I can only tell you my experience, but I will try to go with the abbreviated version. I was bitten and infected for the first time that I know of in 1978... I was 19 or so. I had a lot of weird symptoms but then it all went underground. I married in 1991 and we had two sons... one in 1992 and one in 1994. I was bitten and infected a second time in 1998. I was dx, finally, last July. I asked my LLMD this exact question and was told that they see lots of people who were exposed prior to having children and the children are fine. Every single person is different and handles the infection in its own way. Just b/c you had been bitten, though, does not mean you passed it to your children. I think you should talk this over with your LLMD and see what he/she says. Welcome to daily strength... I hope you find it as helpful and supportive here as I do.... D

I guess I am the exception to the rule. My daughter is not fine. I have had it too long to know when but I noticed my daughter having the same symptoms I had as a teen girl, took her to my doctor and she has it too. Passed on from me to her while in the womb. So yea it does happen. My husband also has it wether from me I think probably we all have the same co-infections too. This disease is so complex I would not take anything for granted. the docotrs still donot understand everything it has to offer. I am sure we are just touching the tip of the iceberg as far as treatments and how it is passed. Just be carefull. I would have them tested by a knowledgable LLMD, God Bless.

I don\'t think there is any way of being certain if a child gets it from the mother in utero or gets it from a tick bite that went unnoticed. Either way, it is horrible thatyou all have to deal with this... it\'s a crazy disease. When I think of how many times my kids played in the woods or rolled around on the ground... My youngest son, 15, has me looking twice... but he had a tick removed several years back and I took him to the doctor. They didn\'t run a test... thought I was being a worrier b/c I thought he had RMSF... had a rash... turned out a culture revealed scarlet fever so he went on abx for 14 days, but I am not convinced that he didn\'t get infected... not by the way he\'s acting lately. I think kids should be screened at yearly physicals.

I guess the answer is to have them tested but if they don't have any symptoms (that I can tell) would they be likely to get a false negative? I keep reading and hearing how hard it is to diagnose.
I had a negative result in November when my symptoms were really severe so I'm confused...
Thanks for replies

It is definitely possable that you could have had it before the children were born. It is possable that it was passed throuth pregnancy or breast feeding. Is it definite NO. I do not know when I was infected. My children seemed fine for years. last spring my daughter was under exreme stress at school elated to a bully (the police became involved) That is when she started g=having symptoms but it was dismessed as stress and growing pains. A few problems here and there and I finally asked docotr to run the test. It came up positive across the board (Elisa and western Blot) Did she always have it and the stress amde it active? Or was she bitten and we never saw the tick? I don't know if we will ever know. Will ask the new Docotr i see next week. So we ran sons tests (I did see a tick on him 8 years ago) his tests were negative but his CD57 (an indicator of exhausted immune syetm) was as low as mine and my daughters. They are rerunning the tests and hope to get tests today.

I want them to develop a 99.9% accurate test and test every human at their yearly physicals.

Sorry there is no clear cut answer.