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

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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)

Hey manic waves

Hey Fan

risk-benefit analysis is something that we actually all do every day - we don't usually even think about it. Why let your kids go to a shop, or to a friend's house? Why allow them to go to school? Why pull out on that roundabout or at that junction? Because you know there is a risk, and you weigh it up against the benefits.

I agree we have no idea who is at risk - but do you confine yourself to the house when you have a cold? And keep your kids at home too for a week in case they are infectious? Thought not.

Right, I am off to do a risk benefit analysis on whatever is in the fridge for dinner.

I'm no medical expert, but would just say consider how you would feel if your were pregnant or had a child recovering from chemo for instance, and ended up in a supermarket queue next to someone with two clearly infectious chicken pox riddled children?

I don't think you are being 100% unreasonable, but I don't think anyone else is to go either tbh.

Sleepy sand. I appreciate that you feel you are not misinformed but your posts indicate otherwise.
There is no programme of routine or targeted preconception v z vaccination so the fact that you think it would be a good idea is irrelevant. The logical (albeit extreme) extension of your argument would be to suggest that anyone who doesn't want to be hit by a drunk driver should stay at home as there will always be people who get behind the wheel of their car when pissed.

LOL that the idea of knowingly increasing the risk of exposure to chickenpox is hysterical, whereas three weeks indoors may lead to anxiety/agoraphobia/desocialisation is a real risk

OP, YWBU, I hope that your shopping arrives on time tomorrow.

And a cold does not carry the same risk (for example to a pregnant woman and her unborn child) as chickenpox. Being able to conduct risk assessment requires at least a basic understanding of the risks involved.

Agree mrs d.
Anyway, I hope your little ones are all better soon op.

Ha ha we are hysterical for saying stay in and don't knowingly spread the virus but you are saying a toddler who has to stay in for a few weeks may lead to anxiety/agorophobia and desocialisation?!!

Sometimes there are no words..

?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Sorry had to laugh - as if you are trying to say that keeping a child in the house with his sibling and parent(s) is going to lead to agraphobia, anxiety and desocialisation?! HA it's two or three bloody weeks we're asking you to stay in, not 6 months!!

Was that to me grape sorry I was just pointing out that posters saying stay in with an infectious child are being told we are hysterical when its just bloody common sense IMO, and then those telling us we are being hysterical come out with crap like that about a toddler getting anxiety etc if they have to stay in for a few weeks! As I said sometimes there are no words to adequately express how fucking stupid some people can be

If your child is contagious bloody well stay at home!

right see all this what about people going through chemo or who have a suppressed immune system...???

surely these people are not to be found in a school playground/ supermarket??

I mean they are just not going to risk that kind of exposure are they

Is that tongue in cheek or are you for real?

My Mum is immuno suppressed due to chemo medication, do you think she and others like her should never leave her house ever so selfish arseholes can take their infectious children out just in case they get bored?

If you dont know your child is infectious - fair enough

If you know they are and you go out anyway - you are an inconsiderate arsehole.

You do understand that anxiety and agoraphobia are serious medical illnesses and cannot be caused by staying at home for a few weeks to get well?

No one is saying lock your child in a room for three weeks, keep them comfortable and entertained. Just stay away from public areas until you are 100% sure he/she is not infectious.

Is that really such a hardship? So much that you would risk making someone seriously ill or killing them? If so you would have to be a completely incompetent parent or selfish to the point of stupidity.

It's the equivalent to sticking your fingers in your ears and going "Lalalalala, I can't hear you because it would make my life harder"

TBF the OP has ordered her shopping online .... think she said that a couple of pages ago.

Sorry 5madthings. Typo.

True Wiley, but its all the others piling in saying it doesn't matter that Im talking to.

Ditto.

Oh I am aware the op is now staying in, but others are still posting to say it doesn't matter and to go out anyway. Irresponsible and selfish!

Aside from the poster who seems to believe in miasma theory and 'infected' air escaping from under a pushchair cover, I'd be interested to hear from those with more conventional understanding of disease transmission. Since CP is a droplet transmitted disease, how can somebody possibly be infected through a pushchair cover in a well-ventilated environment? I can't see any reasonable way that would happen.

The risk to the immunosuppressed is a point very very close to home right now for me. But quite honestly, given the number of kids with chicken pox at my DCs nursery and school right now, I reckon that in our area an immunosuppressed person is probably safer standing next to a covered pushchair containing an ill child than next to their supposedly healthy friend who is actually coughing and spluttering CP viruses everywhere. You do do risk analysis when you are having chemo, and given her very vulnerable state my mum has had to avoid public spaces for over a year now. If those parents with CP-infected children didn't go out in covered pushchairs, that would make zero difference to the risks she faces going out, because most (to her) deadly infections are invisible. At least you can see a child with spots!!!

But I can see that we're arguing across a great divide here and no-one likely to be convinced by the other side, so it's pretty pointless realy. Just don't say that those of us disagreeing with you are therefore selfish and ill-informed, because that isn't fair. I have just as great a vested interest as anyone in my mum staying healthy - I just have a different perspective on the various risks she faces. Actively spotty child sitting next to her on the bus (were she to ever go on a bus, which she doesn't!)? You've got to be joking. But spotty child 10 feet away under a cover in a supermarket? She sadly has worse to worry about.

When I was in this situation with a toddler with CP and needed food urgently I just drove to a shop I don't often use, but at which you can park right outside the door and see your car constantly. Dashed in, bought milk and essential fruit and veg. Dashed out. Three minutes.

I expect someone here will tell me that was High Risk but it certainly didn't seem so. Sometimes a lesser risk is worth taking.

Interesting responses - i was told by gp that current advice was not to stay in, but to go about as normal. I went to shops, but avoided places where dd would have close contact with people.