To think sometimes you have no choice but to leave the house with a chickenpox child?

[StopTheSundayBlues]

What do you do if you have no friends or family to help out and you have more than one child?

Be confined to the house for over 2 weeks as one gets it after the other?

By no friends and family, I mean literally no one.

What if you need to go to the shop to feed your bloody children?

I know why chickenpox is so horrifically dangerous. But honestly, some people have no real choice but to leave the house, do they?

Reading this thread and wondering why on earth the NHS don't advise quarantine for children with chickenpox.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/

Because it's usually a mild illness that doesn't even need a GP appointment. People who are immunosuppressed will have been given a list of precautions they can take whenever they go to public places (because of that pesky little contagious-before-being-ill business) and that's their responsibility.
I don't think anyone is advocating letting pox-covered toddlers rush up and hug strangers, but there's no need to lock yourselves up for a fortnight, either.

My ds caught chicken pox at 18 months. We stayed in for 10 days. Sister did my shopping and A friend offered to take/bring home 4 yo Dd to and from school. Told school Dd had been exposed to CP but they said I couldn’t keep her off unless she had it.

2 weeks later she came out in spots, along with half of her class, including 2 with pregnant mothers and one with an immunodeficient grandparent.

Keeping the poxxed child at home did absolutely nothing to prevent this.

No wonder MN is seen as hysterical in some quarters. Threads like these really bring out the batshittery,

Yes i will go out, im a single parent and believe it or not not everyone can do online shopping.

oh and i have children to get to school. mumsnet is like a parallel universe at times, not everyone has help.

Mine got it on a drive ourselves holiday so we didn’t have much choice. Tried to minimise it though.

Mine had hand foot and mouth on their faces this week. Doc said okay to take them out but I have been told off twice by people who though it was chicken pox

Shopping you could get delivered, I know it's more expensive but potentially two weeks of living off the basics and stocking up on things you'd usually buy, or adding food ready for Christmas, isn't going to do any harm provided you have the money. Tesco minimum is £40, so I would say for a two week shop that's quite reasonable. If the child without chicken pox attends school and you drive you could always have a word with the teacher to explain the situation, and perhaps have them meet you at the car, so your poorly child is not left unattended. I'm assuming the Father of the children is not around or in their lives. I am someone with a compromised immune system, and suffered an infection that nearly took my life eight years ago due to others ill health. Yes I am in the minority, and I don't expect people to pander to my needs, but if you can at least limit the exposure to just the absolute essential time out of the house, you could be protecting others lives around you.

The problem is that you are most contagious before the spots come out. So you are going to have spread it before you even know.

I got CP in my 20s and my sister was pregnant at the time. Once I knew what I had I stayed away but it was too late. Luckily, though she got a minor case, my niece was born healthy.

Vaccination should be given.

I had to once, I wrapped up said child in the buggy, put the rain over over the buggy and stayed outside only.
Whilst I don’t think think it’s not important, realistically if you are let down with someone else collecting another child for example you can’t just leave them at school! You just have to stand away from others and manage as best you can

My son attended playgroup in the morning and came out with cp overnight. We weren't prepared as didn't think he had been exposed. He's been back in the pram with rain cover for past two weeks if we've had to go out. Everything has scabbed over but I still get the looks when they see the last surviving spots if we do go out.

It’s impossible to contain. You keep the spotty child at home but it’s siblings who have been exposed are free to go to school/clubs/shops potentially spreading it before their spots appear.
The vaccine isn’t cheap. 2 x £65, and cost only goes up if you have more than one child. It’s not feasible for some people (I know I couldn’t just afford £390 I’d have to save for ages!)

Vaccination isn't given in the U.K. as there's evidence that those who've had the vaccine are more likely to have shingles.

That is not the reason we use the MMR and not the MMRV as part of the childhood vaccination programme.

