Chicken pox parties

[RosebudTheCat]

A relative has asked if I'd like to expose my two kids to her DD, who has chicken pox. My youngest is just 8mo. AIBU to think it was a stupid question to ask? Do people really still do 'chicken pox parties'?

tiggy you sound like you know what you're talking about. Do you know how effective the vaccine is? Dd had it when we were in Canada and I'm considering it for the ds...any thoughts?

Definitely would not intentionally infect a baby with it, but I did expose DD age 2.

DS1 got it (from school) at a very inconvenient time, we almost missed a holiday. Note that DS2 caught from DS1 and was very ill with it, and my GP said this was very common in children who caught from siblings as repeated exposure, so maybe better at CP party as no repeated exposure. DD caught from one exposure with her cousin (planned) was v mild and DS1 caught at school also mild. If I had exposed DS1 to it intentionally (it never arose) before DS2 was born, perhaps DS2 would have caught at school later and would have had it more mildly.

re: vaccine, I personally wouldn't as unlike having the illness, the vaccine protection can wear off. My friend had CP whilst pregnant - she'd been vaccinated as a child (abroad) but vaccination wore off and her older child caught at nursery when pregnant with younger child.

I was wondering last night, approx 10% of those that have had CP get it again, so natural immunity is about 90% effective.

www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/encyclopaedia/c/article/chickenpox/

In a study, up to 13% (around one in eight) of people diagnosed with chickenpox reported that they had had the condition before.

US studies conducted from 1995 to 1999 found that 4.5 to 13% of people diagnosed with chickenpox reported that they had had the condition before.

Other US studies have found that after having chickenpox, some people do not develop the antibodies needed to protect them against reinfection. For example:
from a report in 1996: tests on adults who reported having chickenpox showed that 97-99% of them had developed antibodies
from a report in 2007: tests showed that after having chickenpox, three quarters of children aged one to four had developed immunity, compared with all adults aged 20 to 29

Experts agree that if you have already had chickenpox, it is very likely that you will have developed antibodies.

Do you know how effective the vaccine is?

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/chickenpox-vaccine.aspx
It has been shown that nine out of 10 children vaccinated with a single dose will develop immunity against chickenpox. A two-dose schedule is recommended, as it gives an even better immune response.

The vaccination is not quite as effective after childhood. It's estimated that three-quarters of teenagers and adults who are vaccinated will develop immunity against chickenpox.

75% protected in those taking vaccine in teenage years to 87% at worst with chickenpox. Though the chickenpox virus comes with small number of serious cases.

But if vaccination in Canada is routine like I think USA is then herd immunity plays a part in reducing risk of contracting it anyway.

Great, thanks. So as expected natural immunity is more effective but good point re. Herd immunity in countries that offer routine vaccination.

Ah, thought this thread was on the wane but obviously not! Glad she at least told us about the cp - some of these stories of people not caring if their kids are infectious are really bad...

Thanks Dazzle. Hmm, things to think about...

If I had known ability the cp vaccine I would have paid for it gladly. My little girl was so ill that she was admitted to hospital and stayed there on a drip in isolation for a,week. It was terrible, she lost so much weight and the scarring on her torso is still bad 5 years later. Just be careful...

My 4 year old dgs has just come down with cp despite having been exposed to it many times without effect. Lots of his class mates have had it recently too . Hopefully it will be done with by Christmas.

You have terrified me now. He has lots of spots and a temperature but he is playing quite happily though he says he 'hates these chickens'. Is there anything I need to watch out for while I am looking after him today?

He'll almost certainly be fine thegreylady most DC are.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Chickenpox/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

Contact your GP straight away if you or your child develop any abnormal symptoms, for example:
if the skin surrounding the blisters becomes red and painful

if you or your child start to get pain in the chest or have difficulty breathing

In these cases, prescription medicine, and possibly hospital treatment, may be needed.

In one case I know hospitalized the DC was completely covered in spots - every patch of skin every where no space in between.

It's more preventing them scatting and scarring usually. In my sibling case he managed to knock fair few spots out leaving deep pock marks - but my DC didn't do that and the minor scarring the had has slowly disappeared over the years.

I think the general opinion is that the vaccine hasn't been available long enough to know whether it will offer whole life long immunity to people vaccinated as young children.

