Chicken Pox from an adult with shingles?

[happilyloved]

My grandma has shingles. I can't remember what I have read about chickenpox caught this way - is it as good a way as any to get exposed or does it predispose them to shingles later in life somehow? My kids are 19m, 5 and 7 if it matters.

[Deborah]

No, it is okay to get it from an elderly person with shingles. Same virus.

Due to lack of circulating chickenpox we are all more likely to end up with shingles, vaccinated or unvaccinated.

[Fyrestorm]

I think with shingles, you have to actually come in contact with the lesions to contract it though...a bit harder

[littlest birds]

My son had shingles when he was 6yo after having already had chicken pox at 3yo. His twin sister caught chicken pox from him a SECOND time.

(My dh also had CP twice)

It shouldn't affect your dc likelihood of getting shingles at all. I would do it if I were you-- but we're pretty well all set here now LOL. (My ds is more likely to get shingles later though--once you've had them there is a higher chance of recurrence. Which for you only affects your Grandma.)

[amnesiac]

Since this is about illness rather than vaccine I'm moving to H&H.

[frogautumn]

Just this past winter, DS#1 (3yo), DS#2 (at 3 mo old), and I (31 yo) unintentionally got chickenpox from DH's shingles. (We had no idea it was shingles for days--who gets shingles at 34 yo? We thought he was having an allergic reaction to something. He probably touched the blisters then touched all of us)