Chickenpox Still Contageous?

amother

Yellow

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 2:37 am

My son had a pretty clear case of Chickenpox last week- red spots kept popping up on stomach and legs and then scabbed over after a couple of days, and he is already back in school.

My 2 year old dd got it a couple of days later, but it's very different and doesn't seem to follow the typical pattern. It's just a couple of spots on her back and a big cluster of them on her upper arm. They all popped up the same day and no more seem to have come. But they are not scabbing at all- just staying as hard bubbles.

I know every case is different, and he had the shot but she didn't (only realized that too late), so I know they should be different, but has anyone ever seen this version? I read one place that they are contageous until 5 to 6 days after they started as long as new ones didn't pop up, but most things said contageous until all scabbed over. So what do I do if it's the 6th day now and they are all hard bubbles/blisters with no signs of scabbing?

Those of you who say ask your pediatrician, I'm on a yishuv in Israel and not thrilled with the pediatrician here, so I don't think it will be worthwhile to take her in. If you have a solution for that, I'd be thrilled to hear that as well. She doesn't really seem itchy or uncomfortable, so the only issue is that she has to stay home. (Does she???)

tweety1

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 3:59 am

My pediatrician says that if you get the chicken pox vaccine and subsequently get chicken pox it's not contagious at all. My son had that. He got vaccine and abt a year later caught it from my nephew. I called my dr and he told me that if kid is up to it kid can go to school

amother

Yellow

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 4:24 am

Very interesting. I guess it's possible ds and dd both caught it from the same person (although I was assuming it was a kd in ds's gan- haven't heard of anyone having it lately). But dd didn't get the vaccine, so that wouldn't help me out here.

amother

cornflower

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 8:08 am

tweety1 wrote:

I'm sorry, but this information is wrong. If you have the chicken pox, whether or not you were vaccinated, you are contagious until all vesicles have scabbed over. If you were vaccinated and subsequently develop chicken pox, your case will tend to be very mild and last much shorter.

amother

Yellow

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 9:14 am

amother wrote:

So what do you do if they don't seem to be popping and/or scabbing? They're just chilling there as little hard bubbles...

pause

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 9:25 am

tweety1 wrote:

This sounds wrong. In fact, most people I know who catch chickenpox these days is from children who get the shot and are contagious because it's made from a live virus.

amother

Yellow

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 1:20 pm

pause wrote:

You need a doctor. This doesn't sound like chickenpox.

After the bath tonight I saw some were a bit leaky, so I blotted it with a tissue, and then she decided it's itchy, so she scratched off all the rest of the blisters, and kept scratching until I put on Calimine and her pajamas. So now they're pretty much all open and red and icky looking. Now does it sound like Chickenpox? I'm hoping they'll scab in the next day or 2, otherwise I will take her to the doctor.

yogabird

Tue, Dec 05 2017, 4:22 pm

tweety1 wrote:

Not true.

If a person develops even the mildest rash after the vaccine they are contagious. And even if they don't develop any outward symptoms they are somewhat "contagious" as they can shed the virus and infect other people that way.

amother

Yellow

Wed, Dec 06 2017, 3:09 am

yogabird wrote:

But she's talking about a year later- not a kid who caught it because of the vaccine. A kid who caught it later in spite of the vaccine. (Not saying what her doctor said is true- I have no clue. Just pointing out that this would not disprove it. Same goes to the other PP who said something similar.)

amother

Yellow

Wed, Dec 06 2017, 3:19 am

naomi2 wrote:

if they dont scab over can it be moluscum?

Hers didn't look like that- they were yellow bubbles. Are chicken pox yellowish when they first blister? Now they look more like the typical Chickenpox pictures- I think we were just very gentle with them, so they didn't pop or bother her for a while.

amother

cornflower

Wed, Dec 06 2017, 7:49 am

amother wrote:

They would be contagious in this situation as well. Her doctor was incorrect.