To take 2 infectious-poxy children out in public...

[morecakerequired]

My DTs have the pox. (spots still appearing so definitely still infectious) Last week my DD1 had it and we spent the whole week indoors as a result. (DS went to and from school by himself) This week I am having to do the school run as DD1 is too young to go with just DS for supervision due to the 2 busy roads to cross. I am taking DTs up to the school in their buggy with the rain cover over them - standing away from other people and leaving as soon as kids are in/out. (we live a 2 min walk from the school)

SO - WIBU to carry on after the school run and take the DTs out for a walk and maybe even go into the small local supermarket to pick up some essentials? WIABU to perhaps take the rain cover off if there were no other people around on the street at that time?

I am so fed up of being stuck in the house and DTs are too - 2 weeks is just too long - and I really think we would all benefit from some fresh air. I can't let them go out into the garden just now as it is under a foot of snow and I don't think getting cold and wet playing in the snow would really help them.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable, but a few of the mums at school have made pointed remarks about how I had better hope there are no pregnant mums/people with low immune systems in the playground so just wondering if taking them for a walk will be bad too? AIBU to think that in a buggy with a rain cover over them and not actually coming into direct contact with anyone they aren't going to infect anyone?

(perfectly happy to accept if IABU - genuinely curious)

Morning. I'm a bit disappointed that my experiences with CP are being questioned. I simply wanted to share my DD's story to, hopefully, make people aware of how serious passing on CP can be.

Snowy I have explained, albeit very briefly, what happened. I am no medic but I am also no liar. Tiggytape explained above (thank you!) some babies can be born with legions or scarring. I didn't even know this as my new born DD and I we kept separately from everyone else, but of course it makes sense. I would point out though that the hospital were treating it as CP and indeed when I took her to the GP OOT 2 days after being discharged from hospital.

I'll leave you to it

Hmm I would wait- sounds like you are almost there so another day would do it.

Snowy, we are encouraged by her consultant to send her to school. She will be on treatment for 27 months and is already nineteen months in. Why should she be kept isolated for two years from the age of 4. In the past 19 months she has come into contact with chicken pox twice, both times her school informed me immediately and she was taken straight to hospital to begin a course of acyclovir and luckily has not contracted cp. there are always risks and she could catch it from another child who didn't know they were contagious but these risks are minimised by parents informing the school when they know their child has been infected. Also there is no point in treatment where you are more prone to infection. My daughter is in maintenance and her immune system is still regularly depleted. You have no idea what you are talking about.

MrsDeVere I think you are right. Snowy won't see sense and thinks she knows more than my daughters consultant. I give up.

Just to add my daughter has attended school throughout treatment regardless of neutraphil count. Her consultant has encouraged this. I doubt very much that he would willingly jeopardise my daughters well being so will take his advice over someone whose experience of leukaemia is limited to a boy in her kids class. Now I really am done.

Thank you. So sorry for your loss xx

I look healthy, I work, I go to the gym etc etc. but I've been offered a drug for a condition I have. However if I take the drug, and I then come into contact with someone with chicken pox I would have to go to the hospital/doctors
I would be raging if I was due to go into work, popped into a shop and came across a child with chicken pox, then had to ring work and say I couldn't go in and travel 40 miles to hospital
It's not like I could lock myself away, if I take this drug I will be on it for months if not years

I keep all of you who have lost children or are undergoing treatment for leukaemia in my thoughts. My mum has her bone marrow transplant starting in a few weeks' time but realistically given her age her chances are very slim indeed. But as she's said to me, she's 66 years old, a granny and this at least is in the natural order of things - though it doesn't stop my heart from breaking. For a child to go through the horror she's been through the past few years is just unimaginable.

Thanks MrsDeVere. Yes she's lucky at her age to be offered the transplant at all, and even more so to have found a match, so we're trying to focus on that. Leukaemia just seems to get its evil way too often in the end, as you know to your cost:(

WOAH Kinda stunned by some of posts here . Firstly, I don't think Morecakerequired was BU in her post BTW? She seemed genuinely to be asking for views and was clear she wouldn't be offended by replies. Kudos to OP for that. HOWEVER.... Genuinely fucking furious, enraged, in disbelief, livid shocked by at some of replies? CP (& any other, TEMPORARY, contagious illness) IS a pain, and yep, it's a pain needing to stay in. But THAT is NOTHING compared to the vile & lethal consequences if it is caught by a vulnerable person. And to anyone who has said or implied otherwise, or that the onus is on said vulnerable populations to isolate THEMSELVES for years, YABVFFFU - and thick as shit missing point with spurious points rebutting the obvious. Including the again thick as shit straw man argument of could be in contact with people prior to them knowing infected.

