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Children's health

Chicken pox vaccination

2 replies

Lulujk85 · 29/05/2017 22:08

Hello, I'm wondering if I should try and get my youngest the chicken pox vaccination. DD came down with chicken pox on Saturday and it has now started to itch and really bother her. We've not been keeping her and her little brother apart, far from it, because we assumed he is bound to catch it anyway. In reading up about it I've now discovered a lot of stuff online that says the child catching it from a sibling often (obviously not always) gets it far worse. I know I probably shouldn't get too het up about it but I read a scary article where the second sibling had to be hospitalised because it was so bad (made worse by her eczema which ds has). I'm considering getting him vaccinated, but I'm guessing now he's been in very close contact with dd it will be too late? They've given each other kisses, picked up each other's drinks, dd has been sneezing in front of him. I feel very worried now.

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Fitzsimmons · 29/05/2017 22:19

My understanding is that the vaccination can reduce symptoms following exposure but is not that effective after five days following exposure. Given that your DD would have been infectious for a few days before her spots appeared I would imagine it's too late for the vaccine to help your DS.

Try not to worry, it is very rare for complications to develop. Stories are prevalent on the Internet because they are of interest. No one wants to read about how I just spent a boring three weeks in quarantine with my two, both of which had chickenpox with no complications. Nor do they want to read of the 12 children in my son's preschool who all had a straightforward case of chickenpox.

As with regards to whether your son will get it worse because of eczema; my DS has eczema and it seemed to result in him having hundreds of tiny spots, but they didn't seem to phase him. My DD caught it from him and she has had much milder version Flowers

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Lulujk85 · 29/05/2017 22:26

Thanks for replying, glad your little ones didn't have any complications. I just feel very guilty that I've made no effort to stop the cross contamination between mine. I guess all I can do is be vigilant about any warning signs.

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