sorry ANOTHER chicken pox question - how does it spread?

[novadandypowder]

my 5wk old ds has chicken pox, but my 18mo dd doesn't and I can't figure out how he caught it .

How can you catch it? Does it hang around on surfaces, so could I have touched a surface and passed it on to him? Or is it by direct contact with an infectious person? I'm baffled

I think it must stay on surfaces etc. My ds got it in Feb at 14 1/2 months he doesn't go to toddler groups etc so I have no idea how he caught it before my 4 year old dd. I can only assume it was at the supermarket or something either from an infectious person or a shopping trolley!

I think it is by contact with other spots or by airborne virus (from other affected children that have been coughing and spluttering).

I think i saw something once that someone can be a carrier of the virus without having symptoms.....maybe not though! I did think it was person to person transmission though. DS in reception has had 3/4 of his classmates and close friends go down with it in the last 3 months, but so far he has been clear, so maybe not....

puzzled too my dd4 has just come out in a few spots today
but the other two who go to school have not -they must be able to carry the virus and not get it? or maybe they will get it soon
three sick dd's not a welcome prospect

its airborn. my ds got it 4 weeks after my dd - we though he must have immunity but he didn't - he had really bad dose.

nhs direct says this:

Chickenpox spreads in tiny droplets of saliva and nasal mucus coughed out by an infected person. The virus is already in these droplets before any rash appears, which is why it spreads so fast.

My dd (3) has just had them and I am waiting to see if ds (6 months) is going to have them too. The incubation period is 10-21 days so I have another week to wait and see if he caught them.