AIBU HFM disease soft play

[raindropsrain]

Took my little one to soft play this morning and saw another little girl covered in blisters on her hands and around her mouth playing in the 0-3 toddler area; could overhear her mum telling her friend “she had hand foot and mouth disease but is feeling much better”.

Evidently still has blisters. Little girl was bouncing around playing with all the rocking horses and toys. There were a bunch of toddlers there and some little babies. I made sure DD washed her hands with soap and water afterwards and supervised her play and raised it with the staff there but don’t think anything was done about it. My little one already had it twice at nursery but I know there are other strains. I caught it too when DD had it and it was the most miserable disease to get in an adult.

Why do parents do this? Just need to rant!

This is the advice on the NHS website

“Keep your child off school or nursery while they're feeling too unwell to go.
But as soon as they're feeling better, they can go back to school or nursery. There's no need to wait until all the blisters have healed.
Keeping your child away from other children for longer is unlikely to stop the illness spreading.”

Based on this it doesn’t sound like the parent was being unreasonable.

She’d have been in the contagious pass it on stage before the blisters came out though. There’s no way of knowing. My son had it and we kept him off nursery when he was really unwell but he was back the next week- still had blisters on his hands but back to his normal self. If he passed it on to anyone it would have been before we even knew he was unwell.

Personally I wouldn't go to soft play with obvious HFM, but there's no need to isolate so she wasn't wrong as such.

Nothing like going with chickenpox or a vomiting bug.

Soft play is always crawling with bugs, HFM is just more visible than most!

Hfm is manly contagious before the rash. Mine were always loads better by the time the rash came out.

Yup that's what my nursery went by

I guess it comes down to whether the same rules apply to soft play as apply to school and nursery. That's why I came down on the side of not wrong but I wouldn't do it.

I don't understand why you're so cross. Yes she has HFM but she was clearly feeling ok and in the condition you described she would be allowed in nursery and school so no real reason not to be in soft play.

I wouldn't take DCs to soft play with an illness like that because I'd expect them to be feeling rubbish and uncomfortable, and probably not going to enjoy themselves much.

The problem is, from the outside you're never going to know how long they've had it so of course you're going to worry about whether it's contagious but it might not be, so I wouldn't have said anything.

Because some parents are selfish and instead of meeting a friend for a walk or a playdate in the garden want to sit on their arse and ignore their kids in a soft play.

Nursery for a father or mother to work is completely different to a fun activity that is optional. Can't believe people think it's the same.

Soft play is a hotbed of germs. The unreasonable thing is going and not thinking your child is likely to catch something! I rarely went when my dc were small because they always seemed to pick up a vomiting bug or similar.

Yeah that's what I'd go with. I wouldn't want to freak out any anxious parents who don't know the nhs advice at the same time the kid might be desperate to get out the house.

How is it selfish? It's not contagious at that stage.other parents might not know that but that's on them really.

But there are plenty of places to go without spreading your disease.

It's not going to spread once it's healed. You can't ban someone from a place just because of their appearance.

I am aware of nursery policy but my understanding is that that’s because children at one care setting have been exposed already, and so there is no point excluding children with it. I am fine if the lesions have all dried and scabbed but these were actively weeping. I personally wouldn’t take my child to a place of play with active HFAM disease in case that exposes very small babies or pregnant women but maybe I am the minority!
Also I didn’t say anything to the parent as that would’ve been really snarky. My DD continued playing I just washed her hands with soap and water afterwards.

My thoughts exactly!! Can’t really write anything better than what you’ve written I agree completely.

I am aware of nursery policy but my understanding is that that’s because children at one care setting have been exposed already,

Yes this was my understanding too. I think it's still contagious with the spots, just not as much as before. I don't know that the spots crusting over matters though? Ours have had hfm loads of times and I don't remember the spots weeping or crusting. I think it has a really long contagious period doesn't it? And that's partly why there's no restrictions, because they would have to be too long to be practicable.