to take a chickenpoxy child away for trip, partially on public transport?

[dappply]

since yesterday DS has chickenpox. Doesn't seem to be feeling very bad, but is very spotty. we had plans to go and visit friends this weekend. It's a four hour trip, an hour of it by public transport (boat trip as they live on an island).
Am I meant to isolate him? Should he not be going on public transport? WIBU to go?

Bumbley, we were told by paeds that if ds contracted cp after having the vaccine it would definitely be milder than if he weren't vaccinated, and that the 2 injections would last at least until adolescence when a booster could be administered.

The competative complacency re CP is utterly bizarre

Flu comes in different strains doesnt it? I think we should all get our kids together at the beginning of the season and let them get it over with. That way we wont be inconvienienced if they get it when we want to go on holiday or something.

If we lose one or two along the way, well thats life innit?

Abat, any disease can kill. People can die from complications of a common cold. I have already said that people should be aware of the risks to pregnant women and immunocompromised people so that they take proper precautions when their child has CP but I think making CP out to be a dangerous illness for all (which some countries have done to promote the vaccine) is unnecessary.

MrsDevere, I'm not sure what you think I have repeated about the vaccination - you said that the vaccine means that even if they contract CP it will be mild - that is not true.

I'm very sorry about your daughter, I have read your previous posts about her and she really was a beautiful girl. I have agreed with you several times that people should not be putting other people (like your DD) at risk by taking their children out with CP. All I am objecting to is exaggeration of the risks to healthy children that only serve to worry parents unnecessarily.

Hazey, sorry but there are no guarantees - basically because there is no guarantee that the vaccine will work at all. You can look it up yourself. Don't take my word for it. No vaccine can guarantee protection and/or a mild case.

Whale oil, I'm sure you've nursed children with encephalitis from other viruses as well - ones that, for the majority, don't cause those complications.

Also Hazey, the boosters become less effective in adulthood so there is a risk that you may end up unprotected in adulthood when there is a greater likelihood of complications. Of course those who are at a high risk in childhood anyway have to weigh up those risks and make the best decision that they can but for the majority it doesn't make much sense.

I dont think anyone is advocating exaggerating the risk at all.
Education as to the actual risks is what we want.

To do anything else it to be patronizing.

People are woefully unware of the nature of CP. What it is, what it can do, how it should be treated and how infectious it is.

I dont want people to panic. I do want to move forward from the 'oh bugger DS has CP do you think we can sneak her onto the plane' mentality that currently exists.

I am not of the belief that a. the majority of people are inherently selfish and once armed with the facts would continue to expose others.
b. people are stupid enough to panic if they were armed with the facts.

I know about CP and I dont turn into a gibbering wreck when my children get it.

"I do want to move forward from the 'oh bugger DS has CP do you think we can sneak her onto the plane' mentality that currently exists"

I very much agree with you on this one.

What MrsDV said

yabvu. My DD currently has it and it can be very dangerous to pregnant women, newborns etc. We had plans and I have quite frankly gone stir crazy but tough titty.

I live in a country that does have the vaccination - at 18 months. Have just taken DD2 to have it. Apparently the first job has been shown not to be that effective so they are trialling having a booster 4 weeks later. The government doesn't cover the cost of that one, so not many bothering. I will be going back and paying for it in any case. I think you can pay for it in the UK too, no?

"The main purpose of any vaccine is not necessarily to entirely prevent the disease, but rather to prevent the serious or complicated form of the disease. Recent studies have shown VV to be as much as 95 percent effective toward preventing chickenpox and 100 percent effective for preventing severe chickenpox. Even though between one and four percent of vaccinated children can still get chickenpox, these "breakthrough infections" are mild and usually result in only a few days of a low-grade fever and a few spots." Dr Sears.

As you say, nothing is 100% guaranteed, but It seems to greatly reduce the risk of severe cp. If ds got cp with spots in his throat, it would be a nightmare as he has a very poor swallow anyway.

I agree though with MrsDeVere, that one thing about these threads is that it is good that the message of how dangerous it can be for some people is spread, to the people who come on talking about cp parties and sneaking contagious children onto ferries!

I've found sources that say 85% effective against disease and 97% against complications. Serious complications are rare anyway, even in unvaccinated children.

I could cp a few years ago. A couple of weeks after recovering I found out I was pregnant. Due to an erratic cycle I had no idea how many weeks I was and had to wait for 3 weeks for a dating scan. It was a given that I had cp and been very early pregnant at the same time. Although the scans all looked fine I was still so anxious and stressed throughout my pregnancy and first few months of my babies life. Luckily everything is fine and my phn was very patient with me .
However I am very aware of how it could have been.

I have nursed my older children through cp and whilst its boring to be couped up inside its what has to be done. Boredom dosent kill,cp can.

Have some consideration for your poor son and stay at home. Why do people always have to on the go FFS?!

bumbblymummy: "serious complications are rare"

not in infants, even otherwise healthy once.

No Sara, they are still rare. Adults are at greatest risk, infants under 1 month are next. The risk is still small and young babies are less likely to contract CP anyway due to maternal antibodies.

You are playing with semantics: If an infant contracts CP, serious complications are not rare.

bumbly, I don't know how serious you consider serious. I know of 2 children hospitalised with cp, one who had an infected cp spot on her eye, which was agonising for her and could have caused permanent damage and also have a friend who lost her ds to chicken pox. Now I know that anecdote doesn't equal data, but the 'complications' that I have seen have seemed pretty serious to me. For ds I don't know how serious the complications would be, but his drs seemed to think they could be serious enough to warrant him having the vaccine on the nhs.

Sara, I'm not playing with semantics - I was just pointing out that it is rare for a young infant to contract CP anyway. The risks of complications are higher in young infants than in children (as is the case for most illnesses). What age infant are you talking about anyway? There is a big difference between a newborn contracting it from its mother at the end of pregnancy/shortly after birth and an 11 month old.

Hazey, serious bacterial infections that require hospitalisation and death are of course more serious complications but they do not occur frequently - that is the point that I am making. Not that there are never complications, not that complications are never serious but that they are rare in healthy children.

Here you go If you don't believe me, you can read it for yourself.