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.

Hmmm. Imagine someone saying this sbout any other communicable disease. My kid has measles so I can't send them to school, but do you think it's ok for me to take them into central London for a fun day out?

Re shingles: the vaccine actually reduces the risk of shingles in the vaccinated individual, rather than increasing it.

When people talk about the chickenpox vaccine "increasing the risk of shingles" they mean the risk in other people--basically older people.

There is a theory that as long as the virus circulates around the population, this will result in older people getting exposed to the virus in little bits and pieces, and this will keep their immune system "primed" against the virus, reducing the risk of shingles.

The evidence that this is in fact the case is weak, but there you go. In any case, it would be more sensible to introduce a shingles vaccine for the elderly, rather than expecting parents to turn their children into living, breathing, virus-shedding disease-vectors (yuck).

. Again, it's only deadly or serious to people with SERIOUS immune system problems while they are at their worst or receiving treatment. These are usually people that are in hospital or requiring hospital treatment. You aren't going to get someone in the category of seriously immune compromised walking about the street or at theme parks while it's likely the infection could kill them because well, they are seriously ill and having hospital treatment.

Well, I'm currently working in the checkout in a supermarket, on immunosuppressants and my white cell count is very low. They've also told me that I no longer have immunity to chicken pox. So, I think you might need to re think your hypothesis.

This is why people need to vaccinate. Get you kids vaccinated and you don’t have to worry about the timing of getting it. Problem solved!

Babies born to mothers that have had chicken pox before will be immune in the first months of life due to the mother passing on anti bodies. From then, it's fine for a baby to catch it

Bullshit!! Children who get chickenpox under the age of 1 have an increased chance of childhood shingles. My ds had chickenpox at 6 months and shingles age 3

This is what the NHS website is saying so if you don't agree, take it up with them!

it's only deadly or serious to people with SERIOUS immune system problems while they are at their worst or receiving treatment.

OMG You cannot say that! It's a complete lie and it's such a dangerous thing to pretend!

I know anyone on here can call themselves a medical professional and blag fake medical advice, but that 's not on. The sentence above is NOT TRUE!!!

There are (too many) reported cases of perfectly healthy children who got VERY ill and/or suffered life-changing consequences, chicken pox is not a mild disease! It "usually" is, true, but it's not a guarantee.

Also, shingles isn't life threatening in a healthy child or adult. I've had shingles twice. Didn't I say deadly or serious complications, not no complications. People were saying it's deadly to certain people when it isn't. It's serious and deadly for mothers without immunity that are pregnant, for babies that never got the antibodies from their mother and people that are seriously ill. That is when it's serious or life threatening. It may be unpleasant for others but not life threatening. Shingles as a complication of early exposure to chicken pox isn't classed as life threatening. It's not nice but not life threatening in a healthy child or adult

Just stop digging, JenniferM1989.

Plenty of people who are seriously immune compromised are out and about. I work FT

As a parent with an immunocompromised child on chemotherapy....

NO! keep your kid at home - FFS it's a week max!

Try being stuck in a quarantined hospital room for 3 months and then bitch about poxy chicken pox ruining your plans.

But you are wrong to think that those people will always be in hospital / not around busy places

Upthread I wrote that later today I will be flying with my daughter who is on chemotherapy and neutropaenic. Chickenpox would be very dangerous to her. She’d need admission and isolation as a minimum and it would also delay her ongoing treatment.

So please don’t assume that vulnerable people are not out in public

I'm immunocompromised. I work in a very busy environment (come into contact with about 1000 people at work) and I regularly visit theme parks etc. The idea that immunocompromised people should never see the light of day is as ridiculous as knowingly taking an infectious child to busy tourist sites.

If you've decided to risk coming back to the thread OP - how is your DS today?!

@chinateapot Hey there fellow oncology parent!

I can't believe people still are not reading the whole thread! Or even the first 10 minutes or so 🤦🏻‍♀️

the NHS should be telling us to deliberately spread the virus--like, it would be telling us to have chickenpox parties etc. and get the virus out there as much as possible

Hah! which is exactly what we used to do years ago now!

It was the done thing also with Mumps and Measeles ISTR that Scarlet fever used to be in that mindset!

Was those sorts of illneses, don't think we had Peumonia parties ;?

Perhaps they might have had Plague parties in medival times;))

So all in its a bit of a variable and has its roots in that silly Antivax doctor now discredited.

Understood re immuno comprimised people but have to say didnt know that there were so many around and thats why I wondered re the C/Pox -v-0 Flu which can be a killer {Flu pandemic 1918 anyone!?}

I'd have thought that there would be a far greater risk from that then C/Pox ?. Can't remember the last time i saw someone of any age with it our DD's never had it, have to check their health book to see if they did get vaxed.

Finally.

The amount of venom sprayed at the OP is well surprising and a lot of that is the usual practice of not reading through the thread and jumping ot conclusions. She asked a question which she seemed genuinely unsure about and the resonse was simply more of a medival "Stone her!" response more suited to the life of Brian film!

It appears that there is a genuine lack of knowlege of the effects of this illness I'm soon to collect DG1 from his nursery I'm minded to ask the staff threre how much of this ilness they see in a year.

Stop being so defensive when you know you're 100% in the wrong.

Suck it up. It's a rite of passage and be thankful he's got it early-ish.

Cbeebies and Netflix and Calpol (NOT nurofen) plus aveda non colloidal was, rather than calamine lotion is your friend. Likely he'll have lots of sleep with a duvet on the sofa and you can work.

One of my friend's kids had chemo and was seriously immuno compromised. DD went nowhere near him fir a few weeks.

I found Amazon Prime Now for shopping because DH was away and we have no family round here.

Please, please don't. Chicken pox went round my dc3's class a few years ago. About half the class got it (the rest had already had it or been vaccinated). One child was hospitalised, several were ill for 2 weeks. My dc gave it to his little brother who had to have his much needed operation postponed and mucked up our plans for several months. Another child passed it on to her little sister who has medical issues too and had similar consequences as us. And of course there are lots of other people who would be more severely affected by being exposed to chicken pox.

For your child chicken pox could be a minor inconvenience but for others it really isn't. Please please do the right thing and keep your child at home.

I get the majority of opinion is no, but I’m wondering how do all the people with the weak immune systems etc manage when they are put in public around children who don’t know they have it yet but are infections I.e. the spots haven’t shown yet?

Waves to @Flynnshine

I realise some people may feel that we’re going on and on about this. But - especially on a day when I’m about to go through two busy airports and on a busy train - it is upsetting and terrifying for those who are at risk to read this thread title and to realise that there are people out there who are so relaxed about chicken pox

@Jimdandy

In my case I worry lots about it but accept there’s not a lot we can do about it!

@Jimdandy yeah as above! There is no payment for it so I of course need to work FT to pay my bills. It's shit

@Jimdandy in my husbands case we keep fingers crossed and accept that he can't live in a bubble. He carries instructions on what to do in the event of an infection - which is basically to call the clinic in working hours or head to the nearest A&E with a letter that details what treatment he is on and what they need to do out of hours.

He's working full time as a fire fighter and luckily has only been really ill twice in the last 10 months.

So we accept risks which are unavoidable. But it makes me really upset to see people discussing exposing my daughter to avoidable unnecessary risk. When the reasons seem to be because otherwise they might miss something nice / get bored at home for a week. We’ve done a lot of missing nice stuff and being sad at home already