Hellobee Boards

Influenza is contagious for 5-7 days after becoming sick and the virus only lives on surfaces for 24 hours. I would think by Christmas you are running a very low risk situation of infection. I would still go.

Did you, your husband, and your older kiddo get your flu shot? Are you breast feeding? If so, I'd go. If not, I'd get your flu shots today and haggle over going.

I would send my husband alone. It just wouldn’t be worth the risk to me with a baby.

I don’t think I would risk it. It takes 2 weeks for the vaccine to fully kick in. Not worth risk to a 6 week old.

Wow! Very mixed responses! Personally I would go. Not a newborn so probably* ok and I’m sure she’s really looking forward to seeing you all. Just keep the baby from being passed around and limit the visit to two hours or something.

@LemonJack: how mobile is your 6 month old? If she’s crawling or wouldn’t be happy just being help by a few safe people, and is putting everything in her mouth... I don’t know what I would do. But if you think she will mostly be happy with you or DH or someone else you trust is healthy and washes their hands holding her most of the time, I would probably lean towards going.

Is there someone who will help his grandmother clean beforehand and could do an extra wipe down with Lysol? I can’t imagine an old lady recovering from the flu wants to do that right now.

As long as no one else there comes down with it I’d go.

I would make a decision closer to time. If anyone is still sick I would skip. If I went, I would baby wear and not feel bad about leaving early if people were coughing/ sneezing.

If no one else was sick with it, I'd probably go and either babywear or be holding the baby as much as possible. Wash hands and take hand sanitizer.
Like someone else said, you can get the virus at the grocery store or even pumping gas at the gas station!
However, if someone else comes down with it before the day is here, we'd be sitting it out. As to me that means the virus is spreading and there are other folks that are carriers.

The flu's contagious period is 5-7 days, so Christmas Eve would be the 8th day, if I'm counting correctly...? Also, was/is she on Tamiflu? Our ped said DH was only contagious for 5 days if he had Tamiflu, and LO was 3m at the time so we were being very cautious.

Another thing to consider is (1) do you get to see this grandma very often and (2) do you WANT to go? LOL

After I posted before I was also thinking - chances are grandma was sick for a couple days BEFORE she was admitted to hospital, right? So you have even more of a buffer zone for contagiousness!