Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Original poster

to take my chicken poxed child out?

184 replies

Chickenpoxmama · 22/01/2010 11:37

Dh thinks I was so I want to know what you think.

My toddler has Chicken pox - spots appeared Tuesday. Dh did two days working at home and now I've taken leave. The days dh did at home I was able to take older child to school but dh couldn't do that today because of getting in to work. So I put toddler in pushchair and took her, keeping well away from everybody. (dh fine with that bit) then we proceeded to a nearby supermarket to buy a few bits - newspaper for me, chocolate buttons for toddler, stuff to make older child's birthday cake, fruit, fresh bread. The supermarket was nearly empty, toddler in pushchair at all times, I kept at least 2 feet and mostly 3 feet away from people. I didn't go to the deli counter because there was an elderly couple there just in case and I asked the checkout lady if she'd had CP before handing her the magazine toddler held all the way round. She had. Toddler is not coughing or sneezing and obviously I didn't let her touch anything or anybody except her magazine (which she is so thrilled with ) So aibu?

OP posts:

YouAintSinMeRight · 22/01/2010 12:23

Yes, when dd had it at 9 months she was very very unwell, temp over 104, new spots for 6 days etc etc and we knew noone with it.

Original poster

chickenpoxmama · 22/01/2010 12:25

I may mention it.

Sassybeast and edam - you didn't happen to see a women speeding round Waitrose with a child in a pushchair grabbing birthday cake ingredients three weeks beforehand did you? I can't be alone in this....

OP posts:

Sassybeast · 22/01/2010 12:26

Darling if I could afford to shop in Waitrose i may well have done. I saw someone sneezing green snot over the tomatoes in Asda once...

kinnies · 22/01/2010 12:27

You put others at risk for the sake of a bit of shopping! You were carful but if a pg had caught CP from your DC what the hell would say to her?
My son caught CP and I have no idea where he got it from (he had not even been to soft play) anyway you were carful so hopfuly no one will suffer because of this.
Hope your Dc is feeling better.

Original poster

chickenpoxmama · 22/01/2010 12:27

Didn't talk to anybody! Except the checkout lady and I told her about it. (She was very nice but was judging me I think and will be on checkoutnet tonight giving me a kicking)

I wish we vaccinated in this country. It seems so absurd that we even have to have this disease.

OP posts:

fiveisanawfullybignumber · 22/01/2010 12:29

YADBU!
We have been cooped up here since before New year with Chicken Pox, and no I don't know where it came from! Probably from just passing some one in Cambridge city center.
DS2 had it first, just a mild case, obviously from a fleeting contact, possibly someone out like you.
However DD2 (only 18m) had a horrendous case from prolonged contact with her big brother.
The first blisters were in her nappy area, she was screaming in pain, docs said the virus had probably gone all the way through her digestive system she was in such pain.[angry)
Her nappy area remained the worst, inside & out, front and back, they got infected, and even now are still not fully healed and causing her lots of discomfort. Still bleeding after a dirty nappy.
So yes again, I think you have been very unreasonable, and I just hope no other poor child suffers like mine because of what you've done. Do the shopping at night FGS!

verytellytubby · 22/01/2010 12:29

Sorry but I think you are being unreasonable. My best friend has no immunity and unfortunately she spent the day with me (she was pregnant) and the next day DS came out in spots. I obviously had no idea he was brewing it. She had a nasty time and a nasty course of injections. I was mortified but obviously didn't knowingly take him out.

Also had no idea where he got it from. No-one in his class had it and no friends of ours. I ended up housebound for nearly 6 weeks as my 2 other DC got it from him 2 weeks apart!

LoveBeingAMummy · 22/01/2010 12:32

I got chicken pox when I was 17, it was during the summer and I was working FT at a supermarket. Seriously!

I can understand why you went out but tbh i wouldn't have gone to the shops. In fact I kept dd at home recently when her friend had it as I was sure she was going to come out with it, luckily she didn't.

Also my brother had it whe he was in late teens and ended up in hospital from it as it was in his mouth and throat. No idea where that one came from either.

LoveBeingAMummy · 22/01/2010 12:33

I also called a pg friend when dd had come into contract with it just in case.

fillybuster · 22/01/2010 12:34

Awful when dh's are right, isn't it? At least it doesn't happen too often, ime...

I have no idea at all where ds caught cp - it wasn't going around the nursery at the time and (embarassingly) his friends all caught it from him as we took him to a birthday party on a Sunday, took him home and found the first spots before bedtime.

Worst of all, the child whose party it was caught it too, and his mother was heading into hospital for first round chemo for her breast cancer the next day

I didn't take ds out again for about 10 days (because of the 5-7 day crusting over advice)...when I did, it was to play with the dd of 2 friends who are both paediatricians. The kids jumped into the swimming pool, they took one look at ds and pretty much booted us straight home, as his spots weren't as fully crusted as I had thought. When we discussed it after, they said 14 days was quite normal for a child to remain infectious...

