When the babies were quite small, one in our group of mothers-connected-only-by-having-attended-the-same-antenatal-course-and-without-really-anything-in-common announced that her small son had contracted chicken pox. We all rushed out to buy piriton and calamine; apparently that was what we would need. We deliberated whether it was appropriate to hold a Chicken Pox Party, on the theory that it’s less difficult for all concerned to contract this at a young age.
I could not square deliberately making my child ill, so no party. We waited, and waited, but the pox did not appear for nearly four more years.
Yesterday I got home from teaching an antenatal breastfeeding class and noticed that the boy was Acting Tired. Shortly afterwards I spotted, if you’ll forgive me, a small scattering of little pink blister-like spots on his face and neck, a few more on his tummy and a big one on his back. At bedtime, on a dose of calpol for the high temperature and general malaise, he was asleep in minutes: always a big clue that he’s Not Right. And this morning he is poxed all over.
Our half term plans to visit Granny up north are cancelled, since Granny has already suffered shingles once and is full time carer to my invalid stepfather. Those whose attitudes to pox parties differ to my own will be welcome to come and entertain us. Lucky it’s a bank holiday week and of course I don’t work Thursdays and Fridays, so we only have two days of emergency childcare to sort out. Now I must away and do some research to figure how long we’re likely to have to isolate him for.
No need to keep him away from Granny (unless stepfather hasn’t had pox). Shingles is caused by the virus in her own body re-emerging when at a low ebb, not caught from someone with the pox. In fact, studies seem to suggest that exposure to the chickenpox virus can actually boost immunity to shingles (hence the concern when the vaccine was introduced that more people would have shingles due to less exposure to chickenpox in the wild).
On the flip side, shingles CAN give someone else chickenpox if they’ve never had it.
Of course, if he’s grumpy with it then best not to do the trip anyway as he won’t have much fun.