I work in a school, one of my colleagues is immuno suppressed BUT her specialist has said that so long as she has no PHYSICAL contact with chickenpox and follows good hygiene procedures then she will be okay. We have cases of chickenpox at school frequently but my colleague is fine... chickenpox is infectious before you even know you have it so it is impossible to guarantee you will never be exposed to an infectious child....

It is sensible WHERE LOGISTICALLY POSSIBLE to remain indoors but as the OP said...it isn’t always possible or practical.

Incidentally if we have siblings at school and one has chickenpox we are NOT ALLOWED to authorise absence for the non ill child. The educational welfare officer advises parents to ask the school office to allow the non ill child to arrive directly to the office before the main rush so that carer can keep the ill child away from others.

My word this thread has made my journey home nice and quick.

DD has just got over the pox, didn’t know she has it til the spots appeared. Therefore out whilst contagious.

Here’s the kicker.

I’m the immuno compromised one.

Should I have left the poorly 7 yo to be taken care of by the dogs?

Singlebutmarried no, you should have had DD vaccinated so it's your own stupid fault (is what some of the idiots on this thread would say, it is NOT what I am saying!).

@overagain

I was waiting for it 😂😂

I just figured as long as I didn’t lick the blisters I’d be fine.

I caught chicken box from someone else's child when I was 18. The mum didn't tell anyone her child had it (he wasn't noticeably rashy on his face and hands), and brought her round to my our house to play with my brother.

I caught it even though I wasn't even in the house while he was there, and was so ill with it, I was off school for a month and briefly hospitalised. I had pustules on every square inch of my body, and stank so badly of pus and rot my sister couldn't stand to share a bedroom with me.

I only returned on the day of my first A-level exam, having been so ill I hadn't done any revision. I subsequently failed my A-levels, and so wasn't able to get into university I wanted to study at (I'd been offered a place at UEA/English Lit under Malcolm Bradbury). I went through clearing and ended up in one of the worst HE colleges in the UK. Didn't look great on a c.v., so when I graduated, no company would look at me.

I have never really recovered the time lost compared to my peers, and if I ever meet that woman again I would cheerfully punch her teeth in.

But at least I didn't die.

TL;DR: don't be so selfish, and sort yourself out.

The issue here is that chicken pox is only a mild disease in healthy kids. Kids with even minor pre-existing conditions can become very seriously ill if it’s caught. Just from that perspective alone, as a single mum, it would make sense for you to make arrangements during those 2 weeks. Online shopping can often save money as you’re not dragging a kid around who wants treats / not adding extra stuff to the basket, but even if not an extra £5 over 2 weeks is still a price better worth paying then some kid’s life.

Not everyone can afford to do 'online shopping'. Some people have to be extremely careful with their shop and play it by ear, etc etc.

What does this mean? Online shopping lists the prices. You can book free delivery slots. Unless you don’t have a smart phone or computer (which I grant is a real problem) online shopping is no different to physical shopping in terms of expense.

online shopping is no different to physical shopping in terms of expense.

Apart from the minimum spend and delivery charge!

Some people don’t have access to cards with which to shop either I know mums who really do live “hand to mouth”, they deal in cash only having cashed their child benefit at the post office and find it easiest to budget that way.

The cheapest shopping options like Aldi, Lidl and the local market don’t offer online shopping either.

A few months ago we were attending a baptism prep course, and a couple came with a child with chicken pox. My baby was premature, so is more prone to infections. The course was not necessary to attend for both parents, so one could have stayed at home (we did that-I stayed with the baby, my partner went)- but some other people brought tiny children and I was so pissed off to hear someone brought a very ill child, while they could have stayed at home.

That being said, if you need to go to the shops, and have no one to help, you got to do what you got to do.

no free delivery round here, slots can be as much as £7 delivery.

I'm a face painter and I frequently have to turn children away from my queue because they have chicken pox. Parents do not take it seriously and they often lie and try to persuade me that it's something else. My DD has had chicken pox twice once with a secondary infection and last year she had shingles