Chicken Pox

[apples and bananas]

I noticed 5 little red spots, almost like pimples on my sons tummy tonight during his bath. It looks like chicken pox to me, but I won't be certain until tomorrow if more show up.

What would you do? Close daycare? Let families know and they can come at their own risk?

[playfelt]

Check out the health unit for your city. The daycare rules for many areas do not exclude kids with chickenpox from school or daycare and others do until they are scabbed over. Chicken pox is contagious before the rash appears through the air and after by direct contact with the pox. With the vaccine many kids get the disease but only have a few spots so often we don't even know it and especially in the summer as at first they can be mistaken for mosquito or ant bites.

[Toregone]

If it is in fact chicken pox I would not give the parents the option of bringing thier children. I would close. My rule is that if it's something that would be considered too contagious for a child to come to care, than I will close if my child has it. Chicken pox is specifically mentioned in my policies as an illness that requires children to remain at home.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Personally I would close and get it confirmed by a Dr what it 'is'.

My chicken pox policy is to stay home until scabbed over because IME the first year the Health Units changed the policy to allow the children to stay in program as long as they were 'coping' the children who did not get it the 1st or 2nd round because their immunity fought it off after the continued daily exposure to all the other sick kids they end up with a mutated version that was REALLY BAD and three children in the centre I worked at ended up in the hospital with complication of the chicken pox and one nearly died from some rare condition where it attacked the bones and organs inside the child ~ after that the centre chose to 'exceed' the health units requirement and mandate exclusion again from the onset of symptoms until scabbed over to to be 'safe' for limiting this type of thing happening again.

[kidlove]

i agree with Toregon, I always close when there is a contagious illness in our family OR if one of my children needs more attention due to an illness or injury than the average. Chicken pox IMO is ranked same (if not ) higher than the flu. That is serious stuff. Make sure thats what it is though.

[apples and bananas]

Well, my son's woken up this morning with the same few spots, nothing more, runny nose, no fever. So, I gave all of my clients the option to stay home or come and only one came. He's older, been vaccinated and has 2 older siblings. The ones that stayed home are all little ones who have not been vaccinated.

We'll see how he progresses today to decide if I'm going to close or not for the remainder of the week.

It's such a hard judgement call. I don't want to close for no reason as it inconveniences everyone and I don't want any of the little guys to catch something serious. Such a hard call. Better to let the parents make it in my opinion. I have good parents that make good decisions... thank goodness!

[Inspired by Reggio]

Could he have gotten spider or some other 'bite' that caused an allergic reaction for him to create the spots ~ I have an allergic reaction going on right now to the drywall from the renovations and it looks so much like chicken pox I swore I had shingles and took myself to the Dr but they assure me its just 'hives' but they are tiny little ones filled with liquid like a pox

[apples and bananas]

Could he have gotten spider or some other 'bite' that caused an allergic reaction for him to create the spots ~ I have an allergic reaction going on right now to the drywall from the renovations and it looks so much like chicken pox I swore I had shingles and took myself to the Dr but they assure me its just 'hives' but they are tiny little ones filled with liquid like a pox

Interesting... No, I can't be sure. It's so strange, they are 5 little pimple like spots on his tummy. Obviously not bites ( I thought ) as they look like they have white heads or fluid at the head of it. Looks exactly like early stage chicken pox in all the pics I'm googled.

I think I'll ride it out for today and see how they progress... if they break or just go away. I might call the dr. this am and see what they say.

[kidlove]

You know, this summer is the summer of "rashes" I have had several kids at dif times with dif looking rashes, all got checked and have had dif answers from the docs, one was an allergic reaction another was hives, another allergy or exzema. Just been the year of bumps and rashes. maybe some new viruses, they are often accompanied by a low fever and runny nose. there is always something new floating around every year it seems, and doctors seem to have less and less answers. Good news is they are not spreading, are they not itchy? chic pocks are soooo itchy. have you tried benedryl (sp)? it really could be a bug bite (spider). every once in a while I wake up with a couple bites on my legs that were'nt there the night before. The weather IS getting colder, the bugs are trying to come inside. just keep an eye on it, and all you can do is let the parents know, and let them decide. that's exactly what I would do. if it spreads, go to the doc, could be allergy or virus.

[kidlove]

ooooh! it could be a little "wart" look it up, i think its called mulluscum (not sure on the spelling) but I think they show up in little patches and look a little like "pimples". if thats the case, you can wait it out and they may go away (they are a virus). sometimes they will spread and you need to get rid of them. remove by scraping, or freeze them off. Warts can also cause a fever due to the fact they are a virus and the fever comes from the bodies highered immune system in attemp to fight the virus.