Chickenpox possibly in the offing. What to do?

[berolina]

There is a case of chickenpox at ds1's kindergarten. Apparently disgnosed saturday, I don't know if the child was in kindergarten the couple of days beforehand. Although no other children have succumbed as yet, I appreciate it is fairly likely he will get it. I have a 5mo and tbh am a bit worried about him - he had his third baby jab/Prevenar today and if he then gets cp from ds1 might this be too much for his immune system? As ds1 won't be infectious yet if he has it from this child, might a pre-emptive vaccine for ds1 make sense?

Added complication is that apparently the cp vaccine has been in the schedule over here (Germany) since 2004 or 2005 - except we were never offered it (ds1 is 2.9) . I would have turned it down at the time it is apparently offered - with the MMR, what utter madness - but might have decided to take it up before sending ds1 to kindergarten. Is ds1 likely to get it worse by virtue of possibly being surrounded by vaccinated children? (The child who has cp, going by his age, should actually be vaccinated as well).

Further added complication is that we are due to visit two lots of friends/relatives for a total of 10 days from Monday. Friends have one child who is vaccinated and are happy for us to come. The other family includes a 96yo and I am concerned about shingles. But of course he might not have it... Go or cancel?

He might not get it at all tbh. My DD1 was repeatedly exposed to CP at nursery and didn't get it until she had been exposed to it pretty much constantly for 7 months - she wasn't the only one like that either. When she did get it my DD2 was 8 weeks old, she caught a very mild dose as she was being BFd at the time (only 3 spots).

We have had single cases of CP for the past 6 months at nursery now, just the odd one getting it when you would expect everyone to go down with it.

I can't see why your DS would be more likely to get a worse case because he is surrounded by vaccinated children. I know of two mums who have twins where one got CP and he other didn't despite the pair of them going to the same nursery at the same time and sharing baths etc at home.
It's funny how these things work out sometimes.

Thank you

Am hoping he might escape it this time, after which I will have a think about the vaccine. Not entirely happy about it but scaring myself a little with tales of complications.

The doctor wants to immunise ds2 if ds1 gets it

Any thoughts on our visit?

you can't catch shingles from chicken pox (even though they're the same virus), so i wouldn't worry on that score.

ds1 may well not catch it, dd has been exposed countless times & never has (she's 2.7). ds had it when i was 38 weeks pregnant, maybe she got put off it in the womb....

i wouldn't vaccinate my children against c. pox, even if the vaccine was offered in the uk, which it isn't generally. it's one of those childhood illness which aren't great fun but they're not usually very ill with it. and natural immunity is better. and i'm normally quite pro-vax.

hope no-one gets it!

My DS1 has Cp at the moment and we're waiting for the spots on DS2. He also has been in contact with it several times before, but never succumbed until now. I don't think there's anything you can do really, just wait, but friends who's Dc's have had it very young have told me that that's the best way. They don't seem to suffer so much when they are small. Vaccines are apparently not licensed in the UK, so not available to us.

Re the Shingles,I was worried, as my parents care for DS 2 days a week. The NHS advice was that you can't catch shingles from someone with CP. Whilst it is the same virus, it is the dormant virus in you from when you had chicken pox, that is "re-activated", usually by shock or stress and leads to shingles.

You can catch CP from someone with shingles, but not the other way around.

Do you need to fly for the visit? I don't think they will let you with CP.

oh thanks, I knew with cp and shingles you could catch one from the other but not the other from the one (iyswim), couldn't remember which way round it was. That's a relief. She's in amaing shape for her age but I would not want to put her at any risk.

No, not flying (train).

any thoughts, morning crowd?