Is it irresponsible to take a child with chicken pox out?

[thatsnotmymonster]

DS (3) has just come out in a few spots. 2 others from nursery are also off with chicken pox. He is not going and is missing his Christmas Fayre today.

I have 2 other younger children at home and a million things to do (I have no food in and need to go to the supermarket for a start).

Would you go?

well you can all stop worrying. I got all my essentia;s and the dc's stayed in the car, happy as larry. We are home, barricaded in and will not be setting foor outside for, probably about 6 weeks by the time all 3 have had it. May be on MN quite a lot

ahhh but OP - you know that this thread will run and run don't you - despite the fact that the problem has been resolved

well done monster. mine went down with it on xmas eve 2 years ago, two weeks later the other two camer out with it. meant we werent allowed to visit my dh in hospital for 4 weeks.

my DS1 and 2 had it about 1 1/2 months before my due date. DS2's last scab healed over the day I had my show........the day before DS3 arrived (nearly 3 weeks early).

oh blimey, it was 3 years ago now.

am trying to decide qwhether or not to get dd4 vaccinated against chicken pox.

TNMM, I hope that everyone is better for christmas and that nobody gets CP too badly

I was having chemotherapy for 9 months, that would have been a lot of daytime tv for me then!

I think if you have an infectious disease, the onus is on you to stay away from people.

The op is in a difficult situation, but hopefully there is a way round it (garage, car hopefully an online shop tomorrow).

Sorry monster cross posted, I'm glad you managed to get sorted, hope you have a short and not too painful bout of quarantine!

Am just waiting for the post that say "My god you left them alone in the car! How could you!

If I were going to question anyone's intelligence, it might be the intelligence of someone who thinks that all people who have had organ transplants, are receiving chemotherapy or have AIDS should stay indoors at all times.

tnmm, on the other hand, is quite reasonable -- she needed some specifics and got them with minimal risk to anyone else or to her DCs.

Glad you showed up, Misdee, I was aching to mention post-transplant patients but seemed far too rude to say 'don't you know there's someone on MN whose dh had a heart transplant - would you like to tell HER he should stay indoors for the rest of his life for fear of meeting selfish, irresponsible people like you?'

Oh, I'm so selfish and irresponsible that when DS got chickenpox I rang both playgroups and nursery to tell them he had got it, and would have been infectious the last time we were there and to let everyone know in case anyone was just-pregnant or otherwise at risk.
My point is that it's a greater wrong to let a child go hungry or wait for medicine (which will happen if you have to stay in the house or wait for your partner to come home - or you don't have a partner or friend or family nearby...) than to risk a quick dash to the shops when there is only a possibility and not that big a statistical one, of encountering and infecting someone who is seriously vulnerable.

Totally irresponsible to take a cp infected kid out and about.

I am one of a minority who cannot make the antibodies to cp. If I get it when pg, my baby is at massive risk. I have tried the immunisation for it several times, but it won't work.

Also, as others have said, there are a number of at risk groups - chemo patients, etc.

Oh, and good solution monster.

Soem of my bloody neighbours could do with handling it your way too - not that I'm annoyed by them!

SGB - so let me get this straight - you think that immuno-compromised individuals like myself should STAY IN for their entire lives/duration of time they are immuno-suppressed (usually months/years) in preference to someone having an infectious disease stay home for 5 days. Gee, not only do I have a totally shit disability that hugely compromises my standard of living I am now expected to stay home forever.

I've just sworn for the first time ever on MN.

Not CP but to give an idea what catching an everyday bug does to someone who is immuno-suppressed: Last week my DH & I got a D&V bug. DH was ill for 36 hours. I was ill for 6 days - had the doctor out 6 times giving pain relief by injection and narrowly avoided hospital admittance - apparently I was so deluded with pain I was begging to die. It's horrible. If you can avoid at all taking an infectious child out then do - harmless bugs to most people can kill others. This has really riled me.

no. not if he is infectious. it is irresponsible - internet supermarket shopping or a neighbour? someone must be able to help. poor you.

must admit although I'm in the "if you have to go out with an infectious child then you just have to do it" camp - I am quite by the comment about people with suppressed immune systems (sorry can't remember the proper term) having it suggested to them that they should just stay in!!

weegle, last week my dd1 told me a member of her class had been sick at school and fallen asleep. i groaned. as knew that there is a d+v bug going round. so far so good no one here is ill. but am dreading it, as like youm it could knock dh for six and possible hospitalisation.

Misdee it's awful isn't it? I don't expect the majority of people to understand what my life is like but to make a sweeping statement that all people with supressed immunity should just not go out is ridiculous - and selfishness in the extreme - what happened to common kindness, and courtesy?

i know. and dh does the shopping every week now, he seems to enjoy it, odd man. i think after years of not being able to go out alone, he is relishes the freedom a bit.

Message withdrawn

Just how do the immunosuppresed cope with the fact that people they pass by may well be gibberingly infectious because they are incubating something or other but unaware of it? Either we all seal ourselvees into sterile bubbles forever or we just get on and make a daily risk assessment and do the best we can. Which may include taking a sick hungry child on public transport because you have no car, no partner and no obliging neighbours and the alternative is the actual harm of letting your child suffer as opposed to the possible but not that likely harm of infecting a person who is immunosuprressed or otherwise vulnerable.

Most illnesses are at their most infectious when you are symptomatic.

It is not about elliminating the risk, it is about minimising it.

I think generally

• do the best you can
• if you have to do something, you have to do it
• but be honest about whether you have to do it
• minimise risk to others and to your own family
• don't (and this applies to Life In General) take the attitude of "I can do what I want, if other people are inconvenienced or endangered by it that's entirely their lookout, I have RIGHTS you know"

If you do all that you won't go too wrong.