EssenceOfJack · 22/01/2010 12:39

YABU, DD2 has pox now and DD1 had it after new year. I have taken her to pick DD1 up at school in her buggy with the raincover over and telling anyone who stopped to chat not to move it.
CP isn't just caught from coughing/sneezing, it is airborne, so the fact she is still contagious means everyone you went past is at risk.
It's only a few days, we are surviving on bottom of the freezer, back of the cupboard stuff until I can get to shops when DH gets home.

Original poster

chickenpoxmama · 22/01/2010 12:51

No children in the supermarket (honestly) and I crossed the road to avoid a woman coming the other way with a baby in pram. She thought I was being sniffy I think - should have had a bell round my neck!

OP posts:

jellybeans · 22/01/2010 12:53

YABVU and selfish. This really annoys me. I am fed up of seeing C poxed kids in the library and out shopping. It really is not a mild virus for some people. When mine had CP I stayed in bored senseless for 3 weeks (they had one after the other). Why don't people consider others anymore?

Original poster

chickenpoxmama · 22/01/2010 12:59

Jelly - I did consider others and was cautious. Just not as cautious as dh and others on here would have been. I really don't think my behaviour today significantly increased the risk of illness for those out in a public space over that which already exists. Obviously others disagree with me. If it comforts you - I certainly wouldn't have taken toddler to a library and allowed the touching of books which other children would then immediately handle. Nor would I take toddler to a smaller shop where close contact is inevitable.

OP posts:

LedodgyChristmasjumper · 22/01/2010 13:01

MMy children had chicken pox over Christmas. Dp's 23 year old brother has never had them we saw him for an hour no close contact at all. He came down with chicken pox last week.

Vallhala · 22/01/2010 13:03

YAincrediblyU and selfish.

It was thanks to someone like you that I got CP a few months after my cancer treatment. I was extremely ill, feeling far worse than I did with cancer itself, that much I recall.

I don't remember all of it as I was delerious for part of the time. Even when not in the worst stage my normally calm mother visited and was on the point of calling an ambulance until I convinced her I wouldn't be leaving the house.

I missed Christmas with my Grandad as a result that year too. I only had another 3 with him, that Christmas was planned to be special for us.

People like you make me sick - literally.

MrsJohnDeere · 22/01/2010 13:08

YABVU.

My ds1 was born with chicken pox and was very, very ill in SCBU for the first few days of his life. I must have come into contact with it out and about when pg (and had already had it as a child too).

lljkk · 22/01/2010 13:14

I hope that everybody on this thread who is saying that OP was unreasonable will start to immediately campaign for a chickenpox vaccine to be introduced as soon as possible as part of the regular vaccination schedule for young children. It is the only way to (mostly) stop people doing what OP has done that you find so extremely objectionable. I expect that all of you will agree.

I cannot understand why there is not already a very active campaign already going on MN for such a jab.

LetThereBeRock · 22/01/2010 13:16

Vaccines are a very controversial subject so there's unlikely to be an en masse MN campaign for them.

WidowWadman · 22/01/2010 13:17

Personally, I'd love for my daughter to get the vaccine and would consider doing it privately if I knew where/how.

In Germany it's standard and given together with MMR

Vallhala · 22/01/2010 13:20

lljkk I wouldn't agree, but suspect I'm in a very small minority.

Neither I nor my DC are vaccinated against anything and I prefer to keep it that way. Whilst I'm not about to go into detail or in defence of my decision, I will say that I don't think that putting an alien substance in one's body is not a suitable alternative to educating people on how dangerous their selfish behaviour is.

Vallhala · 22/01/2010 13:22

Sorry, that should read "...I don't think that putting an alien substance in one's body IS A suitable alternative..."

Angeliz · 22/01/2010 13:23

I disagreed with op taking dd out but no, i wouldn't vaccinate.
I think most kids will get chicken pox and then immunity from it (and it is usually not a serious disease) but it's pregnant ladies and people who are ill to start with i'd be worried about.

Flightattendant · 22/01/2010 13:24

I'm sorry to say this OP but I do think it was rather selfish

I can understand it obviously, it never seems that bad when it is you or your child who is ill...you don't feel as though you are infectious, somehow.

But it was a totally unnecessary risk to take with other people's health.

I thought you were going to say your DH was away, or you were a single parent with no one to shop for you and had run out of something essential.

I find your attitude quite arrogant.

Flightattendant · 22/01/2010 13:25

Fwiw there was something on here a while back about the vaccine only being so effective, and lasting not all that long, and how it is better to get it as a child than as an adult therefore vaccine a bit counterproductive.?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Swipe left for the next trending thread