Chicken pox party?

[lilmonkey]

I'm not sure where to post this so if it needs to be moved, please do so.

Anyway, a mother down the street is having a chicken pox party for any interested moms & their chn this Saturday.  Should I have dd attend?  Any one gone through it yet?  How do I make sure that dd doesn't scratch the blisters all the time?  Or is she too young to understand not to scratch?

TIA

[annette101]

Hi,
I don't know. Our childminder had two kids with chickenpox.
I decided to let my boy go and if he gets it at least I will be prepare for it.
I went and got all the medicines and avoided any playgroups for a while, because they spread it before showing any of the symptoms...
I waited and waited and he didn't get it. 90% risk of getting it and he didn't.
But at least I have everything at home.

Don't really know about scratching but you can get stuff that makes the itching better.
It's impossible to know how it will be either. Some children have two spots and some are completely covered in them.

Annette

[Heather]

It's a tough one.  My kids got exposed unintentionally by my nephew who was ill but my sister didn't know yet that that's what it was until the next day when he broke out.  They didn't know how he was exposed so it was a surprise for all of us!!  If they hadn't been exposed 'by accident' I don't know if I could bring myself to expose them on purpose.   

So both of my kids had it, ds#1 was 3.5yrs old and ds#2 was 2yrs old.  Ds#2 had it first and he had it very mildly.  Hardly bothered him at all.  Ds#1 had it a full 2 weeks later and he had it much much worse, but still it hardly bothered him.  I bought Aveeno Oatmeal Soak packets that were supposed to be the best thing, but we didn't need them.  I don't think we even used one. 

[sophiem]

I would not bring my children. I don't see the point. That's my humble opinion.

[Samuel's mum]

Sam was exposed to a friend who came down the next day and didn't come down with it himself. I was so sure he was going to get it after the incubation period. It was awful because they are most infectious just before they come down with the spots so I kept thinking as I was walking around "Sam could be infectious right now". I ended up having to cancel plans with a pregnant friend and another friend was worried as her LO had had a heart operation. After 10 days of "could be tomorrow" I then read the incubation period could be 15 days and felt terrible everytime I went near another toddler. In the end he never came down with it and I worried for nothing.

Anyway my point is - it's a complete hassle 'knowing' they have been exposed and waiting. Better to wake up one morning and find them I say! If your neighbours children have been infected for a few days and they have no new spots and their current spots are dry then they probably aren't infectious anyway. Sam's friend was only having new outbreaks for about a week. They have the spots visible long after they stop being infectious.

While it's true that chicken pox as an adult is horrid I would have thought a little older than your LO would be better. Sam's friend was about 15 months and really had a miserable time.

[SallyDom]

I know it's a different thing but my little boy (unintentionally) caught german measles when he was about 16 weeks and it was blummin' awful. I know he was very young but he was so poorly and we just didn't know what to do with ourselves. I don't think I would ever go to such as a chickenpox party now (tho I may have before), I would rather wait and hope he never caught anything. At least if Dom was older he could have told me what was wrong rather than a week of poorly baby (before the spots came out) and me not having a clue why he was crying all the time and not eating etc.
x

[lilmonkey]

Thank you.  I think that I will pass on the party.  No need to have one more irritation for dd to whine about.   

Thank you everyone.

[SallyDom]

It's so hard knowing what to do isn't it. I think it's best to go with what your instincts tell you.

[Katie]

all i can say is my  dd got it when she wa 2 and it was horrible  :'(she got them so bad (picked it up at daycare) she got them all inside her mouth as well I cant wait till aliera gets vacinated dont want to go through it again...

Katie x