Chickenpox vaccine for 1 year old

[jolies]

Has anyone took their child for the chickenpox vaccine privately and think it's worth getting? DS is 13 months and slots have became available at my local boots store, it's quite a big expense at £140 but we are happy to pay if it's really going to be worth it. DS is a healthy 1 year old with no health conditions. Just looking for others experiences and advice.

My daughter has been vaccinated. Money well spent.

My son was due to have it but came out in it the day before

Absolutely worth it if you can afford to get it done.
My 6 yo has had it and hasn't had chicken pox yet, even though its been in the class.

It can actually be given on the same day as the MMR, but often that’s not practical if the NHS GP is giving the MMR and you’re going private for the chickenpox, so if not the same day then yes you need to wait 4 weeks.

Floundering that's right. I give the MMR but am not allowed to give 'private' vaccines such as CP to our patients.
Have also been advised the CP vaccine is likely to be introduced (as is the RSV vaccine) into the childhood schedule before too long. In fact it may well have been done already had it not been for the disruption of COVID.

This is not true. Shingles is a reactivation of the chickenpox virus. You only get shingles if you have been infected with chickenpox in the past.

If you are vaccinated, the vast majority of the time you don't catch it, and if you have never had chickenpox then you never get shingles.

In the rare case that you do get chickenpox after vaccination, it will be a very mild dose, with much less risk of serious complications .

You can have a booster dose of the vaccine as an adult to top up your immunity.

Absolutely! My daughters class had nigh on every child catch it and she never did. Finally managed to get my sons second dose after they ran out in the summer.

I had my two done.

They've both escaped numerous outbreaks at school and nursery so far.

My eldest (almost 6) did actually catch it in the most recent outbreak. He had 7 tiny spots. They itched for 1 day, scabbed the next and apart from being a bit tired was fine. Missed 2 days of school. It must have been a bad strain for him to even have showed symptoms but they were sooooo mild. I'd hate to think how I'll he'd have been without the vaccination.

Waiting to see if DD catches it now.

IMO well worth it.

I think the opposite is true with shingles. You can only get shingles if you had CP, which is an argument FOR the vaccine not against.

@newbookonshelf There has not been an increase in Adult hospitalisations or deaths from chickenpox in Australia since it was added to the standard child immunisation Schedule in 2005.

Child hospitalisations have fallen dramatically since the introduction of the vaccine. Child deaths were always quite rare, but they have also been reduced. Positive news for the vaccine. I hope all British children will soon have access to it too.

I said we see adult deaths in the US where children are routinely vaccinated.

Whereas here in the UK 95% of us get chicken pox as children and we don't get adult chicken pox deaths, as I believe? would they be recorded here if so? This is 2015-20 www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/childdeathsandhospitalisationsinvolvingcovid19andchickenpox

Bloody hell that link is scary.

OK putting it into context and to reassure that the actual numbers and therefore risks are low (less than 5 a year), but on the data in that link a child under 10 is twice as likely to die from chickenpox (where there is no NHS vaccine) than they are from Covid (where there is an NHS vaccine).

Those are just the statistics for child deaths.

There are adult deaths right now in the UK from chickenpox as well, and from shingles. I can't find up to date stats easily but here is a report from 2001 showing that 25 people a year in a England and Wales die from chickenpox and 80% of them are adults.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC59681/

We didn't vaccinate ds and won't bother with dd. They obviously have their normal immunisations but I don't think the chicken pox one is important.

Ds had chicken pox age 3 and it was incredibly mild and short lived.

That’s just luck though.

Plenty of parents also find it very difficult to juggle work to stay off for the length of time it takes the spots to scab, too.

@Skinnermarink it was our choice and I'm a sahm so the time off thing doesn't affect me. If others want to vaccinate then that's great and I respect their decision.

Dh works on the nhs frontline in a senior role and has looked after a LOT of very sick children over the years. I trusted his judgment. If he saw it as important then his kids would definitely be having it.

No, I was living in the USA where it's routinely offered, both myself and my paediatrician researched it and decided against because the vaccine immunity is thought to wane- a problem in a country with a high level of wild cases. Chickenpox is more dangerous in adults so dropping immunity is a problem unless a booster is offered.

