Chicken pox, sibling, party and general quarantine dilemma

[Bumperlicious]

Dd1 has had chicken pox. It started last Monday but all scabbed over now and she is going back to nursery tomorrow.

The question is what to do about 5 mo dd2. I don't know if she is going to get it (ebf so may have my immunity but she could potentially be incubating the virus and I won't know for up to two weeks. So do I keep dd2 quarantined just in case (which if she does get it will mean we have been quarantined for about 6 weeks!). Dd1 has a party on Saturday which I have to take dd2 to, should I be giving it a miss? Not sure what to do? Should I be avoiding my nct friends too?

I'd avoid babies, but chance it with 'big kids' re the party, if you've warned them about dd1 having just had it.

sorry that post jumbly due to baby jigging will try later

dd2 will probably get it ime.

so, I would probably not take her to the party and if there was no way to let dd1 go without taking dd2, I would stay at home...sorry

If you do go and she starts it the next day you will feel terrible.

Chances are she may get it and chances are she will be 21 and get the spots after a brief meeting with an ill child.

I would go.

there is no guarantee that your dd2 will get it so I would carry on as normal until she shows symptoms (or not!)

Am in the same situation with 2 year old DD1 (has it) & 5mo DD2 (EBF & doesn't have it..yet..). Haven't kept DD2 in quarantine, but have made sure people we've been in contact with are happy to see her bearing in mind she might be contagious. We're supposed to be going away to meet 12 week old niece in 2 weeks though & not quite sure what to do about it (already cancelled once as DD1 got her first spots the day before we were supposed to travel). My book says they can incubate it for up to 25 days & that's a long time to stay indoors on the off-chance they may be contagious.

Ring the party people and check that there are no vulnerable people there - pregnant or ttc women who haven't had it, children with chronic illness who haven't had it, anybody on immunosuppression - cancer or transplant patients. There is no way to know when your dd will come out with it if she does and I think checking is all you should be expected to do. Do the same with your friends.

Thanks for the advice. I contacted the mother in the end. She was fine with me going but on pressing her she remembered one of the other nursery mums is pg. But she has kindly offered to let me leave dd1 there, reassuring me it was a real family party and they'd not take their eyes off her so I think I am going to do that - win win for me really! She was very nice about it. They are still a bit young (turning 4) to be left, though she said at the last party she went to people were starting to leave them, and she was a great pains to assure me that they would look after her but she wouldn't be offended if I said no.

Is CP only bad for pg women who haven't previously had CP?

I'm supposed to be volunteering at the nct sale a week on Saturday (in finance so not with the general public). It will be 19 days from when dd1's spots came out. Wonder if I should give that a miss even if she is asymptomatic or maybe I should just email the organiser and see if any pg woman are there who haven't had CP. There definitely will be pg women there.

That's good about the party. Hopefully dd1 will be fine with being left.

Regarding the NCT sale, the organisers won't know the medical history of everyone attending so I think you should see how it goes with dd2 - my guess is you will know one way or the other by then and it'll be obvious what to do.

Good luck.

If pregnant woman has already had chickenpox, then it wouldn't be a problem. I hadn't had chickenpox when pregnant with DD (already had DS) and wouldnt have expected someone to quarantine themselves on my behalf. The most likely person to infect me was DS who did get chickenpox from nursery and did pass it on to me.
Different for immuno-surpressed cases though.