Quickie Chickenpox Questions Please

[jodee]

I've looked at some of the previous threads but too many to trawl through. DS has just come out in spots, not too many (so far) and not too itchy, just wondered:

I'm keeping him off school until spots crusted over (whole week I guess?), so do I have to keep him in total isolation (i.e. no trips to park in case of pregnant mums, etc.) until crusted over?

Should he totally avoid all elderly relatives in that time?

(Just what I need on top of DH who's been laid out on the floor for a week with a slipped disc!)

isolation is the best thing.........v v v dangerous for some people to catch.

horrid though isn't it?

My dd's spots appear to be just at the crusting over stage so we ventured out for a stroll round town yesterday - for some reason I still felt guilty though!

We've got a playground nearby which no other children seem to use, so we've been taking ours there if they seem well enough. If you take a chickenpoxy child out and about, then as much risk as there is of them infecting others, you need to consider also that the child is more vulnerable and more likely to pick up a differnt infection on top of the chickenpox. Also, it's a virus, and I wouldn't want to risk post-viral fatigue syndrome (having had it myself and having a sister with ME).

Definitely avoid elderlies - my dd gave my father chickenpox two weeks ago! It is very very serious at that age, and even if they have had chickenpox there is the risk of shingles, which may not be as serious but can be very unpleasant.

What I meant to say was - avoid taking them were there are people.

Thanks everyone, that's what I thought. Not come at the best time, really!

Just wanted to add something. On the 'Help the Aged' site it says that if an elderly person has had chicken pox they are unable to catch chicken pox or shingles from somebody who has chicken pox. Shingles is something that is left over from when they had chicken pox, it stays dormant in your system until you are low/ill/stressed.

The only people that are at risk of catching chicken pox or shingles are people that have never had chicken pox.

The only reason that we know this is because we were due to see my dds great grandmother who doesnt get to see them very much when dd1 contracted chicken pox. I asked her if it was OK to go around to see her and she said yes but thought I would do further research just to check.

Thanks for that, Jenkel. I wanted to err on the side of caution as ds's grandfather can't remember having had it or not. DH is also concerned as he doesn't know whether he's had it either, but it's too late to do anything about it now, have to wait and see what develops.

just of out interest re the Pox, what happens if your pregnant and your child catches it, how do you deal with it then? does anyone know? (not relevant to me personally at the mo, but you never know in future!)

If you're pg and you've had it you'll be fine.

I had it when 26 weeks pg - I had antibody injections to lessen the effect but it was too late and it was pretty awful. I was told that its risky if you catch it close to delivery but I've read on here that others have been told its risky at the very beginning too. If your child gets it and you're not immune you're probably going to catch it as they're infectious before the spots come out.

The general opinion nowadays is that children should be kept out of school/nursery for 5 days from the day the spots come out.

And as Jenkel says, you can't catch shingles from Chicken pox - although someone who hasn't had chicken pox can catch CP from shingles.

HTH

Also, something else.

A good friend of mine was 39 weeks pregnant when her 2 year old son went down with chickenpox. She had had chickenpox, so was OK in that respect, but unfortunatly her newborn baby son caught chicken pox from his brother, his first spots appeared when he was 10 days old, poor thing. Thankfully he didnt have it too bad at all

My DD1 went down with chicken pox a week after DS1 was born. His first spots arrived when he was 3 weeks old - he only had 5 though! The GP thought that as he'd only had it mildly, he would get it again.

However, he contracted shingles at 18 months, so I guess those 5 chicken pox spots were enough to trigger the chicken pox virus.