5yr old with Chicken Pox, with 5mo sibling…

[LynAsh]

Anyone dealt with chicken pox with a child months old?
We’ve managed to stay clear up until this point with my 5yo and it’s probably better he gets it now but the likelyhood is my 5mo will now catch it, even though we are making efforts to keep them apart to a degree…

If she does come down with it, how did yourselves handle with them being so young?

Very unlikely baby will get chicken pox so young as they will still have your antibodies.

It is so much easier when they are young. Buy the chicken pox gel stuff as it’s better than calamine.
It can be two wwwks before the second one comes out in spots.

My youngest caught it from his brother at 4 months and was absolutely covered. And we were on holiday (first spots popped out when we were on a plane).

He was hot and bothered but generally okay. Interestingly, he then got shingles at 8 years old, which apparently is a thing. He was fine with that too.

My 5 year old caught it and so did my 10 month old. Not gonna lie it was a nightmare of a week coz my first one had hardly any spots but the ten month old was basically a giant pox. I used poxillin mousse, baths with porridge oats calpol which did help. Hopefully your five month old will get a mild dose.

DS got it from older DD when he was 8 months. It wasn’t great tbh, he’s a very sunny child normally and he really felt grim for about a week and no one slept much. But while it felt like an eternity at the time as DD was ill beforehand and I was exhausted, it wasn’t worrying and he got over it with calpol, oat baths and cuddles. He doesn’t have any scars.

All you can do is wait and hopefully it won’t be too rough.

6yr with chicken pox and a 7 day old. The baby never caught it probably due to my antibodies even though she was bottle fed. Had no help either as DH buggered off on a work course so I was cuddling the poorly 6yr old too.

It’s not an inevitablity that your youngest will get it. We had a similar age situation with eldest covered in spots and baby didn’t get anything, despite him at one point launching himself on top of her after bath with no clothes on!!!

My little one caught it off the older one when at about 10 months old and he did suffer worse to be honest! But people said it's best to get it over with while they're too young to scratch. And they won't remember it either!

However, if you're still BF there's a good chance your little one won't catch it as they might have some of your immunity passed on. Some of my friends' babies who BF didn't catch it off their older sibling when mine did (FF).

Either way there's not a lot you can do, just stock up on Calpol just in case it happens! Good luck!

My ds got it from dd when he was 5½ months old. He then had shingles age 3. Childhood shingles is more common if they get chicken pox under 1 year.

You can use calpol but not ibuprofen

My 9 month old old just had it. He had more spots than his brother but it wasn't too awful. He came out in them exactly two weeks after his brother's started

Poxclin mousse and oat baths during the day. Doctor prescribed piriton equivalent to reduce itching (not sure if would prescribe to a 5month old though). Keep nails trimmed short. Hand mitts if scratching.

DS didn’t catch it from DD at the same age and we didn’t make any effort to keep them apart (thinking it was inevitable). He didn’t end up getting CP until he was 7.

My son was 6 months old when he caught CP from my 3 year old.
I'll be honest it was a very miserable few weeks. My son got a bad dose.
I gave him oatmeal baths and used calamine lotion

Hope your little one doesn't get it too badly xx

Thanks all for your rush of responses - It does help me keep a rational head with these things.

@NewUser1111 🤣 Your comment - Poor baby! Though, what an immune system 💪🏼😁

@LongLiveTheLego @Lovely27 I am Formula feeding (unfortunately), therefore hightening my probability no doubt! I do pop a small amount of Probiotics in a feed daily, hoping that could help the saverity 🫠

Oh @Pixiedust1234! It’s so tough dealing with illness solo.. Can’t bear it and leaves you just having to do what you can.
currently on rotation of jumpers and hand/face washing when tending to my 5yo, the going to my 5mo 😬😬😬

@ChipsnGraveee Bladdy wonderful! Do you mind me asking, were you breastfeeding at the time?

My girl had it at 5 months when her sister was 2. 2 year old was soooo ill. 5 month old was spotty but otherwise fine. Worse thing that happened was the spots in her nappy so she had to be nappy free on a mat on the floor for a few days!

My eldest had chicken pox while I was overdue with dc3. I was told by midwives & doctors that baby shouldn't get it as he'd have antibodies and also breastfeeding would help. Unfortunately he got it a week after dc2. So he had it at 2 weeks old. Luckily it was a mild dose
There's really nothing you can do but wait and see I'm afraid 😔 And it'll be a week or two after that it takes to show so don't get too hopeful that baby has missed it. Fingers crossed she might escape though.

I remember once seeing a granny on the metro (European city) who had obviously collected her 3 grandchildren to take home to look after for the day, looked about 7,4 and a baby in a pram, all with it. Felt sorry for her - she would have a tough day with all 3 but I guess at least it’s out the way then.

Exactly the same here! My 3yr old dd gave my 12 week old ds v, v mild chicken pox, he then got Shingles at 2.5 years, and by then I had a 6 month old dd, who got chicken pox from his Shingles...she was covered though.

Three month old had about five spots, didn't seem to notice them (FF, so maybe not many of my antibodies left). Then caught it again in first month of nursery aged 11 months - had planned to vaccinate just in case but the pox got there first.

My youngest had chickenpox at 3 months old, caught from older sibling. I was breastfeeding but it obviously made zero difference despite health care professionals saying 'oh they'll have good immunity because you're breastfeeding'...yeh right!!

Would anyone advise Epsom Salts in my son’s bath?
would these irritate or help?

Thanks!

I wouldn't use epsom salts, no.

Calamine lotion on the skin is good, really helps cool the itching for a while.

Poxclin and virasoothe are supposed to be good to put on the spots. Piriton syrup (chlorphenamine) can help if they are itchy

DS1 had chicken pox when he was 6 and DS2 was 7 months old. So not too dissimilar from yours. DS2 had much less spots and they were not as bad, I assume this is because he had some antibodies from me to help. He was so much easier to look after thanks DS1, easier to distract, napped during the day, easier to put the gel stuff on.

Just to say; piriton is for the 5 year old as it's only suitable for age 1+ unless ok'd by a doctor