..to send DD to nursery tomorrow? (Chickenpox)

[aIways]

DD came up in chickenpox spots Monday evening. Has been pretty much fine all week, not a great number of spots and only one day where she's been complaining of itchiness a bit - we have both been going absolutely stir crazy stuck in the house though!

NHS website says people are not contagious anymore once all the spots have scabbed over, usually after 5 days. They pretty much all have, except a couple which are just tiny and have slight pinkness below the skin. These have been there since Monday and have not blistered at all and don't look like they will if that makes sense. Not raised or anything.

Will she be alright to go to nursery? I really don't want to take any more time off work if possible. I'm a single parent and have quite a lot of responsibility at my work and have had to work from home loads which has kind of been substandard in regards to what needs to be done, and also not fair on DD.

She's absolutely desperate to go back and see her friends. Also, I feel a bit anxious about them turning her away at the door, or inspecting her once I've left and making me come back and get her (long commute). Obviously don't want to give it to any other kids (though there's been a bit of an epidemic throughout the nursery). My mum (a previous nursery nurse) reckons they're fine. Should have took a pic but didn't think before she went to bed.

Have googled to no avail... any thoughts?

Your nursery should have a policy on this, mine does. I can't find mine right now but you should check yours for what it says

Take her in and ask them (show them the unscabbed spots) but be prepared to be told to go home.
Also, if she has only had it mildly then also be prepared for a 2nd bout of them as mild chickenpox don’t always give you immunisation from them

Can you speak to anyone from the nursery beforehand to check? I think they'll probably refuse to have her there if they're not all scabbed, so it might be worth seeing if there's anyone else available to help out or if you can arrange work around being at home just for a couple more days.

To you both, CP is awful and miserable.

well, if they haven't scabbed over she is still contagious and nursery will send her back.

yabu - it doesn't really matter if you want to take time off or not of if you have responsibility at work. You are ridiculous. Some children get really ill with CP even though it is usually a mild illness but not for all. you are being hugely unreasonable and you know it!

But they haven't all scabbed over...

I don’t have an immunity to chickenpox and have had it countless times over the years. Unless you are 100% certain that the infection is gone, please do not send her in. You never know how people are going to react to it (I’ve ended up in hospital a number of times)

If they haven't all scabbed over she is contagious so yabu
If all scabbed over by morning then send her

yabu - it doesn't really matter if you want to take time off or not of if you have responsibility at work. You are ridiculous. Some children get really ill with CP even though it is usually a mild illness but not for all. you are being hugely unreasonable and you know it!

bit strong. I obviously wouldn't send her in if I thought she was contagious. We've stayed in all week to prevent other people getting it. But these aren't even proper spots, haven't blistered or anything. That's what threw me.

I would take her, spots usually scab over within a day or two. So like you say, it seems like these aren’t going to and will just fade away.

They won't take her until all of the spots have scabbed over.

I'm sorry OP, but I think they are likely to refuse her. When our youngest DS had it there was the tiniest spot on his thumb which had not yet scanned over and nursery were adamant that they couldn't take him, after 6 days off. I remember crying in frustration in the nursery carpark with the stress of trying to juggle it all, so my sympathies to you - it's rubbish. But CP is serious and just one of those things that we all have to manage at some point. Good luck and hope she's all scabbed over very soon.

*scabbed

I’d take her if - they haven’t blistered they’re not going to scab. CP is contagious for about a week before the spots come out, I expect her friends have all already caught it anyway - it’s not like sending her in with a vomiting bug.

Please don't take her in until they're all scabbed. DS had a congenital respiratory issue (he looked fine, you'd never know) which meant chickenpox would be extremely serious for him - you may not know that there are vulnerable children.

