Kids & Germs

A friend once told me that when you have a child in kindergarten or first grade, those will be the years you have the most illness in your home. She was SO right.....and, of course, it doesn't seem to improve as you move down the line of your offspring! Those adorable little critters you love so much seem to bring everything they find – and everything that finds them – home to share!

I remember the year I was in second grade. During that school year, my class shared mumps, 3-day measles, chickenpox, and then hard measles. We were such a giving, sharing bunch!! We started with mumps in the fall. I was sidelined with them over Halloween. Our house had originally been two 2-room houses fastened together, with three more rooms and a long front porch added. The pertinent fact here is that we had three doors leading into the house off that porch.

My cousins down the road went to a different school, and they didn't realize I had the mumps. When they drove up for trick or treating, the six kids there were at that time poured out of the car and headed toward the porch. Mom and Dad tried their best, but there were only two of them and three doors. Somebody from that bunch made it inside the house....and took the mumps germs home with them. Five of the six kids came down with the mumps, and so did their dad. That was my second time having the mumps, and I was very glad they didn't come back again!

I don't really remember the 3-day measles, other than we shared them during the year. Chickenpox arrives in the early spring. They weren't too memorable either, other than being told repeatedly not to scratch. But the measles – oh, my! What a “downer” to break out with them four days into summer break.

At that time, the belief was that you could lose your eyesight with exposure to light during measles. So I was kept in bed, in a darkened room. And you weren't allowed to strain your eyes – no TV watching, no reading. Nothing. Just lay in bed and be miserable. Mom and Dad brought Grandpa out to entertain me. He read, he talked, we played. Mom even got the local newspapers from our neighbors and he read those cover to cover. It was a long, unforgettable two weeks!

Years later, those two weeks didn't count for anything. When I was expecting my son, there was a measles epidemic in our neighborhood. When I was getting my prenatal bloodwork done, they checked for an antibody that showed I'd had measles. It wasn't there. That was a shock, because I distinctly remember those two weeks of quarantine in that dark bedroom! But, the bloodwork told its own story. And immediately after delivering son, I received a measles shot. In a rather inglorious part of my anatomy. But at least that was over!

When my oldest was in kindergarten, she brought chickenpox home to the other two. The oldest one was absolutely covered – you couldn't put a finger on her without touching chickenpox blisters. The incubation period was 14 days. I'm pretty sure we were into the 13^th day when son got up from his nap with chickenpox. Younger daughter had been claiming every time I changed her diaper that she had chickenpox – pointing to a freckle next to her bellybutton! She was so happy when she broke out the same day as her brother. She'd watched people bring gifts to her older sister – that didn't happen with the other two, especially with both of them down at once! Being the younger ones is tough sometimes!

I'm so glad there are vaccines against those childhood diseases now. I wouldn't want to see the grandkids have to go through that – and I really wouldn't want my kids to have to go through taking care of sick kids!! In multi-kid households, they'd probably stretch those incubation periods as far as mine did!