So many children with chicken pox out at Warwick Castle yesterday.

[ScreamLikeYouMeanIt]

I was out at Warwick Castle yesterday with my DH who has an autoimmune condition so subsequently a compromised immune system. He has also never had chicken pox. It was a lovely day but incredibly busy and crowded in confined places. Throughout the day we came into close contact with 3 families where one of their children were covered in unscabbed chicken pox so still contagious. DH has today had to go to his GP who has given him the chicken pox vaccine to be on the safe side (but this is not without risks for him and has still made him feel really rough for the rest of the day) Clearly I think this is downright selfish but there must be otherwise pleasant families out there who don't think this. AIBU to ask why you not inconveniencing yourself by cancelling a family trip is more important than protecting more vulnerable members if the public?

Loxie you are on the two week wait now

What about all the other nasties that aren't visible?

Irrelevant.

Everyone knows that you shouldn't let a child covered in contagious pox go out in public. Those who don't care are stupid, selfish arseholes.

I know it's inconvenient. My two children came down with CP within a fortnight of each other this time last year. It was shit but we stayed at home.

@PetulantPolecat

We once went on a walk through some woods (in England not particularly hot) next morning I thought DD! had chicken pox, 4 others of us not 1 single spot. Turns out she had been bitten, lesson learned. She is 19 now but when something bites her (usually horseflies) she invariably ends up on antibiotics.

To those saying why does he have the vaccination, lots of immune suppressed people are not allowed vaccinations or those on things like chemo often have their immunity from previous vaccinations wiped out. I’ve seen too many kids hospitalised and fighting for their life after coming into contact with chicken pox, obviously it can’t be helped that it’s contagious before the first spot comes out but people need to be more responsible. For what is a weeks inconcience to you is someone fighting for their life as you decided you needed to go to the shops or get fresh air or has booked tickets for something.
Also the vaccination the OP mentioned isn’t a vaccination as we tend to think when we hear the word. Its immune globulins which help the person fight it but they can still get extremely ill even with it administer within the correct time frame

In other countries chicken pox is part of the standard vaccination schedule so you don't have to pay extra. To be fair hopeful they just looked poxy but were actually scabbed over. My friend had to stick a sign on her DD to say the Dr had cleared her as being non-contagious because people kept coming up to berate her weeks after she'd scabbed over.

Sorry in terms of your question YANBU it's not reasonable to go out with your kid when you know they're contagious with chicken pox.

He hadn't got the vaccine because its not offered as routine on the NHS and until very recently neither of us knew such a thing existed
I think what you’ve said there sort of explains why people are out and about with chicken poxy children. I know everyone on Mumsnet seems to know everything about chicken pox but I think in real life they just don’t. So IE people don’t know there’s a vaccine and also people just don’t realise how bloody dangerous it can be for not only their own children but everyone else too. I don’t think I’ve met a single person IRL (except my family cos I’ve got an immuno suppressed DH) who doesn’t think chicken pox is just a very mild childhood illness that all kids should be exposed to at parties. There really needs to be a lot more education about it, I guess it doesn’t cause the NHS enough problems for them to warrant a campaign and maybe they don’t want too many people asking for the vaccine because of cost implications. Hope your DH is ok.

Yanbu- people shouldn't take children with chicken pox out...but I am surprised your DH hadn't already had the vaccine.

I'm not pro routinely vaccinating for chicken pox, but I had the vaccine 27 years ago because I'd never had it and didn't want it before a ski holiday.

Dd1 was sent home from school after a week off for chicken pox as the school secretary was adamant she was still contagious. I work in a hospital and had the head of infection control look at her as one spot on her head was bigger and a bit weird but a others were scabbed over completely. Nurse said it was an infected one but not infectious. Unfortunately dd had all these horrible scabs on her face and School still wouldn't accept her. A pharmacist also cleared her so the next day I insisted they took her and stopped making her strip off to be checked .

It's frustrating if they genuinely were not scabbed over but I'm surprised you saw more than one and honestly it's not very infectious at that stage - far more infectious standing next to the clear-skinned dc who will be out in spots a few days later!

I think part of the problem is that many families don't have close relatives around and don't have anyone who now how to advise and manage childhood illnesses and protect others, my Mum learnt from my Grandmother and I learnt from Mum.

That aside, chickenpox is highly contagious and can be fatal, not only that but its a viral illness so the sufferer likely feels ill. Stay indoors and away from vulnerable people until the last spot is crusted over, end of story.

I totally agree that contagious children should stay home BUT how do you know they were still contagious?

Some kids still look really bad weeks after first coming out in spots - both of mine still look like they’re at the contagious stage despite the first spots appearing over 4 weeks ago.

I guess it depends on how many, and how deep the spots were as to how long they hang around for.

On the bites if we go out as a family where it's buggy then dh is covered with bites, dd1 and ds may have a couple, and me and dd2 have none.

