# Help with chicken pox time line please



## MomInCalifornia (Jul 17, 2003)

My children are being exposed to chicken pox on Friday.

Am I correct that if they get it, symptoms will most likely appear between 10-14 days after exposure. And once the spots appear it lasts aproximatly 10 days?

I know they can be contageous 2-3 days before getting syptoms (so 7+ days after exposure) but what about the first 5 days or so after they are exposed...would they be considered contageous then?

Thanks!


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## CarrieMF (Mar 7, 2004)

It can take up to 3 weeks for spots to appear, not 14 days.

How long they last depends on how fast they spread. My middle dd had 1 pox for a week before they started spreading. My youngest had spots for about 1-2 days(based on what they were like when I found them) before they started spreading. It took 3 more days before they started to spread bad(we were shopping & every time I turned to look at her I swear she had more). I found them on a Sunday night. She was out of school that whole week & then the next week too. She only went Mon & Wed's.

Whether or not they're contagious the first few days after exposure depends on whether or not they actually contract the virus so I'd continue with life as normal until you see spots. All 3 of my kids have had them, none had the cold like symptoms prior to getting the pox. My oldest was exposed by the kids I was babysitting. My middle dd had been around my neighbor's kids for about an hour a few days before they got them. It was 3 weeks before she showed any pox. My youngest, I have no clue where she got them from. She was in playschool, but nobody else in the school had them before she did & afaik nobody else got them after. She got them before any of the kids would have been scheduled for their next vaccine too(if they do them at 4 years here)


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## Blue Lotus (Jun 16, 2006)

The incubation period is 10-21 days, and they are most comtageous right before the pox show up. So you may not know they are contageous until after the pox shows up. However, all the local kids who had CP recently, including DD were clingy/crabby a few days before the pox erupted, and acted as though they had colds.

Once the pox actually appear, you can expect new eruptions of the pox for up to 6 daysThe first pox start to crust over within about 2-3 days. But the pox can take several days to fully heal. Dd still has a few red areas where the worst pox were, and she had CP at the end of January.


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## wednesday (Apr 26, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Blue Lotus* 
The incubation period is 10-21 days, and they are most comtageous right before the pox show up.









:

It's very very common for kids to run a fever just before the rash appears. If your child runs a fever during the incubation period you could feel pretty confident the rash is coming on and that they ARE contagious at that point.

My son started the rash exactly 14 days after exposure, and he had a 99-100 degree fever about 24 hours before we saw the first spot. He wasn't really acting sick, but he seemed tired and went to bed on his own early that night. Next day there were spots.

If your children are being exposed on Friday to a child who already has the rash now, they may not catch it. We had some kids over, about three days into DS' rash, and none of the kids came down with it.


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