Chickenpox - Would you/wouldn't you?

[mummytummy]

I am really paranoid about my two DDs getting chickenpox as we're going on holiday on Monday, and its rife in their nursery, and some of her other friends have it too. My mum has been saying that if they do come down with it, we shouldn't cancel our holiday (we're going on a Eurocamp caravan holiday in France) and that lots of parents would still take their children, which I have been disagreeing with. Anyway, today I went shopping to Bluewater, and there was a toddler absolutely covered in chickenpox, and they hadn't scabbed over. Am I being over cautious by considering cancelling my holiday if they did come down with it?

I have to agree with GeorginaA. I'm 20 wks pg and have no immunity to cp - didn't have it as a child. A friend phoned me lst night to say her ds has come out in it and we spent time with them FRiday at a party then they stayed at our house. I've had to go for blood tests today with a view to an injection of antibodies in the week but there are no guarantees of it working. Looks like the bub will be ok but a bit scared about this

Of course, it's rare for this to happen and you'd have to be unlucky to be in contact with a pg woman but it could happen, as I found out.

But isn't the difficulty with cp that you don't know that you have it until it is too late. It's esy to avoid the spotty kids, but as its infectious before that then surely it has to be up to the reduced immunity people to look to protect themselves? Young children go shopping, to toddler groups etc - even with the strictest viligance you wouldn't be able to tell whether your children had cp before the spots appeared?

I appreciate that there are times when you know (after the event usually) that there has been contact, but contact does not always pass on the infection.

how can you protect yourself tho? not go out? obviously if the spots havent appeared there is much you can do, but if people take the kids wqhen the spots are showing and nopt crusted, then they are being a bit IMO irresponsible.

hugs Moomin.

Have you got a homeopathic pharmacy near you, do you know? I took the homeopathic remedy Varicella (the thread where I went through all the options was here ) 2 times a day for up to 3 days. Plus I had the antibody injection. I didn't come down with chickenpox despite LOTS of contact with a very chickenpoxy 3 year old. Push for the blood test results back as quickly as you can - the earlier you can have the antibodies the more likely they will be effective.

Really feel for you. Will be thinking of you over the next few weeks.

If you do not know you've been infected untill you get it, you have probably been in contact with hundreds of people - some with compromised immunity without even knowing it - you just can't live with what if's and maybe's

but if you could get infected and it has such dire problems, how else can you be protected? CP is rife samongest kids esp at this time of year, and they're infectious for up to a couple of weeks before the spots appear. Surely you have to restrict where your dh goes (our church pastor recetbly had a heart op and specifically asked no-one except close family to visit for 3 months).

What's the alternative? I don't know the identity of absolutely everyone that ds has been in contact with over the last couple of weeks let alone whether they have gone on to develop cp? He could have cp, and I don't know it?

No but if you do know you've got it then there's no excuse, imo.

Exactly. The friend whose ds has cp was mortified when she rang me and had been worried sick until she got hold of me. I tried to reassure her that it wasn't her fault - I could have been in contact with any number of kids with cp but without the spots just walking about or in shops, etc.

However, for instance, when it was going round dd's nursery a few weeks back, I made sure I didn't go into the building and so lessened the chance of catching it that way. I think I'd have been a bit more p*ssed off if I'd been in the situation described previously (by I can't remember who -sorry) when a child came to a party already spotty where the host's mum was pg. My friends wasn't to know, it's just one of those things. If you know your kid does have cp, I do think it's your reposnsibility to be aware of consequences for vulnerable people/children.

thank you georgina.

I had chickenpox while on holiday and spent the rest of the week in a caravan - it was lousy and I'll never do a caravan holiday again ! SIL brought her spotty dd along to a family party without warning us (ds was 18 months ish) and I was furious then so would not be happy if similar happened on holiday. However until the spots come out you don't know they have it so I wouldn't cancel on an if or maybe (insurance proabably wouldn't pay anyway) If they did come down with it could you not just delay departure by a couple of days, or stay at your mums longer, so that you'd arrive when they are better.

