Urgent we need your thoughts on chickenpox

I am sorry, but whilst I acknowledge that there are risks during pregnany they are not actually that bad. In fact if you did the stats eating soft whip ice cream (which is probably occurs more often than a woman coming into contact with a pox infected person) may well come out as statistically more dangerous.

IF a woman catches chicken pox up to 20wks there is a small (2% max) chance baby will be affected. If a woman catches chicken pox between 20-38ish weeks there is apparently NO risk.
The biggest risk occurs IF a woman catches chicken pox in last couple of weeks.

Overall combining the frequency with which chicken pox in pregnancy does occur with the low frequency of complications I would say that IMO prevention of chicken pox in pregnancy is not an argument for vaccinating.

Not commenting on other reasons to/not to vaccintate.

here is my source.

My prem twins had chicken pox at 8 months, one sailed through and the other was horrendous - he ended up in hosp 3 weeks after it cleared up with some sort of infection on his chest (osti summut??), needing IV anti-biotics....quite scary, would have been nice not to go through it as he has many scars and now has molloscum contagiosum very badly so even more scars.....

DS had chickenpox very mildly - DD had it very badly (in terms of spots but was alright "in herself") and has some visible scars on her body. I think a chickenpox vaccine is one too many - they are now giving more vaccinations at a younger age than when my DC were small and no cohort has yet grown up with the new regime so I think we should wait to see if there are any long term implications to hitting a young immune system with so many vaccinations before adding another.

yes, they had hep B combined int ehHexavalent vaccine.

Interestingly, there's not nearly such a fuss made about vaccines in Belgium as there is in the UK.

Having said that, I remember parents being jailed for refusing to get their children vaccinated against polio, iirc. It's the only vaccine that you have to get by law. Very extreme case.

I am very skeptacle as to how much imunity a vaxine would provide, because if you get chicken pocks mildly then it is possible to get it again.

I've had chicken pocks twice.

Once when I was 7, and once when I was 14. Although i had loads of spots the first time and it was really ichy and I had them everywhere, when I was 14 I caught it again, very mildly, but none the less...

So I don't believe that vaxination would really provide long-lasting imunity, and the idea of having to keep giving boosters is madness.

My ds has had mmr etc, but I think that we're going way too far with reference to vaxinating against anything and everything.

I wouldn't have my ds vaxinated.

I had chicken pox as a child and can remember vividly wanting to scratch the whole time. My dd had it aged 3 and didn't seem to want to scratch at all, although was quite unwell with it, flu like symptoms, persistent cough and very very tired. Her skin has also scarred even though she did not pick the spots. I am not sure what I think about the vaccine. I think I would want to see more evidence. I understood that you had to have several boosters?

I would have had mine vaccinated. They both had it at the same time at 18ish months and 3years. My dd has scars on her face and ds was really ill. From a logistical pov, I was lucky that they both caught it from the same child and got it at the same time. Silbings who catch it from each other will have it 2-3 weeks apart. Coupled with the fact that children cannot go to school or nursery, parents can end up taking a month of work to look after them.

I think so. I'll just check.

Hijack - Belgo, have your children had Hepatitis B vaccination in Belgium?

If I lived in a country where all children are vaccinated against chicken pox, I would have wanted my children to be vaccinated as well.

If the government brings in the vaccination, they have to ensure that enough children have it done to make it effective. That will be difficult as vaccinations are unpopular amongst many parents. There seems to be so much distrust of vaccinations, and i don't really understand why. I see them as a good thing.

1. Isn't chicken pox risky if you are pregnant so surely that it an argument as well.

1. Also what about the educational point of view. I remember having it when I was 7 and needed a whole week of school. As I remember 75% of the class caught it at the same time and it was very disruptive.

1. So far as giving a vaccine is conerned - as long as it is safe I would be happy to give it to my children rather than go through the nausea of having chicken pox (twice!).

1. Also sureley it would be worth it as most children catch it at some point.

I heard about the vaccine thing this morning. I have a ds who when he was 2 caught chicken pox. He nearly died, it was horrendous. His body, for some reason, had no idea how to fight it. The spots kept coming out after a week and he got a secondary infection too. In the end he was given anti viral drugs to stop it progressing.

