Chiken Pox

[bednobs]

is there an "ideal" age to get it?
I know it's worse if you have it as an adult, but can you also get it "too young"?

[carrust]

There used to be chicken pox parties where parents would take their children to catch it. Sadly my mother never took me to one & I ended up catching them in my 30's. I've never been as ill...doctor 4 times, delirius & lost loads of weight.

[anneasquith]

i think young children tend to get chickenpox when they attend nursery/school

[honky-tonk]

yes my daughter had it when she was 3 months old.

[ummmm]

My son got it under the age of 1. In one way it was good because he couldn't scratch. He wasn't too poorly with it either, just a bit under the weather. I can't remember with the other two.

[Sqad]

I am not too sure what you mean by an "ideal" age to get it.......is there an "ideal " age to get any disease?

I suppose you mean at what age is the disease more severe and with unwanted complications.

Well......it would not be too clever to get it when you were a very small baby, say under one year old.........or perhaps if you were immuno- compromised for some reason or if you were pregnant.

I have the feeling that i have not answered your question....I apologise, if that is the case.

[bednobs]

well in a way you have sqad. The reason i'm asking is that my littley has started going to nursery - there is chicken pox going round there at the moment and i could reasonably keep her off if i wanted to. She is 10 months old but as she was born so early i think she's still more vulnerable than other 10 month olds

[erin-x]

It has been doing its rounds at work and the babies have been the least affected out of all the rooms. Some of the parents were annoyed about that!

[bednobs]

i am not going to keep her off

[Sqad]

bednobs....I thought that you were concerned about "little bednobs."

Me?........if I had a 10month old baby......I would keep her away from nursery.....that's just "silly me."

[erin-x]

Personally I wouldn't bother Bednobs. Chicken pox is infectious before the spots come up so she has already been exposed to it if it's going about. And the infected children should be off until the spots have scabbed over anyway.

[bednobs]

i suppose the problem is that there wwill always be something going round!

[Ann]

My little nephew has it this week, he is quite poorly - poor little sausage , he is 3.

[erin-x]

It's just a risk of her being in the nursery Bednobs. We had chicken pox and slapcheek doing the rounds at the same time!

[tiggerblue10]

Little Tiggs had it when he'd just turned 2. He caught it from my childminders kids. My friends little boy had it when he was 7 months.

[Eve]

My nephew had it when about 15 months old, badly. I remember my sister in law saying it was cruel to have it so young as he didn't understand what was going on with being covered in horrible itchy things. It was in question whether I'd get to go to theirs for a family Christmas though all blisters had covered by then in case I picked it up.

Have you ever had it? One, bonus of the chickenpox saga I had a couple of weeks ago was that I know I'm immune to it (I think) from whatever blood tests they did - I think that's what they said anyway, as well as confirming not chickenpox - I got a bit confused over the different blood tests they did.

I had it as a child, badly apparently, though although doctors said it wasn't usual and you aren't supposed to get it again that people do. It was worrying with the speed I was sent to A&E and admitted.

Sqad, do you know why this particular virus is so dangerous to people with compromised immune systems?

[Eve]

Oh, I meant to say, if you are in any doubt, keep her off.

My brother was never ill, didn't even get colds (I obviously inherited all the crap genes!) until he had his first littlun, he even picked up impetigo when that was goig round nursery.