about it this morning but have been waiting all morning for somone to call back and am giving up hope of a reply before the weekend.

My ds came down with chicken pox at 4 months. He was in a bad way - he was so covered with spots that he was almost entirely red, poor fellow - but at least it's over & done with. He caught it from dd, 3 yrs older, who caught it at nursery school.

thanks for the reply, sauce. hope he made a full recovery. maybe it is less likely to cause scars if they are younger?

dd2 caught it off dd1 at about 10 weeks, too. Very, very mild compared to dd1 (who was 16 months at the time). Don't go down the vaccine route. It'll be fine.

Oh, yes, dd1 has a couple of scars. DD2 does not.

dd had it when she was 4 months old...caught it from her older brother who was 2 and a half at the time...I was really miffed actually becauses I was still exclusively b/feeding and thought the so called boost to her immunity system would protect her - she had it much worse than her brother (very worrying at the time as we were still recovering from the news that she had a hole in the heart) but, on refelction, I'm glad that she had it when she did as she was unable to scratch it......

are you bf? if so, your ds will have immunity.

chicken pox is generally very mild. my DD was exposed many times at nursery before she actually got it. (at one time she was the only child in her class! i was beginning to think she was immune).

but when DD1 did get it, DD2 got it bang on 2 weeks later (7 months old). it is very rare for a sibling to not catch it apparently.

oh, didn't read boobsgonesouth post!
well it is rare for bf babies to get chicken pox.

Hi - exclusively bf babies are only immune for the first month - after that it's just as normal! My dd1 was covered from head to foot as dd2 came out so we had the immunologists running about, checking everything.

thanks again for the replies. ds is exclusively breastfed but is 10 weeks old, so sounds like he won't be immune even though I have had chicken pox.

guess i just need to hope that we may miss out this time, and ds will be a little older when it comes round again.

i read one website (Dr Sears, which I have always found quite helpful in the past) which said that you should put your toddler in quarantine for the incubation period! bizarre.