Chicken pox and school run?

[annalovesmrbates]

A parent always drops her DS1 at school and takes Her DS2 in a pushchair. Today she said that DS2 has chickenpox whilst as usual he was sitting in the buggy without raimcover.

I am not sure what she could do differently but AIBU to be surprised that she is doing this, given the potential dangers of chickenpox?

That's what my point is, not everyone has
Someone who is able to look after the child. I just can't
See the big deal. Would rather have cp as
A child rather than an adult

I would have phoned the school office to ask if the healthy sibling could be left in the office with them prior to everyone else arriving. If not, then take child in playground - no choice. I do think better to put raincover on as chicken pox is breathed out.

yes, but it isn't just children around on the school run and you don't necessarily know who has compromised immunity.

Kayano -

making a conscious decision to expose your healthy child to chicken pox by attending a chicken pox party (not that I've heard of these in recent years) is a completely different thing to being unwittingly exposed to the virus dropping your children off at school. It's really very unfair for parents not to go the extra mile in limiting risks of exposure to the immune-suppressed and other at risk groups.

Yes, chicken pox is normally relatively mild and not life-threatening. But the consequences to the immune-suppressed can be catastrophic. The fact that the contagion exists before spots is irrelevant IMO - once you know, you know and then you do all you can to limit exposure.

I have had to do this but I spoke to someone in the school office and arranged to drop/pick up DS from the school office while DD stayed outside the school office (glass round all sides) in the buggy with the rain cover over her.

When my younger 4 got CP a few years ago I just stood on my own in the playground. I told anybody who came close why I was standing there and it was up to them whether they stood with me or not. All 4 of my DC who had CP then were out of a pushchair.

Surely by the time they came close enough for you to tell them, it was too late!

You arrange with the school for your healthy child to be 5 mins late/ stay behind for school so you don't infect everyone around you at pick up/ drop off.

A poster on here had a child who died from CP. If it can be knowingly avoided I think that is the right thing to do.

Hazyjane I was stood on my own so could tell if someone was walkimg over to me so fair warning could be given.
Unfortunately when you have more than 1 child the world doesn't stop when a child is ill.

Immune suppression or immune compromised generally refers to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, transplant patients or those with genetic diseases such as SCID and these people would, I hazard a guess, not generally convene around playgroups or school grounds, especially in the winter months, when lots of viruses/bacteria are around so I think some people are getting a bit carried away.

Exposure is also defined as being in face-to-face contact with a chickenpox suffferer for 15 mins. If you dont have anybody to look after the other sibling then you cant leave them 'home alone'

But you can arrange with the school to drop a little later.

At risk groups also include pregnant women who have never had chicken pox.

And actually at our school we do have 2 children who are immune-suppressed/having cancer treatment. I don't know who they are - parents were sent a letter specially requesting that we inform the school immediately if our children have chicken pox or other similar virus.

And then there's people who have had transplants - no reason why they would always themselves be able to avoid school playground if they are responsible for drop offs.

I know, Discodaisy, I have 3 dcs, ds has various medical issues which mean that he tends to get very ill when he gets ill, so I guess I would be happier to keep him away from chicken pox as long as possible.

I suppose I think of dds playground in the morning and it is full of kids running around and parents, and I can't imagine finding a quiet enough corner to keep 4 children with chicken pox away from everyone!

Oh and in dd1s and dd2s classes I can think of 1 child and 2 parents who are immunosuppressed.

I always thought that you had the virus in your system for about 14 days before the spots appeared. Before spots it's highly infectious as it's airbourne. Once the spots appear it's less infectious as it's only spread through direct contact. So if the child is strapped into their pram, people are only at risk if they touch him.

'Chickenpox is most infectious from one to two days before the rash starts, until all the blisters have crusted over (usually five to six days after the start of the rash).
If your child has chickenpox, try to keep them away from public areas to avoid contact with people who have not had it, especially people who are at risk of serious problems, such as newborn babies, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system (for example, people having cancer treatment or taking steroid tablets).'

'The virus can spread through the air, in tiny droplets of saliva and mucus from an infected person.'

from the nhs website.

Fair enough you can't keep children away before you know they have it, but once you know then i think you should do everything you can to keep them away from people.

When my DS had chicken pox I took DD to nursery and left DS in the car with a passing mum keeping an eye on him while I took her up. BUT if I'd had to take him in the pushchair I would probably have put the rain cover on and done it very quickly. Ultimately the woman had to take her older DC to school and if she didn't know anyone who could help her out she had to do it with other DC in tow. Given how rife CP is in the population generally (amongst those who don't yet know they have it) you can only take sensible steps to minimise coming into contact with others but sometimes it's unavoidable.

