Chicken Pox - twice?

[smudge]

Our 5 year old granddaughter is just getting over Chicken Pox, so we're expecting her little sister of  2 yrs to get it now.

However, our daughter (their Mummy) has phoned to say she's been to the doc's & has been told she's now got it (our daughter I mean not the 2 yr old).

Both our daughters had chicken pox as children & I didn't think you could get it twice. Has anyone else?

[kaktus]

I have never heard of that either, but I searched Wikipedia which said that you usually develop immunity. However a Danish site called netdoktor, (I know you won't understand the site , just wanted to give a source) says that you always develop immunity but that if you have had chicken pox you can get shingles from the same virus. So I suppose to get one or the other is possible. Someone else can probably say something much more satisfactory and intelligent about this.

 

Hope they all get well soon!

[Abe Ditori]

I have had it twice now. Once when I was a child and once as an adult. I believed that you couldn't get it twice, but my doctor assured me that you could get it many times. He told me that he had one male patient who'd had it 6 times so far.

[dgrey83]

My Mom had it when she was about 13, but she only had the bumps on her belly,  then when she was 47, she got it again, but only on her belly.  Her doctor told her that some people never relly get the chicken pox fully, so your body never fully developes immunity to it.

[Dark Angel]

Apparently its possible to get measles, chicken pox and mumps more than once, though we always believed that you build immunity against it once you've had it. No one in my family has had any of these more than once, but I've heard of people who have - one chap I know said he'd had mumps thrice (as a child)!!

[scubadiver]

When your immune system is challenged by a virus such as varicella, which is responsible for chicken pox, the usual response is two-fold. You will produce antibodies to fight off the virus and you also produce "memory cells" - these are b lymphocytes, which then remain dormant until challenged again by the same virus. They then multiply rapidly and cause antibodies to be formed, fighting off the virus and preventing reinfection. This is the basis for vaccination ( which "primes" the immune response by producing b lymphocytes, ready to ward off any wild type infection.

However, very rarely, if for some reason, someone is immunosuppressed (which may be due to being unwell from another illness, or drug therapy, or even being "run down") at the time of the first viral infection, although they may produce antibodies to fight off that infection, they may not produce memory cells. Therefore, when challanged by the same virus a second time, the body in effect sees it as a new virus, hence a second bout of chickenpox.

HTH

[smudge]

Thank you all - I've passed your messages on to our daughter. Our 2 yr old grandaughter has also woken up covered in spots this morning. Happy days!

[spudqueen]

smudge I've had chickenpox twice, once as a child and once as an adult when I caught it off my eldest son. I too didn't think you could get it twice, so went to the Docs who confirmed what it was and that you can get it more than once. Youngest son didn't get it at that time, it was about 3 years later when he got it, but thankfully I didn't catch it that time. However, the younger son got Mumps last year, even though he has had the MMR, the Doc said it (theMMR) is only effective 80% of the time! Something else to look forward to..........

[smudge]

Hi spudqueen - Chicken Pox, Mumps, etc., the joys of Motherhood eh!!

I can't imagine what it's like to get it as an adult - even talking about it makes me itch all over! Our daughter has been itching all day & no doubt will tonight, so I've just offered to have the little one who also has it, to stay with us overnight to give her a break. Well that's what Nanny & Grandad's are for I s'pose!

Take care - we soldier on............!

[scubadiver]

Smudge,

something that might help - when I had chickenpox as an adult, I was told to bathe in a lukewarm bath with epsom salts added.

Don't know the science behind it, but it certainly helped take a lot of the itch out of my spots

HTH

[smudge]

Thank you scubadiver - I shall pass that valuable piece of info onto my daughter, she'll be grateful for any remedies poor thing.

I am tingling all over & can feel some little lumps on my head - so do hope I'm not in for it too - or shingles?!!

Thanks again -x-

[FP]

Smudge, Bicarbonate of Soda is also good in the bath to ease the discomfort and we found it better on my son when he was little than Calomine which is so messy.

Best wishes to your family. xxxxxx

[smudge]

Thank you FP - we'll give Bi-Carb a try too - any suggestions are more than welcome. Yes calamine was really messy when the girls were little, always dreaded using it.

Thanks again -x-

[silly moo]

SMudge - a warm bath with dettol added halped my daughter.
It's prob the warm water that eases most. She sat in the bath for ages with a plastic beaker and poured water over herself.
Caladryl is better than simple calamine. I think it's calamine with witch hazel added.

[smudge]

Thank you too silly moo - little Izzy loves bathtime, so she'll be having more fun than usual in the next week or two. She's usually soundo by 7:30pm, but was very restless tonight & didn't fall asleep until 10:30, poor thing. I'm zonked & off to bed @ 12:10am.-x-

[bungy81]

My 2 boys aged, 6 and 7 have just got chicken pox for the 2nd time each. And it was really bad. Worse than the first time they had them

[finbob4]

My son had chickenpox when he was two and then again when he was 8, both times he was covered in spots and very unwell. I have heard that this is very rare. Incidently my younger son was covered in a rash at the same time, not quite sure what it was, (not shingles) he also had chickenpox when he was young.

[smudge]

Thank you for your answer finbob4, although I was a little surprised to receive, it as I posted my question in 2005!

Anyway, I'm glad like your sons are okay now, as are our ganddaughters.

Take care.

[smudge]

....thank you also to bungy81, answer rec'd in 2007!