Should be flying tommorrow,but kids got chicken-pox !!

Peakma

Hello all,feeling sorry for myself right now,as I should be packing for a ten day holiday,of sun, sea,sand and catching up with family.But we've had to cancel flights, because of chicken pox.
Is this a national epidemic or just in our village and surrounding villages?It's been sweeping through just about every kid in our village since early April,when it first started I just knew we'd get it just in time to clash with the holiday!! my youngest got it 2 and a bit weeks ago,just about all cleared up out of sight,and now two days before flying,my two boys have come out in spots!!(theres an incubation period of 5-21 days,and it is highly contagious).I'm kicking myself now as,when I first knew of a case in the village it was at toddler group,just before the Easter hols,so avoided it,not wanting ill children for the easter break.Well my three have been fine in themselves(with piriton syrup,to stop the itching,and calamine lotion)and appart from the spots you wouldn't know they were ill.
So my advice to anyone,expose your kids to this,rather than shelter them,if it is a convenient time to get it,get it out of the way,as it is meant to be good for the imune system,and much worse in adult hood.But do keep ill children out of public(people in our village are being very thoughtless in my opinion)as if vulnerable people are exposed to it for the first time (aids, leukemia, elderly, etc) they can get very ill.
Anyway,I'd only booked cheap flights,as we were going to stay with family,but bought travel insurance(£18) incase this happened(I just knew it would!-and wouldn't sneak on anyway,because I wouldn't want to expose others)but I think theres an excess of £40 to pay,so it's going to cost me £58 for absolutely nothing,hardly moneysaving is it?

*Louise*

Sorry to hear about your holiday being cancelled.


My two had it in January - wasn't fun for the little one, he was only 7 months at the time.

I agree that these things are better over and done with asap though. My sister is terrible, she has a germ phobia:rolleyes: - she won't even take her kids near anyone who just has a cold....of course now when they do catch one, it's so much worse for them, and lasts much longer, but will she listen to me??

She even comments on how my two are always healthy but she just won't believe me that they have to be exposed to mild levels to build up immunity..

Peakma

I'm forever saying to my kids "a bit of dirt,never hurt!" I never steralised anything(although they were souly breast fed til 6 months). but some ridiculous people go around steralizing everything,when babies just crawl about everywhere,then suck there fingers!
Were not completely revolting though! they have to wash hands at sensible times e.g after toilet,and being in the garden,and before eating.

Queenie

Oh Peakma, how incredibly disappointing

I think there's a lot of it going around, because someone in the OS Daily Thread has children with chickenpox too (and seemingly half the school they attend).

As I said to her, in the old days, if someone's children had chickenpox, they would have a chickenpox 'party' so they could all get it over and done with at the same time. Also meant that it didn't drag on and around for months on end. It was also moneysaving because people would share leftover calamine etc

Hoping your children feel better soon and don't give in to the temptation to scratch, chickenpox scars never seem to fade.

Well done you on taking the precaution with the insurance though :T

Becles

Sorry to hear about your holiday.

Mine had it when they were younger as it went round the school. The eldest got it, then passed it onto his brother who was pre-school age. It never really bothered either of them, and the priton/calamine was enough to stop them itching.

You could pretend you are on holiday, by eating your lunch in swimsuits while sitting on beach towels on the sitting room floor. I've done that with mine before :rotfl:

hilstep2000

Yep there is an epidemic at the moment, our two Reception classes are going through it!
Actually, once the spots appear they aren't contagious anymore! It's before the spots come out that they are.
My two had it at aged 4 and 8 months, and we were on our first day of a Pontins holiday, had to come home, but claimed onthe insurance anyway.
Hope they are better soon!

sundin13

When my oldest son was little, we lived in Canada, and over there they vaccinate against chickenpox. I thought it was a bit unnecessary at the time - but it was recommended so he got done.

Well this easter, my youngest came down with them. He hadn't been vaccinated, and although he didn't have a lot of spots, those that he did have were huge, and all over his face. He didn't scratch at all - but he's still been left with horrible big red pockmarks on his cheeks, forehead and neck. I know they'll fade eventually, but I do feel really upset about it - he had such perfect clear skin before.

Anyway...not sure what the moral of this story is, as you don't get chickenpox vaccinations over here - but my next one is probably going on a little holiday across the pond to get jabbed.

Sundin13

Spendless

Sorry about your holiday peakma. One of my sisters twins came down with them the day after they got to Cyprus,and the same thing happened to my friend and she had to stop behind abroad with their son till he was clear whilst her husband and little girl flew home.

We went to a party 2 years ago over 100 miles away with my 2 kids got there and the host pointed to their grandchild and said x has chickenpox hope you don't mine.It wasn't an option to go home and I would have appreciated being told on the phone prior to turning up so I could have made my own mind up. Anyway my daughter came down with it 2 weeks later and my son 2 weeks after that which co-incided with him going to full-time school. I wasn't happy that it had happened then but at least it is now out of the way (or should be).

ChampagneTastesBeerBudget

Hi,

Seems to be doing the rounds here too (Swindon). My OH's youngest has it at the moment. She has had spots since Friday but still had new spots appearing yesterday apparently!

X

Woby_Tide

hilstep2000 wrote:

Actually, once the spots appear they aren't contagious anymore! It's before the spots come out that they are.

It's until the spots dry up that it's contagious so normally 2 or 3 days before they appear then approx. 5 after they start appearing

froggergirl

Our wee girl had it last week along with most of her nursery and we think DS is coming down with it this week.
They are contagious until the last spot has scabbed over was what we were told last week. We ended up missing our holiday because of it as well.