Chicken Pox - please help me to stop going into an OCD spiral

[Servalan]

This post may come across as rather irrational and "OCD" - but in my defense, I do actually suffer from OCD so my lines between rational and irrational are generally very blurred. Just need some common sense and perspective from all you lovely Mumsnetters.

Poor DD is languishing with chicken pox. So far (touch wood) though she is immensely spotty and a bit sad, she's coping well with it.

I'm having a bit of a panic because I read somewhere that the virus can stay on surfaces and clothing and bedding, either from the droplets in the air or from direct contact from any perforated spots.

Obviously clothing and bedding I can wash but I'm wondering

1. Do I need to worry about the chairs and the sofa, which she's been lying on and some of her spots have had contact with because she was hot and had bare arms yesterday and her top kept riding up at the back where she's very spotty (I did try to cover the sofa with a sheet, but she kept climbing under said sheet pretending it was a "den")

1. Could it have got onto the carpet? (I've just discovered a spot on the sole of one of her feet that I hadn't discovered before.

1. I'm giving her lots of cuddles, so could I be spreading the virus when I go out from the contact with her?

1. Am I going to have to clean all her toys?

1. Do all her soft toys need to go in the washing machine?

1. Could the virus get onto objects that she's not touched/played with in the house by virtue of chicken pox being in the air of the house?

DH and I have both had CP in the past and don't have any other children, but I am thinking about any visitors we may have when the CP is gone and if they will be affected. Also about whether I might accidently spread the virus on stuff I take out of the house.

Thanks

.

Right now she probably is shedding virus BUT that virus is pretty wimpish once it's in the air unless it finds another host so it will just dry out and die very quickly. You won't need to wash her toys or the carpet or any soft furnishings because they won't remain 'live' as it were. You won't spread it because it will be dead before you get out of the house.

You won't spread it either because although you and dh could be a host - you have the right biological conditions for it which say soft toys or cushions don't - you have antibodies from your prevoius bout so as soon as any virus tries to get going it will be FLATTENED by your immune system

Thanks so much :)

I think you probably read something written in the early twentieth century!!

People used to do a thorough clean after a bout of smallpox, scarlet fever, influenza etc.