I think my 3 year old has chicken pox... does this mean it's too late for my 8wk old?

Question

My 3yr old was sent home from daycare today. He was running a fever of 101.5, after being up a good amount of the night crying. (We initially thought it was night terrors, but obviously there was something deeper.) His nose has also been running like a leaky faucet. We took him to the doctor and his fever had gone down to 100.4 and the doctor said that it looked like he had a bad head cold that mixed with being tired caused a fever. (Clear nasal discharge, no lung congestion, ears, throat, and mouth look good)

When he was just eating dinner he just threw up everything he had on his stomach. We undressed him to clean him up and noticed that his back had about 6 red spots that looked like flea bites. Since we've also been dealing with fleas I first thought that they were probably just bites, but then I noticed he had about a total of 15 spots on his entire body. It is unlikely that he got bit that many times because we haven't been home much lately, the fleas are almost completely gone from our home, and no one has ever had more than about 2 or 3 flea bites at any one time. The fleas actually leave my 3 yr old alone most of the time.

Could this be early signs of chicken pox, or does it sound like something else? If so, does this mean that it's already too late for my 8wk old?

Answer 1

MY 1 yr old daughter just now is in the advanced stages of chicken pox and now my 4 yr old is getting them. At first it looked like heat rash and then pimples and then blisters and now just look painful. She can not stop scratching them.Her doctor actually had to prescribe her liquid medicine to stop the itch. Also heat only irritates the chicken pox and causes them to get worse and persist for longer periods of time.You don't want your 8 wk old getting chicken pox she is too young for them and it is dangerous seeing as he has not been fully vaccinated for them yet.Usually they can give the baby something to "ward" off the threat of chicken pox if an older sibling has them so I would get them both to the doctor asap just to be on the safe side.

Also it could very well be flea bites that he has.IF you arent home a lot then the fleas have nothing to "eat" so when you do arrive home they cling to you from the minute you walk in the house.Seeing how your son is closer to the floor then you are and probably on it a lot more than you,he is a prime candidate for the fleas to cling to. And you can't always see them before they bite and leave their mark so even tho they have left him alone...they may not have actually left him alone you just didnt catch them in the act. If you can try to put garlic in a lot of meals that he eats.Garlic for some reason fends off fleas and they won't bite as much if at all once they get a taste of the garlic in his system. Use fresh garlic,garlic powder,garlic salt,etc...it really does help a lot.

Good Luck

Answer 2

To me it sounds like a virus.  My daughter always gets red spots when she has a virus.  They are all over her back and tummy and sometimes down her legs too.  She tends to get them before and during a fever.  The last time this happened she ended up with tonsilitis.  Another time she ended up with Scarlet Fever.  I would take your children to the doctor (again) to rule out these things.  Good luck.

Answer 3

get them both to the doctor right away. Its dangerous for an infant as your as your baby is to get the chicken pox. They may be able to do something if she already has them or if she hasn't then give her something. It also might be a heat rash from the fever. Has he been itching them? either way get him to the doctor tomorrow to make sure it isn't something more and make sure your infant is safe.  

Answer 4

Please explain, what do you mean too late for your 8 week old? Too late for what?

As for your 3 yr old, yeah, it very well could be. They'll develop into larger looking unpleasant sores. Get that calamine lotion ready. But check with the pediatrician for the proper diagnosis.

By the way, if a baby under a year gets chicken pox, he's not immune, he's likely to get it again.