Thats me told off, well and truly

i would never take a child with uncrusted chicken pox out anywhere but the doctors, or to someones house where i had called and checked to make sure it was ok.
But cp is infectious long before the spots comeout. and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it until the spots come out and we know it is cp.
a few weeks ago my dd had it. i would leave her locked in the car when dropping off ds2 as i was trying to be responsible. but equally, that wasnt ideal either. as i said, there is a fine line between being a responsible citizen, and being ultra cautious.

oh, and misdee, i will join you in battering anyone who comes near your dh with uncrusted cp

LOL sorry stitch if you felt a bit got at. Was feeling a bit beligerant when I wrote that - reliving the panic I guess

CP is infectious 24 hours before the spots come out until they scab over .. not long before .. at least that's what I was told

yep, that's what my research dug up at the time too, Twig. Also that infection after 5 days of the spots emerging is virtually unheard of regardless of scabbing (but I erred on the side of caution and waited until ds1's scabs had crusted anyway).

glad everything worked out for you georgina

Me too Of course, that means I still haven't had it and I still get that pleasure at a later date Hopefully I won't be pregnant when ds2 goes down with it at least!

what about getting yourself immunised?
i read an awful article about a woman having chicken pox as an adult and as a complication getting ascending paralysis. two weeks into it she was completly paralysed. couldnt even move her eyelids, adn was on a respirator.
happy ending though, as a year later she was finally walking agian. but having read that, i would strongly recommend anyone who hasnt had it to be immunised as the risks as an adult are just too much.

Heh.

I was.

It didn't take.

Oh the irony...

I'm sorry to hear about your DH Misdee - you all must be really going through it, particularly as cp seems to be everywhere at the moment. There's me worrying purely about my holiday, when others have much bigger reasons to worry! I didn't realise it was so dangerous with pregnancy. When I was 8.5 months pregnant with DD1 we were having some work done on the house and the builder had it. He said that he had phoned his doctor to check whether I was at risk, and his doctor apparently told him that it was measles that was dangerous, not cp! That's worrying!!

mummytummy - that's dreadful.

can I just add a further plea to anyone else reading the thread (I know you guys have all been converted ) not to think that it is Ok to take your children out while they are contagious because it is 'good' to catch cp when you are young. this is one of my nightmares right now, ds1 is on v high dose steroids long term (as in maybe years and years, not days or weeks) and he looks fine and is happy and looks healthy but contact with cp could be really dangerous to him. I can't keep him indoors the rest of his childhood, or away from other children forever (although I do my paranoid best right now) so I really rely on everyone else being responsible about it. Please please if you ever in RL meet people whose children have cp could you let them know that there are lots of people like my son out there, who are not 'sick' and so not at the doctors surgery or at home, who absolutely would not benefit from being exposed to cp. I'm really not having a go at anyone here, and I know noone on this thread is suggesting doing that, but it seemed as good a place as any to ask people to do this for me, it just scares me to death.

Its frightening what some GPs say!!

Morocco, that's dreadful . I was very shocked to see that woman with her DD in Bluewater this morning, trying on shoes!! I can understand that there are certain occasions when you can't avoid going out - ie dropping older kids off at school, or if you need urgent supplies or something, but shoe shopping?!!!!!!

mummytummy
lots of people think it's good for other kids to catch all these viruses when they're young (I always did too) but it's horrible to just not care about other people and take your kids out to crowded places like that.
When my sis was little she was invited to a 'mumps party' except the woman throwing it didn't tell any of the parents that's what she was doing. We all caught mumps, I got post viral syndrome and was off school for half a year and my brother got mumps encephalitis and had to be hospitalised. Of course, if she'd told my mum that was what she was doing, it wouldn't have affected how bad we got it, but it was a horrible thing to do like that

that's disgraceful. My mum was going on about the childhood sickness parties - its terrible if you haven't told people though.