To consider vaccinating against chicken pox?

[Chipshopninja]

It used to be the done thing to have chicken pox parties, so your child caught it as young as possible

Now though it seems there's more and more information on how dangerous it can be.
Apparently 10 children in the UK die from CP every year (read that somewhere earlier but don't have a link sorry)

My 2 nieces have had it recently and I'm considering getting ds (3) vaccinated

There's a local clinic that does it for 65 pounds

Aibu?

The CP vaccine is very safe. Yes you can still catch a very mild form of CP if vaccinated, but your child will never get shockingly ill or worse.

DS1 had CP when he was 2. He had thousands of blister, at least 200 on his face alone, inside the ears, the eyes, the mouth, the nose and of course, his penis and all. They came in two waves and on top of that he developed an otitis 10 days later.
I had called the DP at the beginning and had been told to stay home and let it do its course, but when the fever and earache started the GP came home and when he saw DS he was speechless, saying it was the worst case he had ever seen and had he know, he could have given us medications to ease it.

CP is dangerous. I remember a thread here of a mother who couldn't wake up her child one morning, she even put her/him in the snow, then at the hospital, they discovered just 3 tiny blisters on the foot. CP had turned into encephalopathy and almost killed the child.

If vaccinated, you may still get a very mild form, but never will your life be at risk. GO for it

I was under the impression it's not that the vaccine definitely only lasts 20 years but rather that we don't have any stats older than that. Ie, we don't know how long it lasts, as we only have data for people who were vaccinated 20 years ago, iyswim. It might last 70 years but we don't know because people only started having it in any great number quite recently.

Mine were vaccinated - DD because of her history of skin infections, and DS because I thought I might as well get them both done at once. Our French GP agreed to prescribe it (it is not on the regular vax schedule here) so it was free.

This was a while ago now, and only one jab was recommended at the time, which is now known not to give sufficient protection. They did both get CP a few years later, but so mildly that if DS's best friend hadn't been covered in pox just before, I wouldn't have recognised it. The spots appeared and then disappeared over a period of about 24 hours.

They had no reaction to the jab at all and I have no regrets, as I have a few friends whose children have been really ill with it.

Researching further, wikipedia says the vaccine was introduced in 1995.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine

This article below suggests there's been one in existence since 1988:

www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/may/15/real-reason-british-public-chickenpox-vaccine-shingles

I know it was introduced as part of the recommended schedule in the US in 1995, so maybe that's the source of the confusion. Either way, it is a fairly new thing. That's the reason manufacturers have to say we only know it provides immunity for 20 years. People who were given the vaccine in 1995 who are still immune might well be immune for the rest of their lives, but obviously we can't assume that: the only evidence we have is that it works for 20 years. We don't have any evidence that it doesn't work for longer, though.

We had dd done this year. Two jabs - £90 each. Cash well spent. If I'd had to take a week off work, the "cost" would've been much more.

Also, obviously, glad to avoid her the discomfort-pain-risk.

The doc who did it (who used to be a GP) explained that the NHS had been considering rolling it out but held back after the Hoo Haa about MMR.

As my kids were born overseas the vaccination was mandatory for them to have the jab before they could go to school etcetera. Both my boys caught CP about three years later. My first had six spots which just looked like insect bites. We didn't even know it was CP. It was only when a friend discovers her daughter had it and she had been handling my new born (too young to be vaccinated) and I was rigouriusly checking did I see DS2 had 18 'bug bites' come up overnight and put two and two together. Neither child was in the slightest bit ill and not severe itching or scaring. I would def go for it.

I had cp so bad they were all over my vulva!

It's a fing horrible disease.

DS has permanent facial scarring from it.

My DCs haven't had the full UK vax schedule. I am often called anti vax, blah blah blah but cp is one vax I would definitely get for my DCs if it was available.

It really pisses me off that it's not on the schedule whereas vax for what I consider much milder diseases are.

I will be getting the vaccine for next Dc. DD had it so bad she nearly ended up hospitalised with it. It was the worst week of my life.

YANBU

Chickenpox causes 20 deaths a year in the UK. Compared to meningitis b, which causes 50 deaths a year in the UK, the risk is lower , but still why take the risk?

Plus, personally, I'm covered in chickenpox scars, would prefer to avoid that for my chil.d

Oxford vaccine group website has the stats

I seem to be the only parent on here that DID take her child to a 'pox party'. I'll probably get a massive bollocking on here but I don't regret it.
I took her when she was 12 months old to a friend's child who had chicken pox. It was in the winter and we had no plans. she was small enough to not know any better and not remember it. I knew that the younger they were the less ill they got so made sense to me. She has it for about 4 days, no fever, she barely noticed she was ill. She has a few scars but nothing major and I now know she's vaccinated for life.
My other friend with the age child as me didn't and her child ended it getting it mid summer when she was nearly three in the boiling heat when they were due on holiday. She was ill and really aware, hot and it ruined their holiday.
I stand by my decision!