I'm not sure if that quote I did earlier about teenagers and adult from NHS site about saying the vaccine immunity being lower in teenagers and adults is talking about patients given the vaccine as teenagers and adults, so immunity developing after vaccine in first place, or about young DC given vaccine then their immunity checked as teenagers and adults ie immunity wearing off.

I think a lot of people getting really angry about this just don't understand risk. Chicken pox is usually - not always - a fairly mild disease. It's also highly infectious. If you protect your child against it when they're young, there's a very high chance they'll get it later anyway. The point of chicken pox parties is to get it out of the way. It might not be everybody's way of doing it, but it's not stupid per se.

My DD had chicken pox when she was 3. It was a fairly mild case. But my DH, who had never had it as a child, caught it from her, and was extremely ill with it - it is generally much worse in adults. So it would have been much better for him to have been exposed to it as a child.

It is shockingly ignorant to have chicken pox parties, utterly moronic. It is not a mild disease for a lot of people, it is very dangerous. I have seen fatalities in young children and life changing complications in others. Why on earth would any parent with half a brain do this?

I honestly thought this type of ignorance died out years ago as there appears to be much greater awareness of the risks in my area.

Mum constantly sent me to pox parties when I was a kid. Still didn't get it til I was 29 and got it off DS1.

Purposely trying to make your child ill is beyond irresponsible. I cannot believe anyone would be so ignorant, I really don't.

I paid to get the vaccine for my dd in the uk because it's standard where I come from. I had chicken pox as a child and I still have bad memories of it.

I am aware that the vaccine may not offer lifetime immunity so it's something I am going to keep an eye on. I did some research before deciding that the vaccine was the way to go.

DD's UK paediatricians (2 at GOSH, 1 at Tommy's) all recommended the cp vaccination, even taking into account the official reasons why it is not offered on the NHS. She doesn't have any particular health issues, other than a tendency to eczema, why she should be at risk of complications.

I had both mine vaccinated. DD1 was done in Turkey as it is standard over there and DD2 had it done here but I had to pay for it. Both have lifetime immunity (apparently), the one DD1 had is a single vaccine that lasts for life and DD2 had a booster so it doens't wear off.

I'm sure the only reason they don't do it as standard in the UK is for cost.

I would never deliberately expose a child to chickenpox.

My child was 18m when he got it.

He has no underlying health issue. He is a perfectly healthy child. He was breastfed still too.

He had complications when he got chicken pox (staphylococcus aureus - that's a skin necrotising infection) resulting in a "peeled child" who looked like he should've been in a burns unit (it looks like scalded skin and is also known as scalded skin syndrome).

I don't know how common this complication is but it exists and children who are perfectly healthy can get it.

The hospital didn't want him brought there as they said he would only pick up worse infections in their care and to keep him at home.

He was in the most unbelievable amount of pain and being at home we could only use over the counter pain relievers which were in my opinion not strong enough.

I had to take him to the gp every single day.

Luckily it was summer and warm. Dressing a peeled toddler is not possible. Not even a nappy. He was kept in his cot and rinsed with a shower and the towels beneath him changed after every wee or poo.

It took two adults caring for him round the clock - the other children were sent to grandmas while we dealt with this.

It was horrendous. Never deliberately give your child chicken pox - nobody would wish the risk of complication like this on their worst enemy let alone your own child.

My child still has scars now. Not the usual scars - but where large areas of skin fell off. His entire genital area was "peeled" along with other sizeable patches on his torso, arms and legs.

I never got it as a child, neither did my brother.

I got it aged 20 and it was horrific, I remember wishing I would die.

My children got it when they were quite small, one after the other, one of my children was really ill with it. I spent several weeks stuck indoors, no way was I going to expose other people to it. My Mum has a compromised immune system so I know how serious things like CP can be for some people.

I would never have knowingly infected my children with it.

I wouldn't do it myself, but if you don't immunise your child WILL get it, so I don't think there's anything wrong per se with trying to do it at a time when they will be least inconvenienced / likely to be less ill. You're right in saying it can be very serious, but the only way to reduce this risk is immunisation (and that isn't by any means 100% certain and then raises risks of shingles). I briefly considered exposing my DDs together as there is a dose reponse effect so children who catch off a sibling usually get it worse. It felt wrong and I didn't do it, but as expected DD2 caught it off DD1 and had a much worse dose.

Right, after reading all that I'm def going to get the twins done. Thanks MrsDeVere, you've really helped me make my mind up. And to all of you whose dc have had an awful time with it, must have been horrible.