Shingles!

[westie]

Hi

Last week my eldest (9) came downstairs, sat down and screamed loudly, saying his back hurt. When I looked there were a number of spots almost in a circle and another patch nearby which were red with a blistery centre. I thought he had been bitten, as he has had chickenpox. I did think about shingles as they are at waist level and my sister in law had shingles a few months ago and it came out in a similar place, but thought kids did not get it. Anyway he complained intermittently about pain/ itching in following days and I put insect cream on. He stopped at his nans on friday and she told me he had really bad night tossing and turning and was hurting/ itching so much she took him to chemist who prescribed piriton and suggested visit to doctors today. Anyway gp confirmed it is shingles (one sided rash, following a line and like chickenpox rash (now scabbed over!) Its rare in kids and usually occurs if you have low immunity/ with stress. Only thing I can think of is he is most stressed kid I know (probably common with ASD/PDA) so maybe that is reason he has got it.

 

I sent him to school all last week when he may have been infectious, youngest has not had chickenpox and they been in bath together so waiting for him to develop chickenpox now. I feel so cruel. At least this sort of explains why he has had a bad 2 weeks at school - it can make you quite poorly, but J has to be in a lot of pain to express it and he always has been like that. It comes out in behaviour though - when younger he had glue ear and when he had cycles of really bad behaviour I could tell his ears were hurting.

 

Wanted to post as a sort of"warning" to others who may see this sort of rash/ symptoms but who may also dismiss as insect bites as they too may think that kids don't get shingles (I hope there is someone or I will feel like the worst mother ever!)

Edited April 21, 2008 by westie

[av16]

Hi

Last week my eldest (9) came downstairs, sat down and screamed loudly, saying his back hurt. When I looked there were a number of spots almost in a circle and another patch nearby which were red with a blistery centre. I thought he had been bitten, as he has had chickenpox. I did think about shingles as they are at waist level and my sister in law had shingles a few months ago and it came out in a similar place, but thought kids did not get it. Anyway he complained intermittently about pain/ itching in following days and I put insect cream on. He stopped at his nans on friday and she told me he had really bad night tossing and turning and was hurting/ itching so much she took him to chemist who prescribed piriton and suggested visit to doctors today. Anyway gp confirmed it is shingles (one sided rash, following a line and like chickenpox rash (now scabbed over!) Its rare in kids and usually occurs if you have low immunity/ with stress. Only thing I can think of is he is most stressed kid I know (probably common with ASD/PDA) so maybe that is reason he has got it.

 

I sent him to school all last week when he may have been infectious, youngest has not had chickenpox and they been in bath together so waiting for him to develop chickenpox now. I feel so cruel. At least this sort of explains why he has had a bad 2 weeks at school - it can make you quite poorly, but J has to be in a lot of pain to express it and he always has been like that. It comes out in behaviour though - when younger he had glue ear and when he had cycles of really bad behaviour I could tell his ears were hurting.

 

Wanted to post as a sort of"warning" to others who may see this sort of rash/ symptoms but who may also dismiss as insect bites as they too may think that kids don't get shingles (I hope there is someone or I will feel like the worst mother ever!)

Don't worry- you are not the worst mum. We were worried as DS(AS-10) has not had chicken pox so we decided to cough up �50 for immunisation. I would probably have done exactly the same as you so I think the money was worth it !

Hope he is ok

[smiley]

Shingles - ouch - i've had it twice now, over my head, down my neck and back - ouchie <'>

 

You can't catch Shingles - it comes back from the dormant Chickenpox virus when you're run down. Though you can catch Chickenpox from Shingles if you've never had it............

 

<'>

[LizC]

Hi My friends daughter had shingles when she was 4. If I remember rightly it was on her foot. not a nice thing, my grandad had it too. Hope you son is feeling better soon!

[Tally]

Don't feel bad! It must be extremely unusual, because you normally don't get shingles until 30+ years after getting chicken pox.

 

If other children (including your other son) didn't get it from your son, they would get it from someone else. I wouldn't worry too much about infecting other people. I just hope you don't end up with two sick children at once!

 

Hope he feels better soon!

[westie]

Hi and thanks for your replies.

 

Liz: 4yrs old - that is really young! I have never heard of a child who has had it before now.

 

I hope J soon feels better too.....

 

Am off to bed now, have a good evening everyone!

[zaman]

My son had it when he was four as well - I thought it was a heat rash on his back. He has chicken pox when he was six months old, and the Dr said at the time that if a baby gets it before 1 year, then they won't have fully 'had' it, and that we should expect it to recur in some form.

[westie]

James was about two and a half when he got chickenpox. The school have sent him home as he has been scratching and the advice they got is if he scratches scabs off he may be infectious again, so will have to keep him home until he is not itching so much.... poor lad

[CarolineJ]

I hope he feels better soon.

[ryansmum2]

hi there

 

Smiley is quite right - you cannot 'catch' shingles, shingles is 'awoken' after having chicken pox , it lays dorment at the base of the spine until the bodies immune system becomes weak,

 

Anyway my DS also has had shingles last your at age 7, and about 8 months before that he have Glandular Fever , 3 months later he has Scarlet Fever.

Poor wee man has been right through the mill, i kept him on a 'build uo tonic' for a while after that,

and tough wood , he's been well since.

 

There are quite a few AS children on here to of had 'it' ,

i wonder if there is a connection between being on the AS Spectrum and having a low immune system ?

 

anyone know ?

 

mel xx

[westie]

I think the school are worried about people who have never had chickenpox catching it, and I think there is someone there who has not had chickenpox and is expecting a baby too (no idea who it is) .

I am not sure whether there are links between low immune system and ASD's, perhaps someone else can help....

Mel, your DS has been through the mill - glad the build up tonics seem to have worked.