Chicken pox spots and swimming

[RandomEuro]

My son had cp a few weeks ago and most of the spots have fallen off now. He is due to go swimming with nursery this coming week but MiL said that any unhealed spots react badly to the chlorine in swimming pools and would cause scarring. Anyone know if there is any truth to this? She has been known to stretch the facts from time to time....

Unless she is a doctor I would just use your own discretion.

Something tells me she is not a doctor

you are quite correct Minnie, she is not a doctor. Thanks for the reply, you begin to doubt yourself sometimes

In all the old wives tales I've heard, I've never heard of that one. I'd have thought if anything it could aid the healing process.
Why doesn't she really want him to go swimming?

Personally I would wait until they had healed - partly because of the infection risk, partly cos it seems a bit yucky that those scabs will become mushy and flake off into the water that other people will get in their mouths.

After all, missing 1 week at nursery age is not going to make any difference to his future Olympic chances.

Argh, my ds had the pox over a week ago but still has the (crusted over) spots. It's the Easter holidays next week and his favourite part of our holiday is going swimming - would hate to disappoint him, know he isn't infectious, but don't want disapproving looks in the pool either! Maybe put him in a wetsuit..?

They can change a lot in a week though. - I would keep them dry as possible this week then a bath at the weekend and see what you're left with.

The main reason that they shouldn't go swimming is the infection risk. It is easy to forget just how vulnerable to infection children are when they have chicken pox as effectively they have open wounds all over their body just asking to be infected.... as i discovered when my DD1 had CP and ended up in hospital for over a week due in all probability to a brief visit to a sandpit in a public play area before I had noticed her first spots. Provided that all spots have completely healed over I wouldn't worry about it, swimming should be fine, but if you are even slightly unsure as to whether every spot is fully healed then skip this week's swimming. You need to be sure that the scabs have fallen off and there is unbroken skin underneath.

Hi all, thanks for the replies. DeWe, I think she thinks he is a little young to go swimming with nursery without a parent present..

The scabs have all fallen off now so no mushy flaked off bits for other peoples mouths (am torn between a grin and feeling sick emoticon thinking about that tbh:p) Where the spots were is still a little red in some places but no broken skin, even where his biggest spot was. I think he should be fine to go, I'll double check his skin in the morning.

Sounds ok to me!