Probable chickenpox just before christmas - advice?

[ChangingWoman]

Yesterday DD had a couple of tiny itchy spots on her tummy and tonight has spots everywhere (including her scalp?!). Normal temperature, good appetite and no other symptoms.

There haven't been any recent nursery outbreaks but it does look like what I remember of chickenpox on my younger siblings and I think this is the most likely explanation.

We were due to travel to relatives for xmas by train tomorrow afternoon which will be ~6 hour door to door journey. Now I don't know whether to wait it out for another 24 hours or get her there as fast as possible if she's likely to be ill. Having had a quick browse on the internet, I'm also now concerned about exposing others on the train to possible chickenpox.

WWYD?

No, it won't be safe to be visiting people until its scabbed over.

Hes had a really rubbish night he has more spots and about 6 on the inside of his leg where his nappy goes also one on the inside of his lip what do i put on that one?

I don't think you can put much on it unless you have some bonjela to hand, which may help a bit...as for the nappy, try and keep it off when possible, to minimise the discomfort.

Good luck, it sounds horrid x

So sorry to hear about people having the pox at christmas, we had it over the summer, one DC after the other, with about a week gap. Our experience was that it took over a week for spots to start crusting, and that took about a week to do properly. So 2 weeks in, week gap, 2 weeks in.

Not relevant to the OP I know but some posters said about going to the drs - I do get cross when people go to the dr for chicken pox, what on earth are they going to say other than what people have already said on this thread? Speak to them on the phone if you are worried it is infected or much worse than normal. I am a bit cross on this at the mo having listened to a succession of mums this week talk about taking their sniffly/virally/coughy dcs to the dr. What did the dr say? It's a virus. What a waste of time and money.

When I spoke to the dr (over the phone) they thought it was silly to stay in, especially in the week gap when DD would have been contagious pre spots as she might not have it. I would go so far to say as they thought I was being neurotic. They explained that most people don't know they have it when they are at their most contagious so really what is the point. Every relative and most mothers that I spoke to about it thought I was mad for staying in. An issue where mumsnet differs from real life IME.

Cakebar, I agree with you that a it's often unnecessary to take a child to the doctor's with a cold/cough/spots. I think ringing for advice is a time saver and also stops you giving it to everyone else at the surgery.

However I really disagree with you on the staying in thing. I think it's really important and it's what, 5-6 days of keeping away from people, it's not a HUGE inconvenience for most.

Considering that if you infect other children even, let alone older people, it makes other parents' lives difficult - they have to take time off work, etc etc. and so I consider it a basic courtesy to try not to spread germs we know we have.
I realise a lot of parents IRL agree with you on this but many don't. People at our school are generally good about keeping spotty children away from the general hubbub - using a rain cover over a buggy, keeping to the edge of the playground etc.

One mum brought in her son who had chicken pox in the spring term - she just let him run about playing with all the other kids before and after school.
I tried to keep mine away but about 10 people in their class caught it and were all off a week or two later. It's so selfish imo, so thoughtless.
There's never a good time for them to catch it but it was particularly inconvenient for us, as I had a tooth infection at the same time and being a single parent, couldn't then go to the dentist as I had only myself for childcare. It was a horrid, painful week while he struggled with itching and a high fever, and I struggled with antibiotics and painkillers.

It's not that easy for everyone. And yes I could have taken him to the dentists with me but odds are they would have asked me to leave and I'd have felt like a selfish idiot anyway.

I disagree with the "don't take them to the docs to diagnose chickenpox". I'm not a medic, I have very little experience of rashes. Chickenpox is going round DD's playgroups so when she came out in spots and a fever I thought it was CP (haven't seen it since I had it and don't remember it). Took her to GP who said it was actually an allergic reaction to amoxycillin and if we'd missed it and she'd had penicillin again, the next reaction would have been stronger and pretty nasty.

I keep my kids home when I know they're contagious, I keep them away from others in the docs waiting room when appropriate (for the youngest I put the raincover over her pram) but I've hardly ever seen anyone with CP/measles/rubella etc and am not going to diagnose it myself.

Previously I thought DS had just a random rash, took him to the doc, it turned out to be measles (12 months after he'd had the MMR so I was not impressed!).

Are all the other mums here really capable of diagnosing these things? I never see them CP etc on other kids because their mums isolate them. I look at the pics of spots on the internet and they don't really help me.

I totally get that you shouldn't take kids with cp out to public places but there's no reason why you shouldn't socialise with people who have had it is there? As far as I understood the reason we don't vaccinate here is because immunity to cp is refreshed by regular exposure and that's what helps prevent shingles in older dcs/ adults. So it's considered beneficial, even important for people with healthy immune systems to come in contact with it periodically.

Kindlemum of course if you're unsure...it's people who are fairly sure (recent exposure, lots of experience) who don't need to take their child there but do anyway that make me think, why?

The same mum I mentioned before actually works in a nursery so knew exactly what it was...still insisted on going to the Dr. That's just odd!

I knew what it was, as it was pretty obvious, but then if you don't know that's not your fault and no one will blame you for wanting to be sure.