To be worried sick!!!

[thenightwalker]

my husband went to visit sister in laws new baby this week. She was told she had strep B about a month before the delivery. She had the baby and came home the day after. Baby seems fine and havnt wanted to ask too much about the strep situation.

My stupid husband came home and said he had let our daughter kiss the baby on the head.

Shes coming up to 2. Am i right in thinking surely if the baby has been though an infected birth canal. the bacteria will still be on the baby even if its not infected?

Would they have let thebaby out of hospital if it wasa risk to other children?

Am i being neurotic??

yes.

1. SinL will have been treated
2. She would have only been let home if she had been treated and the babe was OK.
3. They've probably washed it since it was born.

Strep B isn't a huge risk to a 2yo in any case...

I thought it could leadto menegitis? thanx ladies i feel abit better now :) i am a worrier!!!

Very unlikely GBS would cause problems to a healthy 2 year old. Bear in mind about a third of the population carry it at any time with no signs whatsoever.

But everything Gollum said too.

is this for real?

One third of women carry strep b in vagina at any given time. Therefore 1/3 of newborns potentially exposed during birth.

Newborns can be at risk, but if hospital was worried she wouldn't have been let out. And baby would have been washed. And it wouldn't affect healthy 2 year old.

thenightwalker I don't think you are at all BU to be annoyed with your DH, being paranoid about germs is no bad thing. Although I agree with MumNWL above on the obvious basics of this situation, any unnecessary exposure to dirt & germs is at least annoying and thoughtless and at worst, quite frankly, fatal. I've been neurotically clean all my life which meant that when my DS was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia (worse outlook than leukaemia) at 3 and had to have a bone marrow transplant necessitating chemo and zero white blood count for weeks, followed by nearly two years of strong immuno-suppression, he got through the whole thing with no need for antibiotics as I avoided all dirt & germs (yes, I do understand the difference between bacteria and viruses) like the plague. He made an excellent recovery and all three of my DCs, now grown, continue to be disgusted by people sharing their germs and living in an unclean way. All those who come out with ridiculous statements such as: 'Headlice only like clean hair', 'A bit of dirt doesn't do any harm' and 'I must eat my probiotic sh** / make sure it's in my DC's lunchbox' are deluding themselves and usually making excuses for their own laziness. I've led an incredibly busy life but my house has never been less than clean and my children had very little time off school due to my insistence on cleanliness and their own germ-avoidance tactics. We are over-reliant on antibitoics often due to sheer laziness and sloppiness. Hope your relative's baby makes a full recovery and that you are no longer worried :)

erm being paranoid about germs is attributed by many to the rise in asthma/allergies in the west. so yep, YABU, and so is albertcamus.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234349/Obsessive-clean-freak-parenting-bad-childrens-health.html
www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/23/grubby-children-scientists-immune-system
etc

albertcamus - I am sorry you've had such a traumatic time with your ds's illness, I really feel for you that must have been horrendous.

But, to suggest that we get sick and need antibiotics because we are lazy is faintly ridiculous. People who are not overly obssesive about hygiene are no more deserving of getting ill than those who are.

There really IS nothing wrong with a bit of dirt, it's good for building up your immune system. I can understand that someone with a compromised autoimmune system might be more careful with hygeine but lets not go making accusations of laziness/sloppiness.

And headlice have nothing to do with germs or hygiene, they don't make people sick and are a fact of life for most of us with small kids.

I treat many patients with OCD in my work, and ime being paranoid about germs IS a bad thing, it can ruin people's lives.