To think that unless you are going to quarantine your child for a fortnight before spots appear then going to a 'chickenpox party' is irresponsible

[ridingsixwhitehorses]

I mean, you might want your kid to get it but I don't really want mine to. So if you take your kids to play in a pox house specifically to get it then you should tell people you've done this while waiting for their spots to appear given they are infectious prior to them appearing, and not just send them to nursery as normal.

Does the quarantine extend to siblings of exposed kids?

So when my 2yo got it, was I meant to keep my 4yo off school?

I get how bad it is for immunocompressed people and people in early pregnancy and other vulnerable people BUT MN is very over zealous about it

FWIW I did keep mine in when they had it (and my youngest had it twice!!)

I remember clutching at pearls sad story

"It's people who deliberately expose their children to chicken pox (especially befor 18 months old) who risk shingles for them later in life. People who have never had chickenpox can't get shingles and you can't catch shingles."

That's not quite right. It is correct that you cannot contract shingles unless you have had chicken pox. But if you have had chickenpox as a disease (whether by deliberate exposure or not) or the chicken pox vaccine (attenuated live virus) you can get shingles.

Indeed the effect on patterns of shingles is one of the big unknowns of the vaccine - there have been concerns it will make shingles more common, but right now no-one knows.

NHS does not recommend quarantine for chicken pox. They do recommend isolation of the actual patient from diagnosis to pustules all dried up, but no quarantine for contacts, whether siblings, classmates or anyone else.

But if you choose to quarantine anyhow, it needs to be a full 21 days from the day after last contact with person with disease, or if sibling, 21 days from the day after the last pustule has dried (so you're probably looking at a clear month, given the spots usually take 5-7 days).

There is no point whatsoever in doing it for less than the full time it takes to cover the whole incubation period.

"People who deliberately infect their children with chicken pox are arseholes."

I'll let my mother know you think so

"If they catch it by accident fine - if you give it to your child you are horrible."

What seems to be the difference? They will all catch it at some point. All you can influence is the timing - much better to have it in childhood, and preferably at a time when you can take time off work & keep them indoors.

YANBU my children caught chicken pox via someone who had deliberately exposed their children. My then 18month old was already running low after a winter of repeated ear infections and already suffered from terrible excema. He got pox on every concievable part of his body which then got infected, he then got another ear infection and a burst ear drum and we were unable to take him on a plane and had to cancel a holiday.

Obviously that's an extreme scenario and it could have happened anyway but it was bloody annoying.

They will all catch it at some point

My DD didn't... so we had her vacc'd before GCSEs.

Pox parties were definitely not an option when she was at primary school; there was an immune compromised kid so everyone else was asked to (a) make sure their kids had had all the usual vaccs and (b) keep their kids off if they'd been exposed to CP.

"we were unable to take him on a plane and had to cancel a holiday. "

You would have liked to be able to time his chicken pox infection, you say?

CoteDAzur Feel free, I'm sure she will be dead interested

Shit stuff happens to kids during childhood - doesn't mean you have to deliberately inflict it on them. Some kids don't get chicken pox. Some kids die from it. I wonder how your mother would have coped if you had been one of the very few unlucky ones knowing that she did it to you on purpose - probably a hell of a lot worse than if you had just caught it and she had no control over it!

No I wold nr have liked to. My point is that someone we knew deliberately infected their children at a time that suited them but inadvertently spread it to mine in the process.