Both mine caught chickenpox within 6 weeks of returning to the U.K. to live!

We also live in a country where it is offered as part of the childhood vaccination program and we declined it for the same reasons. Our paediatrician said he had taken the same stance with his own children. I just couldn’t find solid data on how long vaccination immunity lasts and, whilst I can ensure my child gets booster as a child, would my 20 yr old be responsible enough to take himself? I would hate for his immunity to have gone and to catch it as an adult.

If DS hadn’t caught it by kindergarten we may have considered it. It’s harder to catch in countries with higher vaccination rates as it just doesn’t circulate so much. However he caught it at 2 so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.

This was just our opinion. I wouldn’t judge anyone either way.

We were told that there isn't enough data on how long immunity lasts because the vaccine has 'only' been around for approx. 25 years, but small-scale studies show all is looking good so far.

They can have a booster, so when mine is a teen I'll look into the data and organise for him to get his immunity tested or just get him a booster, before he's an adult and out of my care. If he then needs another booster in his 40s that's up to him to sort out!

Just to point out as well, you can get chicken pox more than once. It's relatively rare but not unheard of.

My two 9 and 7 year old didn't have it. I did think about it but I read that it only lasts 10 years and they may catch it as an adult which is worse? Mine have both managed to not catch it despite two outbreaks!

Yep mine had hers at 2. She picked up so many nursery bugs and we had so much time off to look after her that we couldn’t afford any more, especially with CP which is usually one of the worse bugs. She came out in a couple of spots on her tummy a few months ago when it was doing the rounds at nursery but no fever or any other symptoms. Very happy with my choice.

I echo what @taliaG said.

Both of mine have had it. Father in law is a retired Dr (Spanish) and they have it as routine there. He was absolutely in favour of it.

Getting the CP virus is a no-brainer to me and I have no hesitation judging harshly anyone who opposes is out of misplaced fear of change or whatever lies they heard on Facebook.

It looks like it’s the 25th anniversary of the US’s CP vaccination program, and the data speaks for itself:

”Chickenpox —which is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, a type of herpes virus — was considered just a normal part of growing up until the vaccine became available in 1995. Since then new U.S. cases of the disease among those under age 20 have been cut by 97 percent, hospitalizations by 94 percent and deaths by 99 percent as of 2019, according to an analysis of national databases released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Children aren’t needlessly suffering from this miserable illness in countries where the CP vaccine is commonplace, and contrary to what is being posted on this thread, adults aren’t commonly dropping dead of CP either. The disease has basically died out and gone the way of the mumps or other childhood ailments you’d read about in kids books generations past.

Special anniversary addition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases: academic.oup.com/jid/issue/226/Supplement_4?login=false

My eldest (now 25) caught chicken pox and was hospitalised with it. It was awful. The private vaccine wasn't available all those years ago. My youngest (5) had it at 14 months old and I am so glad we did it. We have been through big outbreaks at nursery and school and she was fine. I will pay for a booster at about 18 or 20 if needed.

I had also paid privately to have my kids vaccinated against chickenpox, as it is recommended for ages (more than 20 years) in the US, Germany and other countries. Since studies have shown that it is cost-effective as it avoids hospitalisation costs for occasional severe cases, I never understood why it is not recommended in the UK. From what I found out, it is only because one or two generations of adults would be at higher risk of shingles as being exposed to children with chicken pox acts like a little 'booster vaccine' against shingles - however in other countries these two generations of adults who had chickenpox as children get a vaccine against shingles when they are older. All generations afterwards would not have to bother, as if you never had chickenpox you cannot get shingles, which is a really painful and terrible disease - you can get it, because once you had chickenpox yourself as a child it can never be really 'cured', as the virus survives and hides in your body and can creep up on you again in later life. I am glad that my children won't have that - and their chickenpox vaccine worked really well, as they did not fall ill (and they did not miss school and I did not have to take time off work) when their classmates and all the children at their childminder got it...

Off top[c but over 65's are offered the vaccine.