Every family I know seems to have one person who gets all, or at any rate reacts more so they're more visible.

YANBU! So so selfish. My friends child had chicken pox recently. They had planned to go on a trip to visit relatives a few days after said child caught CP. they stopped lunch in a busy restaurant on the way, stayed in a hotel & carried on as normal because ‘x is absolutely fine’

I’m with @Judashascomeintosomemoney, my medic friend always says you haven’t seen how bad it can really be as she sees the serious cases in the hospital. Both she and my gp advised getting the vaccines privately.

Some people will think of others.

Some people will always be selfish.

We avoid busy places because we're tired of people bringing their sick kids out, and us getting ill.

Last time we came into contact with chicken pox was at a party. The mum sent her child in with pox spots, and several of the children caught it, including my DS who then passed it onto my 5 week old DD (at the time).

My SIL would think nothing of taking her children out when contagious with vomiting bugs and passing it around. She says, there are bugs everywhere anyway, what does it matter? She is a selfish person in general though, so it's no surprise.

@PetulantPolecat as a kid I use to be covered in rashes. Unless I was also feeling ill then there was no reason to keep me inside - and yes my mum use to drag me to the GP, who was useless.

When I've been on holiday with people including family members I'm the person who gets bitten to shreds. A lot of them rarely get bits you can see.

So yes it is very likely the kid is allergic to insect bites.

I've seen loads of posts on fb recently "We've been home for 2 days and we're bored, thinking of taking dc to the park/supermarket/blah blah".
Selfish, deal with the boredom fgs.

If you’re still in the contagious stage don’t you still feel pretty ill? Why on earth would parents drag their kids round a tourist attraction if they were poorly? It’s a possibility that they were older spots that looked bad still?

People are selfish arseholes OP, sadly. It's all about them and they'd argue that your DP should stay at home not them.

They're the same people who use P & C parking when they've not got kids with them; send their kids with norovirus to school as they can't possibly miss a day of work as they are soooooo important; and let their kids shout and scream on their oversized trampoline from dawn to dusk. Entitled cheeky fuckers in other words.

Very sweet of you all to try to tell me that what I saw wasn’t chicken pox. Amusing almost, given you know... you weren’t there but are quickly playing the devil’s advocate. Sadly, the grandparents were seated at the front, while kids and parents were at the back of the plane and guess what... the child with the chicken pox ran up and down the plane the entire 4 hour flight. Many other passengers (beside myself) got to see way TOO bloody upclose that it was chicken pox. There was much Britishness, quiet words, and shrugged shoulders but the gist of it was that the crew was willing to do fuck all because we were airborne and nobody stopped the kid from boarding the flight. We were advised to email BA

This thread makes me wonder why my 2.5 year old hasn't caught chicken pox yet despite nearly her whole nursery class catching it last week.

DD2 got it one year and DD1 didn't -despite sharing a room with her, spending all day with her, generally indulging in sibling mauling and everything else. Kept expecting her to get it (especially since most of her nursery class did... she never did).

She got it the following year... and bloody DD2 got it again for good measure (serves you right for complaining "want spots too")

DD1 looked a right state for ages after she was non-contagious though.

Yanbu
Let's have our lovely jolly day out. Because the elderly, the immuno-compromised children and the adults undergoing chemo aren't our problem. We'll never see them again or have to witness the consequences of our dickish, selfish, antisocial behaviour.
Arseholes. Can these people really not entertain themselves at home for a few days until their children are infection free?
I've nursed immuno compromised adults who've caught infections from selfish twats who think it's fine to release their infection ridden offspring into the community.
Most have been fatal.
Those questioning the OP if she knew they were still infectious - she doesn't, but equally you can't be sure either. So until you're totally, sure that they're infection free, please, please keep them away from public places. It's so much more than just passing on a dose of chicken pox to a healthy toddler who'll recover easily.

Selfish people it's only a few days, people can be seriously ill and die because they can't be arsed to stay in. My DH is immune compromised and would have to stop his treatment If he had been in contact with someone with cp, this could lead to life changing health for my DH.

My niece Recently had cp and my parents know my DH risk, we were all due for a bbq for Mother's Day but we were cancelled as we were told it was not worth the risk for DH, never mind my poor niece who probably felt like crap.

My husband is not immuno compromised but caught chicken pox from one of my brownies whose mum had sent her with spots still coming out. He had come to give me a lift home.
He was covered. I actually have a pic of his back which was the most horrific thing ever. He was so bloody ill. Anti virals and all sorts needed. He of course passed it to the littlest child who came out with spots on Christmas Day and had a sickness bug to boot.
Bad times.

Immuno suppressed here too, I had a blood test at the gp as worked with kids at the time. Turns out I have natural immunity to the pox weirdly (but not shingles and that nearly fecking killed me)