The virus can cause chickenpox when you are firstly infected, and it become shingles when you are at the reoccurrence.
Usually, chickenpox symptom is common on the children at round 1 – 10 ages. The incubation period is about 2-3 weeks and it will take about 2-3 weeks from outbreak to recover. During the outbreak, along with a horrible, blistering rash, chickenpox also comes with fever, headache, sore throat, stomachache, and other miserable symptoms.
The worst news is, the virus can be reoccurred. The reoccurred chickenpox is called shingles. Shingles is much more common in older adults, but shingles in children is possible, too. Shingles in children is a rare and a painful reoccurrence of chickenpox, it is reported that shingles in children accounts for about 5 percent of all shingles cases.

How to treat shingles in children?
When you child has the shingles outbreak, it is better to let him/her stay at home and should not go to the school. Although Shingles itself is not contagious, but is possible to the virus can be contagious to other children easily and cause chicken pox. You should take care of you child and avoid scratching or touching the shingles rash. Unfortunately, the chickenpox vaccine has not been shown to prevent shingles in children.

Questions about Shingles in Children

Question 1 : Can shingles during pregnancy be harmful?
Generally speaking, the shingles virus has little harm to the unborn child, especially for those child after half year. The virus existed in the nerve, but blood, it should be little chance to be contagious to the unborn child. However, pregnancy is a special period, it is suggested mothers to double check with doctors.

Question 2: Can my children catch shingles from me?
Shingles can not passed to others, but the virus can be contagious. However, if your children have been vaccinated against varicella-zoster, there is no reason at all to keep them away from you.

After shingles outbreak, you may have severe pain in the area of the rash as well as beyond that area. This pain is called post herpetic neuralgia (PHN), or after-shingles pain. Some people would mistake it with other disease, because it seems nothing to do with shingles, so it occurs after the rash was healed. Not many people would have such experience, out of the 1 million people who develop shingles, about one in five people will go on to develop PHN.
Although the shingles is healed, but shingles virus exist in your body for ever. Shingles pain is also caused by such virus. Usually, the pain appears in the area of the shingles rash, but the size of the PHN pain region can vary considerably, such as from left to right. In some people, PHN pain can last for months or even years.

Age is an important factor in determining who gets shingles and PHN. The older you are, the easier you probably to get PHN. For example, if you are age 50 or older, you have a more than 50 percent chance of developing PHN. If you are age 80 or older, you have an 80 percent chance of developing PHN.

Below is some information to about post shingles pain. Hope to help a friend who is in agony.
1. The pain is well defined in the area, sharply limited to left side of trunk, above waist and below upper part of chest.
2. It is sensation of frequent electric shocks, like a fizzy burn, especially where breast or arm rubs against skin.

4. It becomes worse for touching, breezing, sweating or motioning.

Once you have post shingles neuralgia, you might prefer a topical treatment, taking a pill, or both. Actually, there is no cure for PHN at this moment, because the virus is no longer present after the blisters dry up. Thus it is important to talk with your healthcare professional about your pain treatment options and together you can create a customized treatment plan that is best for you to reduce the pain.