Shingles help!

[enbh]

SIL has been round today to see DD (4 months) and casually dropped into conversation as she was leaving that she had shingles! I'm fuming buy should I be worried? She said it's not contagious but surely it is, how on earth did she get it? I'm pretty sure you can catch chicken pox from shingles.

Don't want DD to get it yet, she's still too small.

Anyone know anything about shingles?

Shingles pass on chicken pox by direct contact with fluid from the blisters. If they were covered then it's unlikely to pass anything on. Chicken pox itself is air borne but chicken pox passed on through shingles is not.

Shingles is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus so you don't catch it from someone. You need to have had chicken pox in the past to get shingles

I think PP has it right on catching chicken pox from shingles. Are you BF? As I think that offers them some protection up to 6 months (assuming you have had CP)

Oh phew! Got myself into a bit of a tizz there! Yes I am bf and had chickenpox myself so hopefully that will offer some protection.

Still think she could have mentioned it beforehand! Nearly gave myself a bloody heart attack!

Thank you for replies!

Poor SIL shingles is horribly painful - but yes as long as any blisters (usually a defined area) covered its fine. Not like CPox.

My daughter had shingles and was fine for gymnastics/school etc as long as had a t shirt on.