Immunity from chickenpox if bf'ing?

[Metrobaby]

I'm bf'ing 7 month old ds. On Tuesday dd came out in chickenpox. MIL said that ds will be immune as I am bf'ing. Is this true? So far ds hasn't come out in any spots although he was running a temperature and being grumpy yesterday.

[baggybear]

my ds1 & 2 had CP and i was fully b/feeding ds3. ds3 had 3 spots on his forehead, but i thought they were just baby spots. my HV pointed them out and said he had CP and i didn't even realise. He was not unwell at all and the spots didn't bother him. My Hv said that i had given ds3 a certain amount of immunity but not quite enough, so he got Cp mildly. But this also meant that he could get it, although mildly, again in the future. But on the whole I would say B/F helps a lot but doesn't mean your ds will miss it completely.

Well done BTW on b/feeding

[strawberry]

DS had chicken pox whilst still being bfed but was reasonably mild. It didn't look pretty but he didn't seem too bothered.

[Pidge]

My dd's friend got chickenpox at 5 months when being breastfed, dd has so far avoided it somehow despite exposure from her friend then, and at nursery. She's now 2 and a bit and I know it's got to happen sometime soon!

[Ameriscot2004]

My third child had chicken pox at 5 months, having consumed nothing but breastmilk.

[Metrobaby]

thanks everyone. I will wait for the spots on appear on ds then. I hope he catches it now as dd is throughly miserable with it atm

[Bozza]

Bad news from me I'm afraid. My DD has it had 5 months despite being exclusively breast fed at the time. She had a full on case with literally hundreds of spots including on the palm of her hand, inside her mouth, around her eyes etc. She was thoroughly miserable, had a temperature, would not be put down AT ALL for two nights, was off her breast feeds and winced in the bath for a week. She had it the first week in October and some of the spots on her back still have not cleared up. Hopefully your DS will not suffer so badly.

DS started with CP on 18 September and DD started with it on 1 October so keep a watch out for a couple of weeks.

BTW I definitely did have a full on case as a child myself in case you were wondering.

[prufrock]

Bad news here as well metrobaby. DD and Ds both caught it from the same source and came out in spots withing a day of each other. Dd was fine, but ds (7 months) had it badly - spots all ovr his face, head, willy and bottom. He's still got spots on his willy that just won't dry out.

But the good thing about still bf'ing is that it is an easy way to provide comfort during the inevitable night wakings.

[Ameriscot2004]

My baby had chicken pox much worse than her siblings, who had it at 23mo and 3.5y. The 3.5yo had one or two spots that I only casually suspected to be chicken pox (was more worried that it was flea bites, having just moved into an infested house). It was only when DD, at 5 mo, came out with it 2 weeks later that it became clear. I had my next two vaccinated at 12 months, and so far, that's been successful.

[Gem13]

Was breastfeeding DS when he got it at 7 months. He was covered in spots but only grumpy for a day or two and apart from that was fine.