Is pneumonia contagious? HELP ADVICE

[balancingact]

Hi,
My SIL's daughter (6 yrs) has just been taken ill with pneumonia. She is a SAHM with another daughter (3 yrs). I work FT but have a FT live in nanny and i did say to her that if she needed our help to look after her 2nd, please holler and our nanny can help look after her. Husband very upset i said this to his sister as he thinks pneumonia is contagious (6 yr old girl had very bad cough/colds for about a week) and does not want the risk of our kids getting it (we have a 3 year old daughter and an 8 month old son).....any people out there who know if pneumonia is contagious? websites seem to suggest some are and some aren't - asking my SIL what type it is seems insensitive BUT i wouldn't forgive myself if my kids got it as a result.....
HELP

I have no idea really, all i can tell you is that DD had pneumonia last year (aged 15 months) and none of us had it...

Not much help really, was I!

I might be wrong but I thought pneumonia was just a description of symptoms - ie it is an infection of the lungs. It is caused by so many different types of bacteria and viruses it is difficult to say whether it is contagious as it depends on the cause.

Your SIL probably won't know the cause as often the doctors themselves won't know. However if the 3 year old is not ill she won't be infectious and looking after her should be fine though you might want to check with your doctor first as you have a small baby.

from google
Yes it is, but it is LESS contagious than most people think. The cold virus that started the cough in the first place is contagious. But the pneumonia part of the illness down in the lungs is far less contagious. People who are exposed to someone with pneumonia may catch the normal cough and cold symptoms of the virus, but usually don't progress to pneumonia. The formation of the pneumonia is not determined by the particular cold virus or bacteria that the person has, but rather by each person's susceptibility in their own lungs.

Therefore, just because someone in your house or school has pneumonia and is on antibiotics, does NOT mean everyone else in the vicinity with a cough has pneumonia. Wait and see how the illness progresses before asking your doctor for antibiotics.

thanks, i want to be as helpful as possible, but still clearly safeguard our own kids' health. My SIL also mentioned the 3 year old has conjunctivitis (which DH is saying, see, let's not have her over...)
oh lordy....

conjunctivitis is contagious though isnt it?

Conjunctivitis is VERY contagious!!!

My son has just come home from hospital after suffering from pneumonia, caused by the pneumoccocal C virus. He was not immunised as he was over 2 yo when they started doing the vaccs unfortuanately but thats a whole other story.

there are so many causes of pneumonia, and many start with an Upper respiratory tract infection. as another poster said, it all depends on the persons immune system as to whether this develops into pneumonia.

Your DC's are just as likely to 'catch' pneumonia from a play group/the nanny herself as your niece, as they will all have certain bacterias living in their throats that can be spread to your DC's. nobody else in my family developed pneumonia, although some did have URTI's.

conjunctivitis is contageous though, but pretty harmless.

HTH

sorry , more likely to catch cold or virus that can lead to pneumonia, not catch pneumonia.

Conjunctivitis is pretty contagious but as already said is pretty harmless.

I can understand your worry about your children but it does seem just a teensy bit selfish of your dh.

Obviously you may not want to have your children have contact with the 6 year old (though as others have said the chance of infection is remote) but your SIL is probably having an awful time with her 6 year old in hospital so looking after her 3 year old for a while would probably be very helpful to her.

Once the 3 year old is on drops for her conjunctivitis you should be OK. My ds has had this 3 times now and my GP said that 24 hrs after as he starts the drops he could go back to the CM.

My CM is fine with this and none of the other children she looks after has ever caught it from him.

In the end DH and SIL's parents came down and are currnently staying with them to look after the 3 year old. We didn't want to be completely useless so the last two nights we have ordered nice food to be delivered to their house so no one has to worry about cooking dinner. We will probably do the same tonight.
Sometimes i can't believe how protective my DH becomes of the children to the point of being slightly unreasonable!