10 week old - face stroked by someone with a cold sore

[Zapx]

Hey everyone - after some reassurance. As the title says really - someone with a few cold sores stroked my baby’s face and hand. She’s 10 weeks. I panicked after and wiped the area with alcohol gel, but she’s recently started sucking her hands and I can’t be 100% sure I wiped her hands in time…

I do suffer with a bit of postpartum anxiety, but I’m not sure if this is a genuine worry or not. Should I do anything, or just keep an eye on her? Thanks so much in advance

She'll be fine. They'd have had to touch their cold sore then her face immediately after for it even to be a risk.

I'm sure she will be fine but I can understand your stress, what a selfish and stupid thing for them to do! Did you mention to them they shouldn't be touching babies when they have a cold sore?

What's done is done you can't change it.

I get regular coldsores and although I was careful there was no way DD wasn't going to catch them from me one way or the other. If I didn't touch DD when I had one I would never have picked her up for the first few months. She eventually got one when she was 5 after she decided to give me a huge kiss directly on my mouth.

Coldsores are more contagious before you even know the virus has reactivated before the sore has even developed. They are annoying and uncomfortable but she's not a brand new newborn shes likely to be fine.

She'll be fine x

She'll be fine don't worry. If there was any contamination then the alcohol wipe would've removed it anyway

Oh op, I understand the worry !! I also have pp anxiety and would freak out myself. But as others have said, baby will be fine. My sister kissed my baby on the lips at 6 weeks old and I was devastated lol. You did what you could at the time with the wipe and that's all you could've done !
I really wish people (strangers) wouldn't touch our babies! I don't know where your hands have been ... really annoys me

@Daisypod it’s almost worse - when they told me they had them at the moment they said they should be careful round babies!! So they knew!! Arghhh. Thanks so much for your comment though

@davegrohll thanks so much for replying and yeah normally I’m pretty careful with not letting people touch her I just let my guard down whilst chatting. Thanks for the reassurance 😊

@GoodChat @Singleandproud much appreciated, I didn’t know that info, thank you

How do you think mums with cold sores pick up their kids?

I get them and have had two babies myself. It's impossible to never touch my babies when I am the default parents when they're little. Nothing ever happened.

I guess they don’t touch their face and if they do they wash their hands straight afterwards. Some probably wear patches over the sores as well to reduce the risk.

I’m sure she’ll be ok OP. I think the real risk comes from people kissing babies with a coldsore.

OP I had this worry as well when my daughter was little. My then best friend who suffers from cold sores , came to visit with actual visible sore on her lips and started kissing my daughter! I told her politely not too, but she got offended and called me ridiculous..my daughter did not catch it anyway..

Nobody wants an ill child especially one so small (and I understand cold sores can be dangerous for some tiny babies) but being out in the world and being touched and picked up is how we develop our immune system. If children live in a bubble, like those born during the lockdown their immune systems will take longer to develop.

Are you breastfeeding? One of the amazing parts of breastfeeding is that the mothers system picks up on any pathogens around their baby and if the mother has previously had that illness will produce the antibodies for it and pass it along with her milk.

You've done all you can for now I'm afraid.

This happened to my baby except the person kissed her on the lips. It was an awful time for me and my anxiety, but nothing happened thankfully. So I'm pretty confident yours will be perfectly fine!