20 wks pregnant...my two children and i were exposed...help!

[mamatwig]

i am 20 wks pregnant and have a 19 month old and a 4 yr old. over the weekend we were with my brother in laws girl friend, and the next day she broke out with chicken pox. her dr said she was contagious for 48 hrs before she broke out so we were exposed. none of us have ever had them before or the vaccine, and i have been tested each pregnancy and do not test immune. does any one know of anything that will help us flush out the virus before we get it? or has anyone had chicken pox during pregnancy? were you and the baby ok? im really nervous! i normally wouldnt care if the boys had it...in fact if i werent pregnant i would be thrilled to get it done with so young, but what if they get them? what do I do then?!? HELP please!!

[turnquia]

get tested again asap and see if your immune. If your not there isn't much you can do now at this point. however I think once your beyond the first trimester its not as dangerous for baby as it is for you necessarily. I'd call your OB/MW or family doc in the morning and talk to them.

I was exposed when I was pg with DS but turns out it wasn't an issue because I was in 3rd trimester. Had I been close to delivery maybe but I was lucky and I wasn't.

HUGS i hope everything turns out ok.

[RedOakMomma]

I would breathe easy.

I did a basic internet search and found this (http://www.babycenter.com/0_chicken-...gnancy_9329.bc). It sounds like you're, at 20 weeks, on the very edge of risk. Only a tiny, tiny percentage of people who are pregnant at 20 weeks with chicken pox have something bad happen to the baby. Earlier in the pregnancy is when it's riskier, but even then the chances of something bad happening are small.

check out the link--there's a lot of good information there. I'm not sure of anything you can do to avoid getting them--hopefully someone else will step in there.

[darkblue0729]

I hope all goes well, mama!

[Plummeting]

If your doc thinks it's necessary, there is VZIG, which is essentially chickepox antibodies. If it's given soon enough it can prevent chickenpox. My brain's fuzzy from newborn lack of sleep right now, but I'm pretty sure that's the product.

[RedOakMomma]

I believe it's VeriZiG (it's mentioned on page two or three of the link above)...but it needs to be given within the first few days of exposure. Mama, if you want it and it's safe for pregnancy, you need to get it very soon.

[dannic]

I and my kiddoes were exposed a few weeks ago (I was 17-18 wks) and from what I found, at that point there is minimal risk to baby, as long as mom is healthy and doesn't have immunological problems. I would and did dose higher C and zinc and D for that week. We have had no pox. I hope this helps. Hugs.

[mamatwig]

thanks girls, i feel a little better. i did a lot of reserch on the vizg and its no longer made, there is a new one but its under testing so you have to have a relese form to get it and its not approved by the fda yet, which i dont feel safe doing at all. im going to try to boost up on my immune boosting supplements and just hope everything is ok. thanks for all of the advice!

[Just1More]

I've read something like 250mg of vitamin C per kilogram of body weight can stop CP in it's tracks. That's a lot of C, and more than I would probably take, but wanted to encourage you to take quite a bit. "A lot" to most people really isn't much at all. Several grams a day won't hurt you, or the baby, and even more may be better.

Also, you should be taking whatever you can get your hands on right now, but you can order sodium ascorbate from amazon.com. It's a powder, and is buffered one to one with baking soda so it's not hard on digestion. Regular C can be really rough that way.

Don't give the kids chewable tablets, either. Those are acidic and can damage the enamel on their teeth. Stick with the sodium ascorbate.

I didn't want to stop the CP when my children had it a few months ago, but I did want to boost their systems a bit. The reason why Vitamic C helps with viral diseases is because it is a toxin mediator. It binds to the toxin itself, instead of requiring your white blood cells to do it. The catch is, with a childhood disease, if you use too much C and it takes care of the virus, then the child doesn't create immunity. Anyway, the third day or so was miserable for my 5yo dd. She had spots all over and was feverish and lethargic. I had been giving her quite a bit of C, but gave her about 5 or 6 grams that day. Within a few hours she was much improved.

Two other thoughts. You are contagious, as you know, before you break out, so remember to respect that others may not want your company for a few weeks. Secondly, the incubation is 7 to 21 days, with 2 weeks the average. You may have NO symptoms, yet be highly contagious.

Also, as you near the time when your children may (or yourself) break out, dress them coolly. Places where there is not good air flow, or they get warmer, break out much worse.

Probably more info than you wanted, but hope it helps a bit.

Oh, and don't take the sodium ascorbate straight. It's SO salty and nasty. We drink it in orange juice and hardly notice it.