Do we REALLY have stay at home for two weeks because of chickenpox?

[MandMand]

DS is 22 months, his first few chickenpox spots appeared last Thursday. We've dutifully stayed at home since then but we're now both starting to go stir crazy. Surely he's no longer infectious? He's fine in himself, and has loads of energy. We're going to be climbing the walls if we can't venture out to the playground or toddler groups for another week and a half!

i have heard they are either infectious until the spots scab over or 5 days after the first spot appears. Not sure which is correct though. check on nhs direct website? I am on POX watch here as it is going round at nursery!

NHS Direct says this: You are infectious from about two days before the rash appears until roughly five days after. Therefore, you, or your child, should stay at home until all of the blisters have fully crusted over, and this usually happens 5-7 days after the first blister appears. After the last blister has burst and crusted over, you are no longer infectious.

Sympathies, MandMand. My two year old's spots started on Thursday night and I've just found some new pus laden ones in the bath. Groan ...

We have been going to the park but not toddlers or nursery.

Five days is the rule we followed. You should be fine now.

dd1 just started last night, and HV said 5 days from first spot, more or less. I've taken her to the park, but not into shops or cafes, or pre-school, or her friend's party this afternoon.

If your ds's spots started last Thursday, I'd have thought he'd be ok by Thursday this week to go to playgrounds etc? Unless he's getting fresh crops of spots, he might even be ok now - has he scabbed over?

I didn't stay at home with my two when they had chicken pox! We sent out for a walk and to the playground etc, just stayed away from any pregnant women we knew etc. It's only chicken pox after all, not the plague!

it not just pregnant women who are risk, what about those who are immunosuppressed?

as long as ALL of the spots have scabbed over then you are ok to go out.

its a pain though i know. but has to be done to protect those most vunerable.

Was told 5 days after spots came out was okay.
Ds1 was scratching his from the first, so were scabbing over on day 3. Ds2 is too small to scratch so most of them looked the same as they had at the start. The ones I'd managed to scrape were scabby by day 5 though.

Dd (2yrs) had her first spot on Friday - although we didn't know it was pox til Fri eve. Today was the first day she's been out of the house - in the buggy to drop ds at the childminders then straight home. Although I went out without her last night to yoga & it was rather nice to see some different walls

I wouldn't consider M&T type groups until I was 100% certain she was totally uninfectious - chicken pox caught when you're early or late pg is pretty nasty.... plus all the other mothers will look at you like you're bringing the plague in through the door.

if he still has any spots that are not scabbed over, he's infectious - regardless of how 'well' he seems. I might consider taking dd to the park (the field bit, not the playground) but tbh, it's been a good excuse to hunker down & play nice stuff at home.

Thanks everyone, it sounds like my GP was being a bit severe by telling me to quarantine poor DS for a fortnight. If no new spots have appeared in the morning we'll venture out to the playground where no one else ever seems to go! I'll keep him away from toddler groups and my pregnant friends for another week though, to be on the safe side.