Chicken pox and siblings

onlyroz

My daughter has chicken pox at the moment. Chances are my son will catch it - but it might take 2-3 weeks before he exhibits any symptoms. Should I keep him off school "just in case", or not worry about it until he gets the symptoms? My inclination is to send him into school but hubby keeps coming up with scenarios where he comes into contact with someone with a newborn sibling who then goes on to catch it.

Any thoughts?

comping_cat

Most people would want their children to get it as early as possible - if your daughter has it, odds are that someone in the school is already contageous and passing it on, so i dont think it will matter if your son is there or not.

If you husband is that worried, maybe if you see someone with a newborn maybe mention to them that chicken pox is going around, so they are forwarned.

ellay864

I'd send to school - you can't really justify keeping kids off for a couple of weeks just in case. But I'd mention it to the school and make sure they're aware of the situation. For all you know there could be staff there in early stages (unnannounced to parents) of pregnancy as well as the possibility of contact with newborns.
When my sons were at primary school we were always asked to inform the school if our kids had caught or were in contact with things like chickenpox, though that was driven in part by one my son's classmates having had leukaemia as a toddler

rosie383

Send him to school. He may get it, but may not. Why keep him off for longer than necessary?
And as for any parents who say ' it's good to catch these things when they are young. Let's have a measles/ chicken pox etc party'. NOOOOO!
Even though most people get over these illnesses with no problems, there is no point in exposing kids to diseases that are not necessary.

Mrs_Huggett

Our 19 year old foster son has just had chicken pox....I had to laugh when he said to me... yeah I've only had like 10 primary schools when I was a kid.....You would have thought he would have caught it at one of those!

onlyroz

And now precious firstborn has caught the pox. Ho hum...

Spendless

That's 'lucky' they've got it together, yes it's double the strife at the time but my eldest got it 2 weeks and 2 days after his sister got it, and a week after he's started in Reception,. He hadn't even gone to doing full days at school before he was off sick.

My sisters twins did the same, though she was thankful cos my neice came down with it the day after they'd gone on hol abroad and she had to get an all clear to fly back and she was worried that my nephew would come down with it a few days before flying home, fortunately he waited till the day after they flew home.

pollyskettle

My eldest daughter got chickenpox at 4, 2 days later her 2.5 yo sister and 8 week old brother were showing symptoms, the following day their dad was bed bound by the symptoms - I'd had it as a youngster so I got to all the running around. The girls weren't too bad with it, the baby only had 2 spots, but we had to get the Dr out to OH several times as he was so ill.

Unfortunately, as a consequence of him having CP, the baby couldn't have his 2 month jabs and was in hospital a fortnight later with whooping cough, after a few days of symptoms which the Dr had put down to croup. He recovered fine with little chance of any later complications, but it was the longest month of my life.

qwiksave

My 8 year old caught chicken pox recently even though he had had it before. His 11 year old brother didn't catch it off him even though they are always playing together. (Actually, nor did their 1 year old cousin who they went to visit - before he showed symptoms). It was CP though, a nurse confirmed it.

JimmyTheWig

rosie383 wrote: »

And as for any parents who say ' it's good to catch these things when they are young. Let's have a measles/ chicken pox etc party'. NOOOOO!
Even though most people get over these illnesses with no problems, there is no point in exposing kids to diseases that are not necessary.

But it's much better for them to catch these things as a child rather than risk catching them as adults. Especially with girls, who have the added risk of catching it while pregnant.

Obviously with measles (etc) its best to have the vaccination, but you can't do that with chicken pox.

jackyann

You can't justify keeping off school, and as it's such a long incubation period, most kids pass it on before anyone is aware.
I agree that it's a good idea to pass the word around in a general way, not only about new borns ( see above, it can cause problems) but also it can cause complications at the end of pregnancy if mum hasn't previously had it.
Don't feel too guilty if it gets passed around, anyone can pick it up anywhere!