Chickenpox holiday drama - am I being OTT?

[zippy539]

We're due to go on holiday this Thursday and have just found out that DS's best friend at nursery has chickenpox (first spots came on wed/thurs just gone). I've been checking out old cp threads and got loads of useful advice and have just about reconciled myself to the fact that we will have to cancel if ds shows any signs in the next day or two (we're flying).

Anyway - this morning I realised that if ds hasn't been infected already, he stands a fair chance of picking cp up at nursery in the next few days (assuming other kids are incubating it) - which would mean he would be coming out in spots just as we are due to come home - ie we would be stuck and unable to fly. So I decided not to send him in for the next few days - do you think this is reasonable or am I being OTT? (He's gutted he's missing the last few days of term). Also my Mum is on immune suppressing drugs for arthritis and was going to come round tomorrow to watch dd/ds while I pack etc - does anyone think she should steer clear or again am I being OTT.

Sorry to ramble but this is doing my head in - we've been looking forward to this holiday for sooooooo long. Any advice appreciated.

diabetes, i'm being induced at 38 weeks. not really a bad thing in this weather...

going back to the chicken pox, ds was really miserable for 2 nights & the day inbetween, but is totally himself now.

i don't want to cause an argument (as it seems there are enough going on on mn these days) but it is an issue flying with a child with contagious chicken pox, i was pg with ds last summer flying back from s.france when our plane was quarantined on landing as a couple had smuggled their child on board with c.p. (their insurance didn't cover them to stay etc) luckily i've had c.p. but there were 2 other women who were pg and hadn't in addition my child minder wouldn't take dd back until the inccubation period was over as she looks after other kids, so i had to take a further week off work after being away for a fortnight (which as you can imagine didn't go down well with my boss)

so whilst i hope that your ds hasn't got it and you can enjoy your holiday, i would urge you to think seriously about othewrs on your plane if you do fly with him

Hoxtonchick - thanks, that's really useful to know. I think that's what bothering me - I'm hoping we get away okay but I'm worried about how sick he MIGHT be when we're actually there. BTW I had gestational diabetes with dd - she was born ay 38 weeks by c-section (previous section with ds blah blah blah). Hope it all goes brilliantly for you tomorrow and looking forward to your birth annoucement!

Thanks Zippy..

Chicagomum - thanks for posting that, it does put it all in perspective. I wouldn't fly with ds if he had any signs of cp for all the reasons you mentioned - it would be a pain in theb a** for us to cancel the holiday but tbh I couldn't live with myself if I got on that plane with a child who def had chickenpox and sat down next to a pregant woman or anyone else who might suffer as a result.

Well we went to Thailand with dd when she had been exposed to cp and of course literally hours before we were due to fly,the spots began to bloom.
We went of course,no way was I cancelling.I was led to understand that the contagious period occurs before spots show.

Obviously would steer clear of vulnerable people but tbh,think that too much of a song and dance can be made of this. Quarantining the plane?????
FGS!

as i said i hope you get to go away and enjoy your holiday, i know how much i look forward to ours, we had to canc our 2 years ago when dd had an ear infection and couldn't fly. we're not having one this year as we are temporarily living in chicago for 6 months so i guess that is a kind of holiday in itself, except my in laws are arriving tomorrow for 2.5 weeks !!!!!!

ps good luck hoxtonchick for tomorrow as well

they "Qurantined" the plane (by that they mean no-one is allowed to get off it) as they had to wait for a doctor to come on board and identify what the illness was that the child had to determine what the risk was etc

What,did the flight attendants get suspicious or something? How did it all come about?

they had the child rather well wrapped up for the warm weather and one of the stewardesses noticed she was feverish/unwell when doing the drinks trolley, so the parent's finally admitted that she may have chicken pox but weren't sure

Have to admit I flew over to Switzerland with ds when he'd had CP spots for a week, all scabbed, but on advice of GP who assured me it was ok. Wouldn't have done so if there had been any suggestion otherwise or if he had only just come down with it. However when we met our Swiss paediatrican a few months later he thought he would still have been contagious at that point and probably infected at least one person on that flight . There is just so much contradictory info about the contagious period. dd has just spent 10 days off playgroup to satisfy the other mums.

It is really confusing, isn't it? My understanding is that chickenpox is at its most infectious in the day or two before the spots come out then gets steadily less contagious day by day after that until they have all scabbed over. Course that means that if ds is incubating chickenpox but the spots don't come out until the first day or two of the holiday, then we will have inadvertantly flown at the worst possible time for the other passengers!

Still no sign of anything though so I'm off to do some packing - I'm taking bets that the spots aren't going to appear until I've done all the necessary laundry, ironing, sorting, packing etc.