How worried should I be? Tonsillitis, newborn, exposure

[happypamama]

My sister and her fiance are scheduled to visit us next week, arriving Friday.  My sister was just diagnosed with tonsillitis and she started antibiotics yesterday evening, so she'll have been on them for six (out of ten) days by the time she arrives.  I expect that she won't be contagious by then.

 

How about her fiance?  She says he's not being treated, but he's in close contact with her, and I'd assume he was exposed.  By the time they visit, it'll be well over a week since he was exposed.  She says he's not at all sick.  But even if he doesn't get sick, I'm concerned that he can be an asymptomatic carrier and still spread the illness to my children, including the newborn.  Since they're coming to meet the new baby, it won't really work to keep the baby away from everyone; if that were to be the case, we'd be better off rescheduling (although that's tricky to do).  Or is well over a week too long for the bacteria to be hanging around him so that it's spreadable to us?

 

I'm not a big germophobe at all; a cold wouldn't really bother me too much.  But I REALLY want to avoid having to put my newborn on antibiotics for something avoidable.  But I don't want to be unnecessarily paranoid either.  (Although, he's exclusively breastfed, and even though I don't have tonsils and can't get tonsillitis, I suppose my body could still be exposed sufficiently enough to make antibodies for my baby.  But still, ugh!)

[BlueTaelon]

Call me mean and paranoid but sick people don't come near us period, especially with a new born:)

[happypamama]

Call me mean and paranoid but sick people don't come near us period, especially with a new born:)

But that's the question -- ARE they sick?  If they were coming today, the answer would be no, but will they still be sick six days from now?

[Jann in TX]

If he does not have symptoms I would not worry.  Most tonsilitis (bacterial) does not have a long incubation period-- meaning if you are going to get sick from exposure it will be witin a few days--by next Friday he will know if he 'caught' it from her.

 

ANYONE who comes in contact with your baby can be a 'carrier' of any number of germs.  You can't live in a bubble.  If you go grocery shopping and come home you are bringing germs into the house... I almost died from the Russial Flu when I was 14.  I lived in a small town and I was one of the first in the state of Oklahoma to be dxed with it and the only one in my county.  The health department said I most likely caught it from a piece of mail (I was the one who went to the PO box every day after school).

 

Make sure anyone who comes in contact with the baby (as in will be holding baby) is not ill (no symptoms) and has washed their hands first.