I miscarried at nearly 12wk because I contracted chickenpox, I was also very ill afterwards - I am one of those 'lucky' people who doesn't develop immunity to chickenpox. So what should I do, avoid school runs with my DC just so I don't inconvenience those mothers who absolutely cannot take any precautions that may inconvenience themselves slightly ?!

I agree wholeheartedly with Ghoul....

It's about discretion on both sides, if i'm suspectible to illness or viruses then I would try and stay away from schools around this time of year and equally try to avoid bringing sick children to them, it's about balancing risk.

But sometimes we have to do what we have to do and if i'm in a vunreable group I wouldn't rely on other people changing their behaviour for me even though I might be morally in the right, if that means avoiding certain situations in order not to catch an illness, then I would do that rather than risk getting sick

I agree with scarlett the school won't mind if the child is 5 mins late. CP is a minor illness to some and dreadful for others. It's not fair to knowingly expose other people to it.

I took DS3 on school run in pushchair last week just after he broke out with chiekn pox, so that I could get DS2 to school. There was no other option available. I made sure nobody got too close, but honestly, he got the chicken pox from DS2, who got them ... in school!! It's been racing through our school like wildfire over the past two months - I've never seen so many children with chicken pox in my life!

Nobody I spoke to was that worried about it, as there have been tons of children coming down with it left and right.

It's not like you can leave the toddler at home. And sometimes outside help isn't available. I certainly wouldn't do it if we had any other choice, but we simply didn't. I'm not going to apologise for it. As the other poster said, it's about balancing risk.

Immune suppression or immune compromised generally refers to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, transplant patients or those with genetic diseases such as SCID and these people would, I hazard a guess, not generally convene around playgroups or school grounds, especially in the winter months, when lots of viruses/bacteria are around so I think some people are getting a bit carried away.

There are 2 parents that I know of in our school who have compromised immunity, and one at the other local school. All 3 do the school run twice a day.

That said if one of my 2 had cp I could take them out on the school run, and just warn other parents!

But as a rule immunosuppression in the general population is quite scarce, while there will always be sporadic examples of it, most people i.e>95% of the people picking up children or children at school will not be immunocompromised.

We cannot totally eliminate all risk...the OP does not state what stage of the illness the child is at so everything here is conjecture. If the spots have dried and have formed scabs with crustingm then there will be minimal risk of infection.

Baking addict - not crusted over at all.

But if your child has chicken pox, then that is a week or 2 of taking their sibling in a bit earlier or later, or getting someone to help out, or leaving them in a pushchair under a raincover, or asking someone to keep an eye whilst they stay in the car (there are quite a few options). If you are on chemo for say a year then that is a long time to avoid school altogether.

I was on chemo pre children, and I couldn't have stayed inside for a year, I had to hope that people with nastier and more contagious infections would follow the nhs advice and stay away from people, whilst they were contagious.

It is a pita, but it is only for a very short time.

If my child got the chicken pox at school, and there were numerous children coming down with it over the course of a couple months, there is every chance that at any given point SOMEONE contagious may be walking around undetected at the school. At least with my child, I kept him covered up as much as possible, and warned anyone going near him (and who really does anyway, as they're rushing to get their children into class and then leaving) that he had them. At least he was a known risk that was contained in a pushchair, unlike the other children coming down with chicken pox that were walking all over the school.

Besides, my close friends weren't fussed about it. As one of them said, it's going around, if my child catches it, they catch it. None of my friends are pregnant. And nobody else got close enough to him to matter anyway. They were all rushing past to get their children into class and be off again.

I think on the whole if you're worried about catching them you have to take general precautions and just hope for the best. You can avoid every possibly contagious child at a school and get sneezed on by a toddler at the supermarket that is just starting to break out and then you could catch it anyway. You can't avoid all risk. That's life, unfortunately.

It's easy for someone to say "oh bring the child in late or pick them up early or late or whatever" but we all have lives, people have work schedules that are not easily adaptable, bus schedules to follow, car pooling, all sorts of other things they are dealing with as well. So sometimes they just have to bring the contagious child along and minimise their contact with anyone. And that, too, is life.

I would take to school (if couldn't find anyone to help) either:

a) if walking keep in buggy with raincover - once spots appear anyway not very infectious, would have to get very near, most infectious before spots come and it always goes around schools as children are at school during most infectious time (before spots come)

b) if driving might wait with car and ask someone else to bring other DC out.

Bear in mind only infectious at all for 5 days but looks horrid for ages after that so might be child no longer infectious.