18 day old baby exposed to chicken pox

[justjen74]

Hi all. My first post on this site, hoping some of you may be able to provide me some information and advice and ease my mind.

We found out last Thursday that my 16 year old dd2 has chickenpox. We had no idea, thought it was a fungal skin infection. 2 days prior to this, obviously still while my older daughter was infectious, she had held my now 18 day old dd3 and prior to that had also not been isolated from her or any of her other siblings (aged 19,14 and 9). I had chickenpox when I was a child so not worried at all that I may have contracted it to pass on to dd3, and pretty certain my 9 year old ds2 has been immunised (although I know they can still contract it in a milder form even if they have been immunised). My ds2 has had a lot of contact with dd3 in the last 3 weeks also.

I know that my dd2 would likely have been infectious for approximately the last 3 or so weeks, and that it can take anywhere from 10 days to 3 weeks for symptoms to appear if anyone else were to be infected. This worries me, as I have read that chickenpox in newborns can be quite serious and also the fact that if she did contract it and developed a fever, that she is too young for me to be able to administer paracetamol etc.

Should I be taking her to our gp, seeing if she needs anything done or just wait it out and see if she develops any symptoms over the next 3 weeks?

[Pholi]

I would suggest calling your child health nurse to discuss it, and see you GP if she suggests it for instructions on what to do if she starts showing signs.