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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

being fed up of seeing kids out shopping with active chicken pox?

152 replies

jellybeans · 08/05/2009 15:22

Hi I have a nearly 6 month old DS and 4 older kids. The older ones all had CP and when they were infectious I kept them in unless I had to go out and then I was careful to keep them away from people. However, the last two days i have seen kids in Tesco shopping and in Boots with full CP (ie not scabbed up). I would much rather DS was at least 1 when he gets it, also worry about the newborns and elderly getting it. AIBU to think people should keep their infectious kids at home?

OP posts:

BoysAreLikeDogs · 08/05/2009 15:25

Ideally yes jellybeans, chicken pox is very dangerous to those folk who are immuno-suppressed

MummyDragon · 08/05/2009 16:16

also dangerous to women who are in the first trimester of pregnancy and haven't had it - it causes birth defects. YANBU.
That said, wouldn't the infected kids have to actually slobber or sneeze on someone in order for them to catch it? Does that happen often in Tesco?!
(actually, where I live it does happen ... )

tiggerlovestobounce · 08/05/2009 16:19

YANBU.

Kimi · 08/05/2009 16:20

Some parents are lazy and selfish. It is not nice for a sick child to be dragged round a shop either

CrushWithEyeliner · 08/05/2009 16:21

I agree with you - I am astounded at the amount of children I see out and about with it full blown. I feel as sad for the children who would probably be more comfortable at home resting.

whoingodsnameami · 08/05/2009 16:21

Some people simply have no-one that could sit with thier children while they do the weekly shop, or go to boots for medicines ect.

Sassybeast · 08/05/2009 16:22

YANBU.

Greensneeze · 08/05/2009 16:23

Are you sure it's unscabbed chicken pox? There are other conditions which can look similar

hmc · 08/05/2009 16:23

They don't have to be scabbed up - that's out of date advice. The current advice (I think when I last looked it up it was on NHS direct) - informs us that apparently they are not infectious 5 days after the last spot appeared.

My dd's spots never did scab up; they just sort of faded and disappeared.

3littlefrogs · 08/05/2009 16:23

The virus is shed from the spots. Anything the kids touch becomes infectious. The correct terminology is "fomite spread".

That is why they should not be out until the spots have dried up and scabbed over.

WowOoo · 08/05/2009 16:26

NBU. A lady and her friend were chatting about it in toilets of dept. store. She said she had to get her shopping done, that her dd seemed a bit better etc.

I only glared at her and got out as quickly as poss as I'm pregnant and have never had it, but I wanted to shout at her. Her poor child was really screaming too, but I guess that could have been about anything.

NB This was a clothes dept store and she had 2 friends with her so I think she was being inconsiderate.

flourybaps · 08/05/2009 16:28

according to the nhs website they are infectious from 2 days before the spots appeared till about 5 days after.

I had to take my dd to tesco to do a shop (was it me you saw!)

She was in her pram and she had a hat pulled over her spots on her head and a long sleved top on, it was 6 days after the spots first appeared........ in an ideal world I wouldnt have taken her out but needs must.

The spots had scabbed over but I still got some looks!

Original poster

jellybeans · 08/05/2009 16:37

Hi the lady I saw in tesco had her mum (it looked like) with her so maybe she could have sat them at home with gran ideally than doing the weeks shopping, the 2 kids looked miserable and had the fresh spots. Def CP. I heard the other lady getting chamomile lotion in boots so defo CP, her child was wondering around the shop and coming towards pram, I discreetly changed course!.

OP posts:

Bonnycat · 08/05/2009 16:39

YANBU we had this at DD nursery the other day,someone had brought a nursery child in and and left the spotty sibling outside with all the other younger siblings.Some of the mums were kicking off big time about it but at the end of the day if the mum has noone to leave the other child with theres not much she can do about it i felt...

EldonAve · 08/05/2009 16:42

current advice is that they don't have to be fully scabbed up

MummyAnnabella · 08/05/2009 16:46

i know someone who took her dd out today on day 2 (when still infectious) to a coffee shop for coffee!!!! made my blood boil i tell you. really want to say to her as i think it is really selfish! imagine if she touched stuff then pg lady or newborn etc sat that table next!

fellowmum · 08/05/2009 17:11

When my dd had chicken pox a month ago I stayed at home for a week with her. I went food shopping in the evening after dh came back from work and put everything else on hold.

I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if someone who was vunerable had caught it. It makes me really angry when people don't consider how it could affect others especially unborn babies. It can also affect people who's immune systems are low such as cancer patients.

The doctor said I should keep her away from others and nursery 5 days after last spot appears but nursery said she could come back once they had scabbed over.

Luckily my dd had a mild form and they had all gone within 10 days. But I still wouldn't have wanted to drag her around shops when she's ill.

I think people should be more aware especially considering the current situation with swine flu and viruses in general.

Moan over.......(breathe)!!

3littlefrogs · 08/05/2009 17:16

Ds had fresh crops of spots appearing for 3 weeks. He was really ill, so I wouldn't have taken him out anyway.

CrushWithEyeliner · 08/05/2009 17:17

Wish more people were like you FM. I feel the same way and would just be mortified if a PG Woman or tiny baby were to be infected through my carelessness.

2shoes · 08/05/2009 17:18

yanbu dd has CP(as in cerable palsey) and a lot of her freids have poor imune systems so chicken pox could be dagerous for them

pinkstarfish · 08/05/2009 17:25

YANBU

The icing on my cake of was seeing a non-pregnant mother bring her highly infectious chicken poxed daughter to ante natal clinic when I was pregnant. The waiting room was full of pregnant mothers, she came in to make a doctors appointment for her daughter

DuffyFluckling · 08/05/2009 17:29

OP - you "kept them in unless [you] had to go out". So you went out with chicken poxed children too then?

DoNotAnnoy · 08/05/2009 17:36

The official HPA advice says nothing about them being scabbed up.

The official HPA advice is that a child can go out 5 days after FIRST spot appears - and quite feasibly means there are still fresh looking spots after the contagious period.

The major route of chicken pox spread is via the respiratory tract - so the scab status of a spot has little affect on the infectiousnous of a child. You would have to rub the child up and down with an open wound on your own body to be at real risk of catching ot via the shedding pustulae.

littlelamb · 08/05/2009 17:40

I would just say not to assume it is chicken pox. Ds had bad molluscum spots on his arms. luckily they never spread to his face so they were easy to cover up but I was dreading him having them in Summer in case people made the same assumption that you just have

sarah293 · 08/05/2009 17:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

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