To not keep poxy child in isolation

[FromCuddleLand]

Hello! We are on half term this week. Every year we take our DC to London for a few days to do the sites. This is the first year that we have planed to take the youngest. He is mega excited. We've booked the hotel (2 rooms, non refundable) and purchased tickets for one of the venues in advance.
Last night I noticed youngest was starting to look a bit spotty. Today he is pretty pickled and it is obvious it is chicken pox. He is ok in himself, cheery and bouncing around. I know that he would not be allowed in school but do I really have to not take him anywhere? (as far as I understand you are contagious before the spots show anyway). I really really don't want to cancel our trip. Am I being an arsehole or is it ok to take him? (most things were going to are outdoors). BTW have NC for this but have been on here since 2011.

Good afternoon. If you can visualise this I'm waving a white flag and have managed to jam a tin hat over my horns...
Thanks to everyone that actually did me the courtesy of reading the full thread before commenting, and for your informative and empathetic responses. As you are aware (even if the rest of the coven aren't) I did decide very early on NOT to take my little WMD out and we are currently under house arrest. Thank you so much to the poster how asked how DS is today. We had a bit of a disrupted night but he is ok. Mostly watching and Hey Duggee and eating blueberries.
I think this thread will have done a lot to disseminate useful information. I've been brought up in a time when CP was seen as a usually mild inconvenience that everyone catches whilst young. I know that the general feeling amongst my contemporaries is that getting your kids to catch it whilst young enough to get over it is the ideal (please don't flame me as a result of this statement, I've just acknowledged how eye-opening this thread has been). Certainly the idea of vaccinating against CP as a matter of routine is something that I only came across within the last 6 months. Anyway, thanks to all the positive and helpful contributors for sharing your stories and experiences to educate others. Happy half term one and all.

Yes because pregnant women are offered the flu vaccine for the very reason that getting flu while pregnant can lead to premature birth, low birth weight, still birth and death in the first week of life for the baby. Flu has been and always will be far more serious than chicken pox and poses more of a danger to that group of people than chicken pox will. Most people are immune to chicken pox as well, it's very rare to get it twice. People are not immune to flu and regular vaccines need given to keep people safe from it, especially pregnant women. All pregnant women are at risk with flu but only 1 in 10 are at risk with chicken pox as 9 in 10 are immune due to childhood or adulthood chicken pox. There's been this massive big deal on here about chicken pox and how the OP will kill many people if she takes her son out but no one really bats much of an eyelid about flu. Even if a pregnant women who isn't immune gets chicken pox, the risk of death for her or baby are low. It doesn't even mention death. However it mentions death twice when talking about the flu in pregnant woman

BTW have NC for this but have been on here since 2011.

You've been here for 8 years and haven't seen the overwhelming consensus on a "going out with chicken pox" thread, yet?

Try googling congenital varicella. It’s not common but it is horrendous.

Also from the nhs website “complications that arise from catching chickenpox in pregnancy can be fatal”

So it does matter. Flu matters too. But chickenpox does matter. It can be fatal.

Here's the info on chicken pox and the advice I was told. Note I am not on chemo but because my body acts as if I am, it still applies

You should be aware that small children might be incubating chicken pox or measles. If you find you have been in contact with a child who goes on to get chicken pox or measles soon after, you should tell your Helpline straight away

http://www.mcht.nhs.uk/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=18657&type=full&servicetype=Attachment

Glad your son is feeling a little better today. Hope he continues to feel better

They all matter, especially to you and your daughter. I'm not trying to say one is worse than the other but people are far more likely to catch and spread flu but don't give it a second thought. Unless everyone here has stayed inside themselves for a week after first flu symptoms or kept their child off school and inside for a week after first flu symptoms, they have no grounds to tell the OP she will kill people. I can almost bet my house that not everyone has followed those guidelines and taken a week off for flu or even found out if they have flu and put it down to a bad cold and got on with normal life feeling rubbish. Flu is also deadly to bigger groups than what the NHS say chicken pox is deadly to. People with asthma for example can have severe complications from flu. So if anyone goes out with flu, they are putting a lot more people at risk than someone with chicken pox is. Hopefully the flu vaccine roll out will help with this and a chicken pox vaccine would also be a good shout as I don't think anyone with any illnesses should be dying due to people not being able to stay indoors or stay out of crowds and away from schools and workplaces. That should be for all viruses though but people are blinkered and think some are worse than others and only like to accuse some people of trying to kill them

OP - good on you for putting up with the abuse! You have made the right decision. But I feel your pain.... DD's chickenpox was a nightmare and at dY 4 when we thought we were out of the woods a whole lot of new spots turned up. DH and I wanted to cry! it's so awful when you have to cancel things yo've been looking forward to.

Good luck.

Jimdandy

I carry hand gel everywhere, try not to touch anything, wash my hands constantly, am hypervigilant about not touching my face, eyes, mouth or eating anything without washing my hands first. It's a horrible way to live but what choice do we have? No one is going to pay me to give up work and stay at home so we have to try and cope best way we can.

As someone a ) who's never had chicken pox, and b) travels in and out of London regularly, and c) doesn't get sick pay as such as I'm a contractor, I REALLY wouldn't like a dose of shingles. Thank you for being considerate.

Bewarethesealions

You can only develop shingles if you've previously had chicken pox.

You can't catch shingles but you can catch chicken pox from someone who has shingles.

Glad he's doing ok OP, I recommend the get well soon badge episode of hey duggee .

I still don't want any kind of chicken pox :)

@Bewarethesealions I'm pretty sure that chicken pox is actually rather more dangerous to adults. I speak as someone who infected her mum as a child. But you can get vaccinated fairly affordably at Superdrug, so that might be an idea for you? Then you'd have a very reduced risk of shingles as well, is my understanding. Win all ways around, given how nasty shingles can be, too.

Has anyone given you the Head & Shoulders tip OP? Apparently bathing them in Classic Clean H&S shampoo works wonders. Hope DS is over the worst soon