Chicken pox, how long til symptoms show?

[MegBusset]

I went to my M&T group last Thursday. Turns out one of the other mums there has since come out with chicken pox symptoms, so it's possible she was contagious last week.

DS (14mo) seems fine now, but how soon would I expect to see symptoms? In the mean time do I need to keep him away from other kids/pregnant women?

We are supposed to be going on holiday next week so I will be gutted if he's ill then!

Anything up to 3 weeks incubation, will be infectious from 48 hours before spots come out.

There is really no point or practical possibility of staying away from everyone at the moment - he may not even get it at all and it would be too early to be infectious probably so I would say unless he comes out in spots (at least 10 days from exposure generally), carry on as normal.

Fingers crossed for your holiday.

Be aware that if you are flying, he won't be allowed on a plane with spots - so you might be stranded!!

We're just driving to the south coast, so at least we can get ourselves in a hurry if need be

Oh I hope you escape it, and have a nice holiday!