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Breastfeeding whilst infected with shingles antibodies

1 reply

CocoMelanie · 22/07/2022 03:28

Is there a chance that I've inadvertently given my son immunity to chicken pox through breastfeeding whilst I had shingles?

My son recently unwittingly came into contact with chicken pox about a week ago. He's almost 22 months old. I exclusively BF for first 6 months and gradually replaced single feeds with formula up to the age of 1.
I had chicken pox about 21 years prior to BF, and during exclusively BF I got shingles. They were able to be covered so by guidance of GP I carried on BF my son.
He's come out with basically a handful of pox spots and nothing really more. GP was quite convinced his first spot was pox (had to visit GP as he has sever eczema so they have to check it's not Eczema Herpeticum)
But basically we were getting prepped for a night / weeks of hell and nothing has really happened. It's been over 48 hours since the first spot appeared and my son's had no fever, no nothing other than not fancying his dinner on the second night after spot..

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Could it actually be because I BF during a bought of shingles? Or has the GP / we put the pox exposure and spots together to make the assumption it must be chicken pox??

OP posts:
Lisasteddy · 22/07/2022 06:29

I'm not a healt care professional, but you may have passed on a bit of immunity. Equally, not all kids get really ill with chicken pox; it varies tremendously. My dd2 had only a few aged 3. Her 2 years older sister caught it from her and was covered in them. Don't know if it's true, but I've heard it is common that a second victim in a familiar gets it worse due to higher exposure.

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