urgent - chickenpox

[throckenholt]

older brother has just come out with chickenpox - siblings not showing any signs yet - is it ok to send them to playgroup ?

thanks

[psychomum5]

well, do you know where the older brother caught it from and whether they were also in contact at the same time??

if not, and they are ok right now, then send them and just warn playgroup. most don't mind, epecially as most like their kiddies to catch it at some time pre-school.

HTH

[Medulla]

Personally I wouldn't as they are both almost definately contagious! Playgroup may not take them anyway. Hope they are better soon!

[SenoraPostrophe]

would the siblings be likely to have been exposed to the same source? if so I'd maybe keep them off, but if not it could be 21 days before they come out with it.

actualy I'd send them either way - if i kept my kids off nursery every time they might be ill they'd never go!

[throckenholt]

have been nowhere near kids for 2 weeks - on holiday in the outer Hebrides - just got back.

No idea where he got -probably school before he went !

[SenoraPostrophe]

I would tell the nursery though. early symptoms to look out for are tiredness and lack of appetite.

[psychomum5]

chicken pox takes 14-21 days to come out, so if this is there first day of exposure (ie, they weren't exposed at the same time as older brother), then the time to worry about them is in about 10+days time

hope older brother feels better soon

[LIZS]

Depends where he caught it from . If they are likely to have ahd the same contact then they may go down with it any time now, if their only contact with c'pox is him then it could be 2 -3 weeks before they become spotty. Even if they don't get it now they could still in 3 weeks time and if another gets it up to 3 weeks from then. I don't think you could be expected to keep them off in the meantime though.

[throckenholt]

thanks - will nip them down ans ask the staff if it is ok. I am chair of the playgroup so don't want to do the wrong thing

they seem fine at the moment.

Older one is ok - just spotty at the moment.

[SenoraPostrophe]

hope he gets better soon! and you never know - there is a 20% chance that any one sibling won't get it at all.

[SenoraPostrophe]

ps (in case you need to know) the contagious time is the day before the fever starts to 5 days after the first spot - I know becausde I had to look it up when dd caught it before we flew to the uk. so the little ones are highly unlikely to be contagious for another 12 days or so.

[fairyjay]

As someone whose two little darlings infected the whole nursery, I'd talk to the staff.

When they returned, the head took great pleasure in giving me a daily breakdown of how many more children had come down with it

[throckenholt]

well I took them down - the leader had no idea whether to let them go or not - so I decided to take them home again. Presumably if they got it from the same source they will get it in a day or two, otherwise we can expect it in a couple of weeks.

Extra joy - we discovered the pox ridden child was also crawling in head lice this morning ! And has given them to me - but not the rest of the family. Where did we get all of these things - we haven't been near otherskids at all for 2 weeks !

So much for my quiet day at home before going back to work tomorrow