to think chicken pox parties are irresponsible

[going]

An old school friend took her son to one today(I noticed via fb).

Why does anyone choose to make their children ill?

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Both my children have been exposed to CP numerous times, not intentionally but they have played with children who have then come out in spots ect.. however neither of my boys have had it.
I'm worried becuase DS1 has CF so has a compromised immuntiy and i'm not sure if it effect people with low immunity worse and also thier father had CP at 16 and was really unwell with it.
I have had CP but they never seem to get it, will they get it when they are older or are they already immune to it through me and thier father?

I'm not sure about the immunity side but I know one of the risk factors with CP is that it can spread to the lungs so the CF would be an issue. I had a CP immunity test when pregnant with DS2 as my mum couldn't remember whether I'd had it or not and there was a load of it at DS1's nursery. Done through GP. Took a while though.

YABU
And of course there will eb rare occassions when a child is damaged by cp. But thye could ahev picked it up unintentionally aswell, and possibly been just as ill.
Often children don't get it even when their ds & dd's do. wierd. whta is the logic. and some strains of it are worse than otheres. My ds's had it not too badly, but some have it badly with spots on willies, ears, mouths.
I invited friends round when ds1 had it, I knew their mums wanted them to have it sooner rather than later. 1 caught it. 1 didn't. ?????

why would someone deliberatly expose? why do you think ? because you have to have it, so its best to get it over and done with. both of mine had it age 2. best age.

Titsalina - it might be worth having an immunity test to see.

Titsalina, sometimes they just don't get it!
I was unintentionally exposed lots of times as a child and didn't get it. I have just had it recently after picking it up from school, was bloody awful!

DD got it from me and now DS has caught it from her.
I have had several parents asking if they can bring their children around in the hope they will get it, I have just laughed in a assume-you-are-joking way.
It's pretty unpleasant, DS has spots around his penis, in his ears, nose, around his eyes and is very, very uncomfortable.

Of course it becomes a vaccination thread -- how could going start this thread without trying to launch a vigorous campaign for regular vaccinations (note I am not launching that campaign). I would happily take my DC to a cp party. It would be nice to get CP over with at a time of my choosing and not wait for it to occur randomly.

But if you think CP is that dangerous then you should be screaming to the rooftops for vaccination to become routine. Very hypocritical otherwise.

You miss the point, its about intentional exposure versus natural exposure. YOu happy to take the risk? Good for you (I don't mean you I mean anyone) - but walk a step in my SILs shoes and you would think twice. If Jo had caught it off her brother or at nursery - would the same have happened? We don't know.

I do not have a problem with intentional. They do need to get it. and i think the younger , normally, the better.
Why did QOD's sil, child, get it so badly and be so damaged. don't know. and would the child have been so badly affected if caught by chance. don't know.
thus I think that = we just don't know. which means that , there is no intentional/accident debate.
why do some kids get it and others don't. my friend had 5 children and 1 still hasn't had it. why ?

so thus i think this kind of depletes the whole intentional argument. becasue quite frankly there is no logic to any of it.

yanbu, i understand what people's logic is but i could never do this for my dc would feel awful knowing i had made them ill on purpose.
qod that is so sad what happened with your sil :(
i am intending to get mine immunised from chicken pox actually, need to get it sorted out. i think that would be better, as its available, rather than let them suffer

YABU. Why should you not be invited to a party just because you are a chicken pock?

the CP jab is available privately and both mine had it - i don't get why more people don't immunise their children

not a party' obviously. when ds1 got chickjen pox I rang all my png and told them. and 2 said is it still o.k. if we come round, like we ere goning to do, for cofee and children play, because i do actually want dd\ds to get it. the others said no. no problem. 2 came. 1 got it. why did the other not ?

last year, my friend phoned me , knowing i wanted ds2 to get it before he started school, saying her dd had it. but it was the week before his christening, so I said no.
this time, last week infact, he caught it from , where????? nursery ???

Round here, we all tell eachother if we hear of it going around, becasue, 1) bouts of it are rare = lots of people want it and their kids have not had it.

I had it at 26 and 26 weeks pg. It was vile. I wish I'd had it as a child.

My children all had it one after the other but had I had the opportunity I probably would have expsoed the older two on purpose if needs be. If my dd hadn't had it by the time she was in her mid teens I would have considered the vax although the wild disease is preferable IMO as I believe the immunity is better conferred.

I've not heard of a connection between casual exposure and a minor dose - how would that be the case? It certainly didn't work for me.

I think the casual exposure thing minor does can not be true. when my friend phoned , with her dd, she said it was very very bad.
ds2 had it last week, covered in spots, but hardly itchy, no willy, ears, mouth. hardly even 'out of sorts'.
ds1 was a little bit worse, but very itchy spots, adn quite limp. but no willy, mouth ears.

like i said, we say, int eh playground, for those who haven't had it, and for those with 2 or 3 year olds, ...oh have you heard, so-and-so's got it. apparently very bad bout. oh thats a shame say others, i really do want dd, but i'll give thta one a miss.

Ooh missyK - something we disagree on Personally I would not vaccinate against cp because I would rather my children had lifelong immunity rather than relying on something that may not have even worked or would wear off and leave them vulnerable as adults. The vaccine also means a lifetime of boosters and the cp vaccine isn't as effective in adults so they could end up completely stuck!

oops - posted early!
Regarding the OP, I'm actually not sure if I would intentionally expose my own children at the moment but I can understand why people do it. I may change my mind when they are older if they still haven't caught it! :)

I had chicken pox age 31

Covered in spots - in ears,nose,mouth,throat etc.
Slept over 18 hours a day, had to be helped to the loo as too weak to get upstairs on my own. Three weeks off work, and still nowhere near 100% when I went back.Absolutely awful and luckily it didn't turn into shingles!
I had had no close contact with any children, just managed to pick it up "somewhere".

Years later my children got chicken pox when it spread through their nursery and luckily all had fairly mild doses.
So, by our experiences, I would say much better to have it when very young and get it over with - so I do see why people do the "chicken pox party"

My friends and I have noticed that if siblings catch it one after the other (so if one probably catches it off the other) the latter children to get it have it worse. This has been the case with both younger and older siblings alike. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just us trying to spot a pattern?

My son developed autism after he had chicken pox...now I am not saying its the definite cause but the Dr said to me it has been thought of as a possible cause ....

chicken pox parties are irresponsible..I wish I could turn back clock so he didnt get chicken pox at 9 months old, develop epilepsy and autism straight after...

Mmm. I took my son to the GP (spots on his eyeballs, etc see up thread) who told me he caught it in his first week of general practice and it was the worst he's ever, ever been ill.

Both mine had CP and it was my son who was yonger who had it worse. it went to his lungs and kidneys and was on AB for weeks.

I couldn't have done that to him on purpose..

on a side note. I am 7 weeks pregnant, I had cp as a child. I went to a party recently and the next day the child got cp, am I safe as I have had it already?

toerags - yes, it is supposed to be much much worse as an adult. Complications are much more likely in adulthood too.

bumps, yes, you should be immune although some people may not be (Which is why some people will get it twice) - maybe worth chatting to your GP and getting a blood test to check?

Thank you bubbley I will do that... groan..

DS has cp atm, I am at my parents and one of the reasons is I want an excuse not to expose my friends dc to chickenpox (they have already asked to come round) if I exposed their dc to DS and they got cp with complications I could never forgive myself even if they instigated the contact.

Also there is some evidence that the vac does not give the same protection against shingles as as adult getting CP itself does. (no I don't have a link - my doc showed me a medical journal article when we discussed this)