s/o of chicken pox, when a sibling is ill

[LaughingHyena]

I'm interested to know what people do when one child in the family is ill and others are not (yet) showing any symptoms.

For example I will still send the well child off to school/afterschool activities etc. However I am likely to keep them off is they start saying they are tired or have a tummy ache. Both situations which my daughter will complain of often and I would otherwise tend to ignore.

I try to keep the ill child at home but if it is my youngest we still have to go and pick up the oldest from school (DH can usually drop her off). In that case I keep him strapped in his pushchair and as away from people as I can.

what do you do in those situations?

It never occurred to me to keep one child off school because the other had chickenpox. Is that common where you are?

[4Marmalade]

I have 4 children (although only two in school right now) and I can't imagine having to keep everyone home if only one child is sick. I keep them home based on their individual level of health.

We had chickenpox earlier this year. It went through ds1's grade 2 class. He got it and almost two weeks later dd1 got it. During that two week period I continued to send her to school on the days she was scheduled (part time). If I didn't she would have been off for almost 4 weeks. The only thing different I did in this case was to inform dd's teacher that we were waiting for her to come down with chickenpox so he could keep a closer eye on her and inform anyone who might have immunity issues. But really, the chickenpox virus was going through the school like wildfire so there wasn't much that could have been done.

[ameliabedelia]

I wouldn't keep a healthy child home because a sibling is sick.

[AbbieB]

It depends.

We homeschool so attendance in our current activities is something that has a little more flexibility than public schooling.

If one of my children was sick, naturally we would be skipping some activities until the sick child was recovered. I'm thinking story time at the library, weekly park play dates, ice skating lessons, the public pool. My kids know that when one of us is sick, the pace of life slower down for a little bit. (Isn't that naturally how it is no matter what you plan to do about activities?)

I find it to be interesting that most of the illnesses we have gone through seem to have an incubation period that matches the amount of time for recovery. So when I have the 24 stomach flu, the kids are home for the 24 hour incubation period and the cycle repeats until the flu is out of the house. Chicken pox is a 2 week cycle.

I would never allow a known potentially infectious child to be around others that I knew to be pregnant, infants or anyone with health issues. At the moment, that pretty much covers everything we do.

I think that if we were locked into a public school schedule things would be very different. Mandatory attendance policies would dictate healthy/symptom free siblings be in class. Just like DH has to go to work (in a public school!) regardless of what illness he has been exposed to.

[crunchy_mommy]

I agree with AbbieB, I only have 1 DS right now & we plan on homeschooling but if we put him in public school I'd continue sending him even if a sibling were sick. I would probaly avoid or cut back on parties, playdates, etc. though if they were with different kids than the school kids...

[nextcommercial]

No. I'd never even think to keep both kids at home when one child is sick.

Although, I have a daycare in my home. I have sibling sets, where one is sick, but they bring the other one. Most illnesses are no big deal, but if one child is vomiting and has diarrhea, I'd want the whole family to stay out of my house.

Strep throat, chicken pox, all those things are non issues to me.

[Peony]

I send the well child off to school or activities BUT I will call parents if it is a playdate and inform that that a sibling is ill so they have the option of opting out of the date if they choose to. I expect the same courtesy to be extended to me.

[neetling]

I occasionally keep the healthy kids home if the sick kid is too sick for me to take them anywhere. The school bus stop is about 6 blocks away and I'm not comfortable with my youngest walking it alone. I'm only semi okay with the oldest doing it. I've also kept them home when I was too sick to walk them to the bus stop. I am okay with the sick one staying home while I walk the other, unless it's super bad.

If we are having something obviously contagious like a super virulent stomach bug we had earlier this year, I'll take the well ones places, but I try to keep it light.

[Drummer's Wife]

I wouldn't keep a healthy child home just b/c a sibling is sick. We haven't had chickenpox, so I don't have experience with that - but I assume if one of my children caught it the other 3 would as well - so yes, I guess in that situation I would keep them all home b/c they had all been exposed. And CP is more serious than your common cold.

[AllyRae]

I do, but I have an IgA deficient daughter, so when one of my children is sick, I isolate her as well in order to keep her from catching other people's illnesses as well in case she has to fight off her sibling's illness. Depending on *what* one of my children has, I will also keep my other healthy children home...if one of my children had the common cold, I would not keep my other child home. When my son had h1n1, I kept all the kids home just in case.

[newbymom05]

Highly contagious horrible illness like stomach flu (vomiting, diarrhea) I've kept us all home and would again, otherwise I just notify others, try to be careful. For CP I'd keep the kids home. But I"m a SAHM so keeping us home wouldn't be a big deal to me.

[Jugs]

I'd keep the child home if I knew s/he had been exposed and I already had one down with CP. It can be contagious before symptoms begin, which means exposing all of his/her classmates, too.

[phathui5]

When there's any kind of stomach bug, I keep all of the kids home. I hate having kids who are barfing, so I try not to spread it around.

[EviesMom]

Depends on what it is. I've had one get something and the other not; one exposed to something and the infant not exposed through careful separation. If we all feel off, we all stay home.

I'm more likely to send a child who has recovered off to something as opposed to the child who might be developing something. But that's because the older kid is usually the one who gets sick first around here. The younger doesn't have many events of his own quite yet.

[tbone_kneegrabber]

Well I only have one, but we live in a house with 6 adults and ds. I don't keep ds home if someone we live with is sick.

Also, there were twins at ds's preschool who got chickenpox a couple of months ago. Their parents didn't know they had been exposed and both kids were at school until they showed symptoms. Then 2 or 3 other kids got chickenpox (at least 2 were also vaxed who got it) and so ALL the kids at school had been exposed and no one kept anyone home unless they showed symptoms.