Bottom line is this. CP kills. I contracted it at 6months pregnant from a selfish cretin I would still like to rip to shreds for endangering my baby's life and mine Mother who had brought her infected kid to nursery when I picked my DS up. Most CP deaths are those of pregnant woman. I was very, very seriously ill; had to take Acyclovir and shedload of other drugs that could have damaged baby but were VITAL to protect same baby. This was 18 years ago but remember it like yesterday.. I rang my Doc to say I felt unwell, had outbreak of what looked like CP spots and he was (no exaggeration) at my house within 15 min checking my lungs. Whilst horrendous, me/DS were very lucky as whilst slow, made a full recovery and was able to deliver him safely (was strong chance of forced and prem C-section as vaggie obv infected and could have blinded him). SOOOOOO... against THAT lot, anyone who thinks IABU or others who have posted re it IS VFU where onus for isolation lies, I would just say you are either stupid OR maybe been lucky enough to have never had the serious side of CP.

And lastly, vis housebound - and OMG I understand MoreCake's desperation to get out of house - my Ma is dying right now, but I have had a bug for past week so have been unable to see her as IF I did go to hospice where she now is, I would certainly infect immuno-compromised patients and probably shorten their (already sadly very short) remaining time left. And that onus is on ME - not the poor f*ckers who did not ask to be immuno-compromised.

That's different.The hospice is not a public place.You would be going into a private establishment with your germs.
How do you know you didn't catch it from the nursery child before he had symptoms.You don't.It just makes you feel better to have someone to blame.That's natural though.

Also I think you were highly irresponsible to embark on a pregnancy unvaccinated , and knowing you hadn't had CP.

The NHS is quite clear in this subject.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Chickenpox/Pages/Prevention.aspx

If your child is infectious you stay in doors and minimise the risks for others.

My child has ALL leukaemia. When his immunity is low I avoid school, play parks, shops and other places under cover. If he catches something really horrible we avoid others, school, shops etc. because it is the right thing to do and protects others. Anything else would be completely selfish.

Immunocompromised children don't just get CP on the outside, they get it on the inside as well and it can KILL! It's a really horrible way to go. Unless they are bald you can't tell these children have life limiting or life threatening illnesses. I wonder if there are many that could live with the death of a child?

Im not out to flame, just put a little thought into potentially selfish acts. And above all else think of others!

snowybrrr you are unbelievable.

I notice on another thread snowy that you are worried about your kids teachers spelling affecting his education. That should be the least of your concerns. Surely developing a selfish, self entitled know it all attitude like yours is far more worrying.

I certainly didn't get pregnant knowingly unimmunised. My DM believed I had had it as a child at the same time as my DBro and DSis. I had already had one healthy pregnancy before DD and had no reason to believe I would get CP again.

Looking at Snowybrrs replies there does appear to be some troll like behaviour going on. Most certainly some of the replies appear to be for effect.

I have not known anyone offered a cp vaccination routinely in pregnancy or otherwise

Snowy I don't think your abrasive style is helping your case.

I'm sorry for all you went through Stressed. I'm also sorry you think I'm thick as pigshit but unfortunately (and I wish it were) the fact that people are infectious before they show symptoms is not a straw man. It is the key reason people on this thread have had such awful experiences with CP, because if it were only infectious when the spots showed, it would not infect 90% of children and be so prevalent.

It's very possible you were infected by someone selfishly bringing their child to nursery while they were spotty, but just as likely sadly because the next child you passed down the corridor was feeling a bit ill and coughing (therefore VERY likely to infect someone) but had no spots yet, so no reason to stay isolated. If no-one ever took their poxy child out, non-immune pregnant women would still be taking big risks going into nurseries and schools during CP outbreaks, or indeed at any time. I was exposed to slapped cheek at 16 weeks pregnant via DD's nursery. I was lucky, but many are not, and not because anyone was selfish, but because bugs are like that.

Before I get jumped on, I'm not arguing anybody should bring their infectious child out for the heck of it. But I am saying that there is a perspective on risk in all this, and that is that a spotty child under a pushchair cover outside a nursery is probably less of a risk than their sibling who has been in nursery all day coughing over all the others and about to come out in spots next day.

Now I really will step away.