Can I go to work if my child has chickenpox? We ask a top GP so you don’t have to
CHICKENPOX is a common childhood illness that spreads like wildfire among children and results in a telltale red spotty rash.
It can be hard to know what to do as a parent when one of you little ones picks up the itchy virus.
Parents might find themselves asking: Can I go into work if my child is infectious? Or must I stay home?
We spoke to a top GP to find out what the best course of action really is.
Can I go to work if my child has chickenpox?
General NHS advice is for anyone with the illness to stay away from school, nursery or work until all the spots have formed a scab.
Once the spots have healed over you are no longer infectious and cannot pass the bug onto anyone else.
This is usually five days after the spots appeared.
But if it is only your child who has chickenpox and not you, what then?
“Parent may need to stay off work to look after the child but there are no infectious related reasons why someone should stay off work otherwise,” TV GP Rachel Ward told The Sun.
“As long as they are feeling well they can go to work.”
Chickenpox is caused by a virus called the varicella-zoster virus.
It’s spread quickly and easily from someone who is infected to someone who has never had the virus.
Some children and adults are at special risk of serious problems if they catch chickenpox, including: pregnant women, newborn babies and people with weaken immune systems.
Therefore, if you think you could have the bug, it’s best to stay at home.
However, most adults will already have immunity to chickenpox, as the majority of people pick it up at some point during childhood.
Chickenpox tends to be more severe in adults than children, and adults have a higher risk of developing complications.
Adults with chickenpox may benefit from taking antiviral medicine if treatment is started early in the course of the illness.
Symptoms
According to the NHS symptoms include:
- red itchy spots (behind ears, face, scalp, chesty, belly, arms, legs
- feeling sick
- a high temperature (fever) of 38C (100.4F) or over
- aching, painful muscles
- headache
- generally feeling unwell
- loss of appetite
These flu-like symptoms, especially the fever, tend to be more common and worse in adults than in children.
Most children and adults recover from the illness within two weeks.
But some unlucky people have a more severe bout.
Contact your GP straight away if you or your child develop any abnormal symptoms, such as:
- the skin surrounding the blisters becoming red and painful
- pain in the chest or difficulty breathing
- signs of dehydration, such as fewer wet nappies, drowsiness and cold hands and feet
How to treat it
To treat chickenpox at home, make sure to give them plenty of fluid, and if your child is struggling to drink, try them with ice lollies to make sure they don’t become dehydrated.
The NHS states you should also give them paracetamol to help with pain and discomfort, guidance states.
As well as this, you should trim down their nails and put socks on their hands at night to stop them scratching the spots.
To further soothe their discomfort, you can also try bathing them in cool water and pat the skin dry, then dress them in loose clothes.
It’s important that you don’t use ibuprofen unless advised to by a doctor, as this could cause serious skin infections, the NHS warns.
You should also make sure to not give children under the age of 16 aspirin.