..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?

Thanks everyone for their advice. Really sorry to everyone who has had horrendous chickenpox experiences, I know we've been really lucky all things considering (Sod's law she'll get an awful bout in a couple of weeks as a PP said)!

My son's both had spots that never scabbed over, they just faded after a couple of weeks. I would take her in

Nursery and schools here say you must keep children off until all spots have scabbed over.

Lizzie48 of course it's possible. However it's quite uncommon and if adults do get chickenpox they are treated with anti-virals now to attempt to reduce the severity of it.

Ababzed- yes it's dangerous in pregnancy but you can only get it if you are not immune and most adults are. If pregnant woman think they are not immune and have been exposed they can find out if they are immune (by having blood already taken in pregnancy screened or doing a new sample if necessary) and if they are actually not immune then there are treated with immunoglobulin (VZIG) to prevent infection occurring. In 10 years of being a GP I have only ever had to give/arrange the immunoglobulin once as every other woman who thought she wasn't immune turned out be be immune.

I'm not suggesting that infectious children should be in nursery/school just trying to reduce some of the fear that people have about chickenpox and pregnancy.

I do t think those are CP spots - they look different to the others. Disclaimer - not a health professional.

My DSs each had a few first day spots which were the worst and biggest ones, a lot of second day spots which blistered and scabbed, then third day ones which never came to a blister, were just red bumps and which gradually faded without ever blistering or scabbing over.

It’ll have been 7 days tomorrow. Those spots won’t blister or scab now. I’d send her in.

There’s also a CP vaccination that’s available now, though not on the NHS. If worried, maybe that’s an option as well? If you’re pregnant and are not immune to CP, it would make sense to take what precautions you can, as people are actually infectious before the spots appear, so there’s no way of being fully protected from it.

I’d send her in. They’re not going to scab over because they’re not actually blisters. Are nursery going to check every inch of her body anyway?

it's the fluid in the blister that's the contagious thing. so no fluid = not contagious

Yabu I honestly would keep her off for a few more days. If the advice is to leave at least five days after the last ones have scabbed over, and they only showed up on Monday had they all blistered and properly scabbed over by Wednesday morning? It’s cutting it a bit too close in my opinion.

So many of the answers here are just ignoring the facts and going straight for scaremongering. Not all of the spots will scab over, that's just a fact. The official NHS advice is that OPs dd is no longer contagious. The spots in question if as described are not CP lesions therefore 'scabbing over' is not relevant to them.

It’s not 5 days after the last ones have scabbed over, is it? It’s after the last ones have scabbed over which should take about 5 days.

What did you do in the end op?

Yeah was wondering xxx hope little one ok

I sent her. Sure I'll get lynched but wouldn't not update when everyone was so helpful.

They said their policy is 5 days after the start. Did show them and they said if they haven't blistered by now, they're not going to. Agreed it's likely a post viral rash as not raised or anything, and they wouldn't have thought anything of it if they had seen it and I'd not shown them (which they would have for a PP saying they knew I'd cover her up. Her teacher said she showed her belly at circle time ). Half the kids have been off with it in the week she was off, and a handful more in the week before she got it.

So all good thanks again.

@aIways that's so irresponsible. I hope the whole nursery hasn't gone down with CP.

Nursery are not medical professionals and cannot diagnose. The NHS advice is clear; ”You'll need to stay away from school, nursery or work until all the spots have crusted over. This is usually 5 days after the spots first appeared.” www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/

Selfish attitude to have. You couldn't afford the time off so everyone else's children had to suffer. I hope the parent's of the children where mine go aren't as selfish and have a bit more common sense.

That's morally bankrupt. How self-entitled!

morally bankrupt

I've posted on two chicken pox threads about how irresponsible it is to expose others but in this case I think the OP was right and sensible.

Those spots weren't going to scab, the others have, her DD isn't likely to be contagious.

I have the odd spot here and there on my body now that could look like that and I don't have CP.

Hahaha threads about cp bring the worst out of MN! I would have done the same OP in the circumstances. Look like you could have been waiting weeks for nothing for those to scab over.

My sons all ctusted over 8 days after the start. You should have waited

@McNameis have you seen what chickenpox does to the unborn? Mental retardation and deafness. What's so funny about a 40 year old who will never leave home?

Chicken pox highly contagious