He is covered in scars all over his little body. I had already had my first 3 children have it and they were all fine. I even took him to play with a friends little girl who had it. I felt awful. I have been totally scared off letting my other 2 boys near it and am sure i will go in to a flat panic when they inevitably do get it

Of course they will probably be ok like the first 3 but still i shudder at the thought.

Not sure what i think about the vaccine tbh, part of me thinks hooray! The other thinks that perhaps we bombard our little babies with enough vaccines as it is. Will be evry interested to hear all about it.

Psychomum's DD2 had it when she was pregnant with her DD3 - she hadn't had it, so they had the bright idea of vaccinating during pregnancy so that it would pass through to the baby

Her DD3 ended up born with chicken pox and has really weird reactions when she is around it now.

Not that it is relevant, but everyone else was sharing anecdotes and I didn't have any because mine seem to have some weird immunity (DH hasn't had it, DD has been around it lots and never seems to get it DS catches everything though so I fully expect him to get it and pass it to DH who will then be very ill with it AND man-flu it at the same time)

I was very unwell with it as a teenager, after somehow missing it at my small suburban primary school.
Off for three weeks, messed with Mock A Level revision big-time.
My general unease about the medical establishment's openness to parent concerns about adverse reactions to vaccines is what stops me being very enthusiastic about this new vaccine.
I am not keen to see any more added to the long list...unless there is a breakthrough on a safe and effective Meningitis B jab of course

I would probably not vaccinate against CP given the option. It is scary when your DCs are ill and you do worry about all the complications which can occur but I think they have such a cocktail of vaccines already that perhaps we should only vaccinate against the 'worst' diseases (eg Mumps, Measles etc...).
Luckily my 2 DSs both came through it okay although they both had 2-3 days when they really suffered with it. My niece had it horrendously when she was 9 months old and had to have antibiotics to prevent infection as there were so many spots and they kept weeping.

By the way ds was 4 when he had it.

Both of mine have had it 2 weeks between each other, dd has it first when she was about 17 months old, she only had a few spots over her, she coped very well & it did not effect her much, then ds got it 2 weeks later, he was covered from top to toe, he had them everywhere even in his mouth, on lips, you could not see one inch of his neck where he was so covered in them, he was very very poorly & did not move, he slept alot & cried alot, they started to get infected so we went to the docotrs & he was given antibiotics which helped ease it all alot.

Even though ds had it so bad i am not sure i would invite another injection, i think that children have enough injections to prevent them & chicken pox is quite short lived, the only down side is the scars if they have it bad, ds has a couple luckily only 1 on his face visible but he has a couple of deep ones on his stomach.

my dd had it at 3, wasn't ill. my partner caught it from her ( he's 43) and really suffered with it.

I don't have any issue with vaccinations, at any age.

Both DDs have had chicken pox with no major problems. A bit uncomfortable for a few days but nothing major, I also have chicken pox immunity as I had cp as a child. I know it can be very dangerous for pregnant women but don't think the vaccine is necessary. My children have had all the recommended injections but I would think twice about exposing them to this one.

Mine got it en masse over Christmas one year. DD who was 14 was very ill and covered in spots. DS1 (12) just had 2 spots and didn't even notice it. DS2 (10) got spots inside his eyes and ended up at A&E. DS3 (8) was quite spotty but not too ill.

They have the chickenpox vaccine here in Italy but apparently it doesn't protect as much as it's supposed to and there have been instances of vaccinated children getting the virus nonetheless.

I didn't get my DD vaccinated as not very pro vaccinations, but her paediatrician advised me against it anyway, saying it was not much use IHO, plus the risk of complications in chickenpox is so low that it doesn't warrant yet another vaccine.

There appears to be some evidence that cases of shingles have actually increased in the US since the cp vaccine was introduced. Also the fact that it does not provide lifelong immunity worries me as chicken pox is a very unpleasant disease for an adult.

yeah and they said the MMR doesn't need boosters (it does) and hib (it does) and men c (it does).......

Hmm wonder where those safety trials are? (they don;t bother doing things like assess how long immuinity lasts- which for a usually mild disease is an important consideration, because of the risk of it becoming a serious adult disease if immunity doesn;t last a long time)

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