AIBU to take child with chicken pox to an outside event today?

[summerlovingvibes]

Husband has one opinion and I have another. WWYD?

Day 5 of chicken pox for oldest child.
I have 2 other younger children with no signs as yet. But neither have had in the past so probably will get it.

Some scabs starting to form but also still some fresh spots.

Today is booked to go to an outside running event (for kids) this afternoon and we have paid £60 total for this with all children. It was booked mainly for the oldest one who loves to run, but the younger ones will also come and enjoy so I had to buy tickets for all. Outside run with parents, refreshments, few little stalls etc.

Unfortunately oldest one knows about event and has been excited all week - told him about it 2 days before CP started so didn't know to withhold the info.

Would you still take him? Planning on going just for the run, will try to avoid being too close to others. Don't know any other children / parents going so not going to be "chit chatting". Won't go to the stalls / mix and mingle. Will do run then leave.

Husband has one opinion and I have another. WWYD?

@No3392 that's so interesting as I have never met anyone either. I didn't realise until I was pregnant. I and the top ups each time and still the same thing happens. Do you also struggle with sedation as well? I find pain killers don't work as well or as long!!

This is really interesting. I wasn’t aware until after my children had it that you could be vaccinated. I wish (even though you have to pay to go private) that there was more awareness on this. Chicken pox can be very dangerous and can also cause deafness in children.

I didn't not get it as a child because I had parents who thought I should avoid getting it. Quite the contrary. I was a child in the 60s. It wasn't regarded as anything other than a harmless childhood disease and I'm quite sure kids were sent to school with it if they felt ok. I didn't get it until I was 31 just because that's when I got it. Putting other people at risk knowingly is always wrong.

Did I say it was in her head.
The brain has a strong link with the immune system and can cause real and measurable physical changes which need medical treatment
Do keep up with the published literature my dear.

No of course you can't! It can affect pregnant women. That would be such a selfish thing to do.

Ever thought that circumstances change?

Sensible, unselfish people wouldn't expose other people to potential harm.
So to consider doing it is v unreasonable

Well luckily the OP updated over two hours ago ...

For what it’s worth …. Many years ago, when my middle child was five I took him to his usual karate class. A new parent arrived in the tiny changing room with her kid covered in uncrusted spots. When asked (nicely) she confirmed that her son had chicken pox as his younger brother (in pram) was just getting over it.

She was told rather abruptly by my pregnant friend to leave as her son was contagious. She demurred on the basis that he’d be bored at home and started crying. However she did leave reluctantly but not before her son had run riot round the venue touching everything and everyone 😬😁

Two days later my pregnant friend contracted it. She thought she’d had it as a child but either way she spent her pregnancy worrying about her unborn child and her face (@ the mother’s) was scarred by a couple of the spots. My own son who had been immunised woke up a couple of days later covered in spots. However, weirdly they faded away within 24 hours- presumably because of the vaccination.

That was after being in the same room for quite a short period!! It is so contagious!

I’m not suggesting that it was anything you or your parents did: there have always been some people who avoided cp as a child but that number is relatively small as circulation was high among small children. The less it is circulating the more people like you will not get it in childhood.

I work in Paediatrics many people don’t even realise there is a chicken pox vaccine, many can’t afford, (it it’s not as easy to say save up for it, some people are struggling to eat and survive right now) and also recognising the increased amount of children not being vaccinated at all. I very much doubt those parents are not going to choose to pay for it when they opt out of the standard vaccines.

I wouldn’t, wouldn’t want to risk giving it to a pregnant person / her kids if she hadn’t had it yet. Also you will knowingly mess up other peoples future plans I’d just miss the day although disappointing x

Exactly. I’m Irish and like the UK it’s not offered as part of the childhood vaccine program. I wasn’t even aware there was a vaccine when I had my two oldest children both of whom caught it from school mates. A friend happened to mention she’d got her children vaccinated so I got my youngest done when she was 9 months old. It cost me €200 I believe.

Just to add the GP told me while vaccinating her that she may still catch CP but her risk was much lower and if she did get it, it would be a much milder dose

Of course you don't go!

DH has never had chicken pox and he has never had the vaccine (he is British). I have heard his parents say this and he feels quite certain. (Unless it is possible to have an asymptomatic case.) His siblings brought it into the household at various times and he never succumbed.

OP, please tell your DH the chances are high that there will be pregnant women, babies, people on chemo and other immunocompromised people at the event. If his attitude prevails, your DC could unwittingly kill them.

Good luck with this.

No she didn't. She didn't know until later that the neighbour had got chickenpox. They would have been infectious when she saw them but I don't think they realised they had it until later.

Not her style anyway. She's not got health anxiety.

Don’t go, it would be completely unfair to do so.

The OP doesn't want to go.

She's telling all this to her husband.

You don't know what's going on with others that are there. People with suppressed immune systems maybe there (steroids, cancer, transplant drugs) things chicken pox are all dangerous to.

Stay the fuck at home.

Please if anyone is worried about the possibility of shingles in either themselves or a relative, do look at getting the Shingrix vaccine.

I was really surprised, a few months ago, to learn this about UK kids. I’m American and I haven’t heard about any child I know having chicken pox since around 2000. My kids think of it as being like measles or mumps or scarlet fever - one of those diseases no one gets except characters in old books and in historical fiction.

You can pay to get them vaccinated

If your DH wants to go, he should take the little ones. They shouldn’t be stuck in when they’re fine and there are two parents around.

You really really should stay at home, your oldest will still be contagious if new spots still appearing and your younger ones are highly likely to be contagious too.

My friends 6mo ended up on a ventilator due to contracting chicken pox from her older sibling, it was awful, thankfully she fully recovered but at one stage her parents were told to prepare for the worst.

It sucks to miss out, I know. My then 2yo came out in spots 2 days into a 2 week holiday. Nearly all holiday stuck in a caravan with a poxy 2yo is not something I would ever want to repeat but was necessary at the time. If I had young kids now I would definitely vaccinate.

Plus many people on chemotherapy will be given prophylaxis antibiotics