Danger, obviously you have made your decision, and your child is fine, and that is good.

However this....

I knew that the younger they were the less ill they got so made sense to me

Is not true, there can be massive complications at any age, sadly my friend lost her little boy at exactly the same age, due to complications as a result of chickenpox, and complications such as infection, sepsis, encephalitis and brain damage, can happen at any age.

Yes, these things are rare, but they do happen, and that is why chicken pox parties are not a great idea.

Absolutely. If you made your decision because you thought the younger a child was, the less ill they would get with CP, you made it based on incorrect information.

Our NHS gp surgery will do CP vaccines at £50 per injection, so £100 total. A friend recently had her two children done and I am seriously considering it for DD2.

Do it. DS has just had a dose. It wasn't bad but it was miserable.

My son was badly scarred by CP age 3 still has the scars 17yrs later as do I from childhood CP . Will definitely be getting DD vaccinated . Spoke to GP re this and he was really understanding as he noted the scaring on dark skin is often very noticeable even for flat scars and that brings about it's own issues( I spent over 30 years covering my legs due to CP scarring I don't want my DD to go through that if I can avoid it) HV poo pooed the idea but I know the impact it's had.

yanbu. I think if I was starting out with my dc I would vaccinate, for the protection against shingles in later life.

My children have scars all over from chickenpox. My 13 month old nearly died as Strep A and Staph B (both normally in the environment) infections took over. She had no underlying medical conditions and was perfectly healthy beforehand. The out of hours GP said 'it's only chickenpox' when I showed him her swollen belly. Fortunately I know a GP who popped by the next day and told me to get a second opinion. A week on IV drips (including signing permission to give her antibiotics from France ?!?) and oxygen monitors and six weeks dressing wounds later she was feeling better. A 14 month old boy died the same month will exactly the same condition. We call her deepest scars her 'Survival scars' and we make up exciting stories to tell people if they ask in the changing room!

We're in the U.S. And ds (13.5) had it as an infant. I'd definitely do it again.

Not giving advice on whether to get it or not but addressing the ten kids

There are approximately 15 million people aged 19 or under in the UK. Yes, it is terrible for the families of the ten who died but that is a tiny percentage. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more risky taking a car ride to the surgery than it would be catching the virus.

I wish mine had been vaccinated against cp. She caught it whilst I was in the early stages of pregnancy and I am not convinced that the reason I miscarried a few weeks later wasn't because of the cp, though I didn't catch it myself.

I have 3 dc's, two caught cp at age 4. One had a mild case, the other had a nasty case and was very poorly for a week. I had it when I was around 7 or 8 and was very poorly for about a week too.

I waited for my youngest to turn 5, and when she still hadn't had it I got her vaccinated privately. This was 2 years ago and she has not had the booster. Does anyone know how important the booster is? I don't mind if dd gets a mild case of cp, so I am not sure how important the booster is....

(YANBU )

I had never had chickenpox and caught it at 16 weeks pregnant with DS2.

Fortunately, once I knew CP was going around DS1's nursery, I insisted on a blood test to see if I was immune which meant that the result came back the day DS1 came out with the spots. I was then able to have an immunoglobulin injection straight away (risky in itself). I did come out in spots 2 wks later and felt a bit ill, but it was mild. (that's physically mild but not mentally mild).

I then spent the rest of the pregnancy in a sort of trying not to think of it limbo, i.e. spending every hour thinking of it. (I really feel for anyone who goes through this). The relief when DS2 was born and all okay was massive. He's over 6ft now and I still fuss him!

If the vaccine had been available when DS1 was little I definitely would have considered it as I knew I'd never had CP (even though my Mum said I must have natural immunity ).

I have had DD done & will get DS done when older.
As well as the points mentioned so far the info re shingles convinced me. Once you have the CP virus on board you can get shingles any time in the future. So if you have had the vaccine you can get shingles. However all the studies apparently show shingles cases a lot milder with post vaccine shingles than with post CP shingles.

I didn't catch it when i was a kid but caught it when i was about 18. It was just like a bad cold and i only had a few spot on my back and chest (scratched one before i knew what it was and it scared - mark is still there ) but it wasn't as bad for me as an adult as it was for my kids when they got it:

My 3 older DDs has CP when they were young (4 or 5) and 2 of them were really ill with it. Covered in spots - up their noses, over their scalp, privates, everywhere. DD2 even got it a second time :(

I'm going to look into getting DD4 done.