You ask a difficult question. Yes, some OB providers continue antiviral therapy for the entire pregnancy, I’ve never heard of any complications from that. It is, however, usual to discontinue antiviral therapy upon learning of a pregnancy and restart some time during the third trimester. so your doc is following the usual pattern. How about if you give it a try and see how it goes? If you have lots of cold sores, you could discuss with him going back on therapy. There are some sensitive issues here regarding your relationship with your doctor.
I would not be concerned about transmitting HSV to your 13 month old son when you have no sores. The skin that a person has on it’s forehead or cheek is not vulnerable to infection because the skin is too thick. Also, if you did kiss your child on the lips, it is very unlikely that it would be transmitted because the way you kiss a child is not the way you would kiss an adult partner. Without a cold sore, I would not be concerned about kissing a child briefly on the lips. With a cold sore, I wouldn’t be kissing the child. However, at 13 months, your child should deal effectively with HSV 1 without a big concern. It is quite common for children to get cold sores at a year or two of age from parents who don’t know that cold sores are caused by herpes.
your body does not develop a dependence on the antiviral medicine. When you are off of the medicine for about 5 days, it will go back to it’s regular pattern. But remember that most people have fewer outbreaks over time, so just for the time that has passed, you may well have fewer outbreaks. you’ll just have to wait and see what happens off of therapy.
Now feel free to ask me follow up questions.
Terri