To ask your advice. Should I infect my daughter?

[WhenSheWasBadSheWasHopeful]

Really sorry I am sure this has been done to death.

Was meant to visit my friend tomorrow but her son has just broken out in spots (the pox obviously). Should I visit with dd and get chickenpox over and done with or avoid it?

Dd is 21 months, has just got over a bit of a cold but is generally healthy.

well I think that letting your child get ill is wrong I don't understand it, the 21 month old might get really sick from it CP can cause deafness its all very well and good saying oh it is a mild infection but people moan and groan when adults send their children to school with a cold infecting their children with snot, but it is ok to mix with chicken pox

It's not a silly question to ask, lots of people still do chicken pox parties and see cp as a mild childhood illness (as did I until I heard otherwise on here and read up on it).

I don't take mine to other people's when they have tummy bugs ect either.

Not remotely the same thing as exposing a child to cp.

The difference with a cold and cp is that you can avoid getting a cold altogether (although at the moment I seem to get every cold going). 9 out of 10 children will get cp before the age of 10 (the 1 in 10 that don't probably got such a mild form it wasn't noticed). Cp is a one off illness.

The cold virus mutates all the time, so catching one cold means you won't catch that particular cold again but it doesn't give you any immunity against the other colds in the population.

That's why people get a flu vaccine every year to protect against new strains of flu.

I could go round the houses with this if you are prepared for your dd to be ill and up all night itching and with a fever then let her catch them it just isn't something i can agree with just be prepared with calomine lotion and calpol and a grouchy baby, you can throw as many facts around as you like but you are wanting your child to be ill for your convenience because it suits you to get it out the way,

Cp is not necessarily a one off illness. I know of a number of people who have had it more than once. It is mainly a one off illness, but it is possible to get it more than once.

MrsJay I have already said that reading these threads has made me decide not to take her to see friends son tomorrow.

I was just pointing out that that getting a cold and catching cp is a different thing (if you currently have a cold you can be 99.99% certain you will catch another cold - but if you have had cp before it is very unlikely you will catch it again).

It is not really possible for anyone to avoid exposure to cp, just to avoid deliberate exposure as people are contagious before the spots appear, so those who don't get it as a child but then get it as an adult simply just didn't get it as a child, they would have been in contact with it many times I am sure, as my children have through pre school, school and friends who come out with it after we have been together and not known. Mine are nearly 7, 4 and 1. I am sure they will get it, I just won't be deliberately exposing them to it.

I am still wondering why the nhs doesn't vaccinate against cp.

Op I've wondered why the nhs doesnt vacinate against cp too - I believe they do in the states. Can someone enlighten?
Also, I think cp is a one off illness but you can catch shingles many times after...can someone verify that?

The NHS thing will be money-based. They add up the cost of a nationwide vaccination programme, take into account the percentage that will have complications, and then work out the financial cost to them of the people that do go onto need NHS help if they get cp. Because there are so few people that go onto develop complications, the sums don't add up.

Of course that doesn't take away from how serious those complications can be, but because they affect such a tiny percentage it's not seen as worthwhile to vaccinate, apart from for high risk groups as Tiggy says.

I know the risk of a serious reaction to CP is tiny, but I still wouldn't deliberately expose DS to it if I believed he was likely to catch it (DS had CP when about 12 months old, no idea where he caught it from).

Ignoring the risk of serious complications, your DD would still feel ill and fluey, get an itchy rash that she's not meant to scratch, and at 21 months, and is too young to really cope with feeling ill or understand why she's not meant to scratch the spots.

Also, I know a number of people whose kids caught CP young (under 3 years old), and then got it again when they were older.

And tiggytape's explanation of why the NHS doesn't routinely vaccinate against CP is spot on.

I absolutely wouldn't at the age of 21 months. She will be horribly uncomfortable and distressed.

So should I pay for a private vaccination for her then? (I have already mentioned I will not be taking her to see friends son with cp).

I have had my DD vaccinated against cp (privately, not available in her case on NHS), as my husband was terribly ill with it as a child, as was his grandmother in her youth. The idea of someone deliberately exposing a child to cp sits very uncomfortably with me.

No I wouldn't take her. The chances are once she starts pre-school or school she will get it anyway. It can be mild but even if you don't get complications from it it's still not nice. DS5 managed to get it twice in weeks -he had it first, very mildly then caught it again off his brother and was covered. He now has lots of scars all over his face. He was quite ill with a temperature for a couple of days and so were DS3 & 4 when they had it.

Oh, sorry, I hadn't read your update! I would definitely recommend vaccination, yes, I think the only reason they don't do it as a matter of course on the NHS is due to lack of resources.

BTW it is not always awful to get it as an adult.
I caught it when pregnant (after lots of opportunities as a child). I was fed up because I couldn't go anywhere, and was the size of a whale. Fortunately it was late pregnancy so there were fewer worries about its affect on the baby. We were concerned as: if my temperature got too high that could bring on labour; DH's mother died of CP, we never told FIL as he'd worry too much; and incase I went into labour, as the last place you want someone with CP or a baby with CP is the maternity wards.

I wasn't very ill with it at all, fortunately.