to go on holiday with my chicken pox ridden DC?

[NighteyesLovesGingerbread]

Basically my DC all have chicken pox. we are due to go on holiday in 2 days.

my friend has just said ' I hope you have insurance now you wont be going away' and then proceeded to tell me how unreasonable I was being when I said we were still going and how dangerous it is for others. I am well aware of this, I have several extended family members who are immune-compromised so understand the risks to them.

we are driving to the holiday destination and staying in a stand alone private house with private pool. obviously I will not take DC into the service stations or supermarkets etc but as far as I can see there is no reason for us not to go as they wont be in contact with anyone other than us.

so, AIBU to still go on holiday in this situation.

Sounds fine to me-- I can't how it's any different than having chicken pox at home.

Well if you can guarantee no contact with anyone else then no reason not to go in that sense.

But what sort if a holiday will it be really if you are all stuck in an unfamiliar place with ill children?

Are they really going to only be in the car and then the private house? No where else at all?

Personally if that's the only places they will be then I don't see its an issue. If you are planning on still taking them out at all then YABU.

I had palpitations reading your title picturing a plane filled with chickenpox bugs and my immune compromised child. But nope, in you're situation I think your fine, don't see the difference either if you're not going to be in confined spaces for prolonged periods! I know nothing about the transfer of chickenpox right enough and will hold my hands up to that!
Have a lovely holiday!

yes really, the house is in the middle of nowhere, the plan always was to just have a quiet family week hanging out at the pool and down on the banks of the river (which we will only do if no-one else is down there). the house has a games room too. there were never any plans for day trips out just swimming and sandcastles on the river bank.

the DC are not ill with it at the moment and in good spirits.

we will be going on the channel tunnel but the DC will remain in the car while we are on it.

I know chicken pox is usually minor but are you near enough to access medical assistance, should you need it?

what stage are they at? don't they stop being infectious once the blisters have formed scabs?

Sounds fine for you to go. Plus if they've already got it and you're still not going for a couple of days chances are they'll be all crusted over by halfway through your holiday and should you want to go anywhere then you could. Just pack plenty of calpol and calamine! Have a lovely time.

As far as I can remember they won't be infectious if the spots have come out ! And if they aren't ill yet they are most unlikely to become so .Chicken pox is rarely bad in young children though can be horrible asyou get into your teens and older
Go , have fun

That sounds fine. I'd definitely still go as long as they weren't ill with it.

DC are all under 6.

the spots came out on DC1 3 days ago and on the other two today. so none of them have crusted over - I believe they are infectious until the last spot has crusted over?

younique yes we have checked out where the nearest hospital is and I am fluent in the country's language so not an issue.

Don't want to put a damper on things, but please ensure your accommodation is within driving distance of medical facilities - my ds3 who was roughly 2yo at the time, ended up in isolation with septic shock and pneumonia from a 'simple' case of chicken pox. My three other ds's have had it 2+ times each with no problem. Otherwise I hope your holiday goes well.

Private pool and house is fine, so long as dc aren't to ill with it.

Sorry, X post. Hope you have a good time.

Take an EHIC just in case. And some muslin clothes and porridge oats to put in the bath to stop the itching a bit. Have a good time.

God go. You've taken more than reasonable precautions. Take medications necessary. I got my kids to paint each other with calamine solution. Made it a bit more fun for them!

Sounds fine to me - though as WTFIMC said, it's worth keeping an eye on the spots in case any get infected. Long car journey and bored children means scratching in my view.

Is your tunnel ticket flexible? Is it worth holding off a day or two and going for 10 days rather than 14 for example? V tedious travelling with poorly kids.

Only one thing as there's been a round of it here in the past few weeks - I met a mum who had cancelled their trip on the basis that they were going somewhere hot and had been told that they needed to keep their DC out of the sun as it would cause permanent scarring particularly on the face. They decided that the UK was preferable to a sweltering Med destination if the DC had to stay indoors.

My younger brother went down with chickenpox the day we left for a month in our shack house in France, many moons ago. Despite this, and my not having had it yet, the parents didn't want to miss a minute of their hard earned holidays and dragged us off to the ferry to Calais and then on the long drive (we were thrilled to travel over 200 km per day on the routes nationales in those times) to the Lot. Once bro seemed a bit better, we were hauled off to a beach in northern Spain, for a treat because my father wanted to buy land there. I remember coming out in spots on the sand and being rapidly bundled back to the shack. Unbelievable nowadays. But fairly typical of my parents' parenting, it must be said.
As long as your children are feeling all right and you know where you can take them if any of them suddenly takes a turn for the worse, I'd go for it and I hope you all have a lovely time!

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go. Hopefully, they won't be infectious for the entire week, and you should be able to relax restrictions for the last few days.
Have a good holiday.

YABVU and selfish and ignorant.

On the channel tunnel, you may remain in the car, but the windows MUST to be down. You'll be in a train carriage with 3 other cars, also with their windows down. So effectively you'll be in a "room" with three other families. And chickenpox can be transmitted by simply being in a room for 15 minutes. The train takes 40 minutes.

You cannot travel. Very, very unreasonable to do so. Your friend is right.

Children are at their most infectious for the 2 days roughly before they develop the spots as then they are breathing out the virus.

By now, once spots are developed, infection is spread by direct contact so the children sitting in a car has very little chance of spreading chicken pox.

YANBU - it would be different if you were flying!

I want to say YANBU because if you're driving yourself to an isolated holiday home in the middle of nowhere then in theory it should be fine, but the reality is that there's no way you will be able to keep your dc out of contact with anyone else.

I agree with a PP that going on the channel tunnel means that you will be exposing other people, and it sounds like the drive will be long enough that you'll at least have to let your children out of the car to use the toilet, let alone allowing them to get some fresh air and have a stretch. I think you should wait until they have stopped being contagious.