On top of that, there are likely to be pregnant women at the nursery, or with children there. DD got CP when I was pregnant, I went down with a really nasty viral thing which made me so ill I ended up in high dependency. When the doctors realised I'd been exposed to CP a couple of weeks earlier, I remember, despite having been near-delirious, how the room froze and everyone became extremely concerned. It turned out to be something else, but I had to be barrier nursed for a week because CP is so dangerous and they couldn't risk it being spread round the maternity hospital where I was being treated.

In other words, you don't know what vulnerable people you could infect, or the impact it could have on them or their unborn children.

Huge sympathies. I’ve been there with both my DDs, CP was very itchy and unpleasant for both of them. With DD1, we’d booked to go on a church weekend in the Lake District and up to the final day, we weren’t sure that her spots we’re going to be scabbed over. Thankfully, they did scab over, though she still looked so spotty and I was worried that some of the elderly folk would be worried about her still being infectious (she really wasn’t!).

You know what the nursery will say about those 2 spots, so frustrating as it is, you’re probably going to have at least another day of isolation.

I guess what I really wondered was whether other people's kids had had these certain type of spots for a week that were tiny, weren't raised, weren't blistered and then actually ended up scabbing over? Because I just can't work out how they will when they're not raised at all? Or maybe they just fade away eventually as a PP said. Just annoying as all I can find on google is that chickenpox spots usually fill with fluid within 24 hours. So these might take another week to just fade away!

Take everyone's points though and I definitely wouldn't want to harm anybody. She's the first kid in at 7.30 so I wonder if it's worth going to ask them as I know nobody else will be there. But then, I think they'll just say no as it's a small nursery and I'm sure they just have a blanket ban and not much knowledge of these weird little under the skin spots.. Thought we'd been so lucky with the whole mild chickenpox experience too

As frustrating as it will be for you OP I personally feel it would be really unethical to take her in. CP is highly contagious via air (so doesn't every require direct contact to transfer). There may well be children or staff with compromised immune systems at your daughter's nursery- I know of at least two at my son's.

You say they don't look like they will scab over- they will! DS caught chicken pox at just 5 months old (from being in the same room as someone with chickenpox spots that hadn't scabbed over) and after about 10 days they did start to scab over and disappear.

If you're in doubt call the nursery from home tomorrow but the caring and sensible action would be to keep her at home as per NHS guidance.

*just seen your update OP- honestly please don't take her- call the nursery. You'd be surprised how easily it is caught and does not require anyone to touch your daughter to do so.

Ok, I'll call them. I'm pretty certain they'll say no either way. Thanks for the advice everyone

both my kids had chicken pox really badly and DD needed antibiotics to deal with infected spots near her eyes/ears. both had a few spots though that never scabbed and DD had one that took YEARS to go away - whenever she was run down it would get redder and inflamed looking but it never blistered so therefore never scabbed over.

and I would suggest that keeping her isolated for 7+ years would have been excessive...

I appreciate what other folk are saying in terms of risk to other kids but if she's had those spots for 7 days without blistering then they are clearly not going to blister. look up your own nursery's policy - most go with a set timescale.

I’d take her. If they’re not blistered after being there a week then I can’t see how they’ll scab. Makes no sense.

Found a picture of her back Monday night when the spots first came up. In the circle are the spots I'm talking about (and one more just the same on her tummy). They look exactly the same now. Just pink speckles under the skin. I really can't see them scabbing over.

I don't live in the UK but my DC had some spots on Sunday evening, I took her to nursery on Monday and they said it wasn't a problem as they're contagious before they break out in spots so it makes no difference. She would have had infected other children already. We kept her at home rest of the week but got a message on Friday that she should come back tomorrow (which she is). I think the nursery ladies think we're overreacting ;)

My DS had a couple on his hand that never really scabbed over, they did blister but just sort of deflated and faded away after a couple of weeks. After a week off, I took him to nursery and showed them the remaining spots, and they said it was absolutely fine, and they were happy to take children back after 5 days had passed!

Not the best lighting I know but just so you understand that if they were proper spots which hadn't scabbed over, I wouldn't have even asked the question. I just wasn't sure.