Reply to Nervous about infant's exposure to family member with herpes

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Nervous about infant's exposure to family member with herpes"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]My mom has herpes, and I'm nervous about visiting her with my infant at the holidays.  Here's info from the March of Dimes website:

[i]Fluid in genital herpes sores carry the herpes virus. Your skin also can release the virus, even if you don’t have a sore you can see.

If you have direct contact with an infected person’s sores or skin, the herpes virus can pass into your body through a break in your own skin. If you touch a herpes sore or the fluid from a sore, you can spread herpes from one part of your body to another. For example, if you touch a herpes sore on your lips and then rub your eye, you can spread the herpes infection to your eyes. If you do touch a herpes sore, wash your hands right away to help avoid spreading the infection.[/i]

It is probably very unlikely that my child will get herpes from casual contact with my mom, but my mom does not have the best hygiene and it makes me nervous.  What if she's wearing shorts and the baby just accidentally flops and touches her upper leg?  What if mom doesn't wash her hands after going to the bathroom?

Of course, I don't want to do anything to make my mom feel uncomfortable or like a leper, but I also want to protect my child.  Should I tell my mom that this is something I'm worried about?  Can I ask her to be really careful about washing her hands?  Should I ask if she's having an outbreak or if she is taking any medicine to manage the herpes?  Any suggestions are appreciated.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics