infection protocol

[hobbeschild]

Every time my toddler gets a mild infection (e.g. hand-foot-and-mouth, roseola), I have the same dilemma: Do I tell his friends' parents?

On the one hand, it pre-warns them of symptoms to look out for, means they don't panic and don't have to repeat my research. On the other hand, I feel it means I have to stay locked in for weeks or be Public Enemy #1. But if I don't tell them, don't stay away, and their child gets very ill with it, I will not be able to forgive myself.

I put myself in the position of other mums. My son doesn't suffer too badly with illnesses so I am OK with exposing him to others - for me it is a fact of life, and the good (immune system building) outweighs the awful (seeing him suffer). But I realise others are not so lucky and some children gets everything going and/or get extra poorly from things.

What are your thoughts?

I should add that I don't have a doctor's diagnosis, it just seems like Roseola (this time), and doesn't seem worth going to the doc's for, so quarantining ourselves could be totally unnecessary.

Anything more than a cold or a cough, and I'll let people know if were going to visit them.
I wouldn't let people know who we'd seen in the past few days/weeks, unless I knew there may be an issue (pregnancy or low immunity).
If baby was generally OK in themsleves, I'd go out and about.
If baby was ill (grouchy, temperature etc) I'd stay at home, or but them in a pushchair and go for a walk away from busy places.

I tend to look at this then and then decide.
www.documents.hps.scot.nhs.uk/hai/infection-control/guidelines/exclusion-criteria-childcare-A3-2011-12.pdf

Sorry link didn't work! Not sure how to add one.