Advice about measles?

[AnnVan]

My 5mo ds and I have been in regular contact with a baby girl recently diagnosed with measles.
What symptoms should I look out for? What is the chance that we could catch it? (I had the single jab, ds hasn't had a measles jab yet)
I'm probably just stressing over nothing, but would appreciate a little advice nonetheless.

"Anyone who might have been in contact with measles should see their doctor for immunisation as soon as possible (within 72 hours), unless the child or adult has had 2 doses of measles vaccine or there is good evidence that the person has already had measles."

from here

Australian page but good advice and explanations on there.

Good luck

Thanks Lotster.

From babycentre:- www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/health/measles/
Quote:-
If your baby is younger than six months old and you have had measles in the past, your antibodies will have passed to your baby in the uterus and your baby should be immune. If you've never had measles, your baby may be given an injection of human normal immuniglobin (HNIG). HNIG is a concentration of antibodies which can give short-term but immediate protection against measles.

My DS caught it at 10 months old, and I caught it off him (we didn't know he'd been exposed). Early symptoms for us were cold-type sniffles, and runny eyes like conjunctivitis. The rash came much later, and DS's rash was atypical so it took a while for him to be diagnosed (in fact he was diagnosed once it was clear I had measles). DS wasn't very ill at all with it, thankfully. He was ill (fluey type ill) for 3 days, under the weather for a further week, and the fine. I was really ill though (i had MMR as a kid, but it can't have worked).

thanks becs
It wasn't till this litle girl got the rash that she was diagnosed. DS seems to be fine, so hopefully we won't get it, although I'm not feeling well (hoping it's just a cold)

I agree with becs ? measles can present atypically. Ds was very ill with it, and the doctors in A&E, and our GP, didn?t think it could be measles because he didn?t have white spots in his mouth (the old lady in the GP waiting room spotted it straight away though!). It was only later that they confirmed it was measles through the blood tests. He had been ill for about 5 days before the rash appeared, and he deteriorated very quickly when the rash did appear. The main problem was dehydration as he was coughing too much to breastfeed, or drink anything else. He really did have the most hideous cough ? it was terrifying.

I suspect that at 5 months, your ds is young enough to still have your antibodies if you are immune. It is highly contagious ? miraculously I don?t know of anyone who caught it from ds, but that may be because all the children he came into contact with while he was incubating it had been vaccinated.

Do keep a close eye on him. There really isn?t a huge amount that doctors can do if he does catch it as it?s viral, but they can treat the symptoms (bring down the fever, rehydrate if needed) and I understand that Vitamin A can be helpful ? though because we didn?t think it was measles, that wasn?t an avenue we explored. Keeping the room dark can be helpful as eyes will be sensitive to light.

Good luck, fingers crossed he?ll be ok

snickersnack - funny that the old lady in the waiting room knew it was measles! My dad knew DS had measles. Dad is a GP, retired now, but he practised in the days when measles was commonplace. He said not to blame the GP for not diagnosing - said the GP had probably only ever seen measles maybe once, or maybe only in a textbook! Whereas Dad had seen it hundreds of times and recognised it straight away in DS even though it was atypical and Koplik's spots in mouth had gone already when Dr looked.

AnnVan - hope you're feeling better. There are lots of colds going round too, so it could easily be that. Hopefully neither of you will get it - really wishing that for you!