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?

YANBU.

DD1 has been vaccinated (two doses). DD2 will be as soon as she turns one - I just hope she doesn't catch it before then.

Mine had it 18 months ago at 2 and 4, and got away very lightly. If they hadn't had it by their teens we would have vaccinated.

My daughters jabs are £130 each! Seen huge difference in prices. My clinic was 2 mins from my house so I didn't really worry too much about cost

My friend works at Birmingham childrens hospital. She sees healthy children die or suffer long term damage from chicken pox. She got her children vaccinated so that was enough proof it was worth it for me.

Be interested to know what posters were advised ( by a professional, not Google) about checking immunity and whether your children had 1 or 2 jabs.

My private GP said check immunity at child bearing age but felt natural boosting from exposure to cp was likely.

We just had the new Men B vax for both kids privately, it is £130 each jab each child. They need two doses. Pricey business

I must add, his advise was applicable to 2 jabs

Had my youngest vaccinated as I work full time and by then had no family to help out with a "surprise" week off work. Two jabs advised but only had one as I researched it and first confers 90% chance immunity (second takes it up to 97%). Seems to have done the trick as she has since been in contact with cp and not caught it.
Went private. 75 pound a dose.

There is now a shingles vaccine too. Is that on the U.S. Schedule? Should it be given after the CP vax?

Hi stargirl, there is a shingles vac and it's now offered to anyone aged 70-78 www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/shingles-vaccination.aspx. Younger people do get shingles and some may require antiviral meds

Honeylulu - was anything mentioned about getting immunity checked?

I knew that it was being offered to the elderly. Is there any benefit to vaccinating children with it? Are the U.S. doing so?

You don't vaccinate children with it. I imagine it's on the USA schedule.

Most young people don't get shingles. You can only get shingles if you have had chicken pox. You can get shingles if you've had the vac but your odds of not getting it are better. Although if you do have the vac and do get cp you could get shingles from the cp and the vac - much rarer through vac though.

I have a friend in her 30s who gets shingles. She had cp as a child.

One of the benefits to the vac is reduced risk of shingles in later life.

The shingles vaccine is not licensed for people under 50 in England stargirl.

Ah. No license, no vaccine. Thanks.

Got my son done as he has sever eczema and he has suffered enough with skin problems ( also can be a lot worse with eczema).
One financial argument for it is the vaccine is cheaper than two weeks off work if like me you are not paid for taking time off with sick kids.

Please please all, get them vaccinated. My child caught it a t 11 month. She is now 12 and badly scarred on the face. why take the risk of your child being scarred, never mind anything else? For the sake of £50 or £60?

Frustratingly I caught CP as a child, but was tested when pregnant for immunity and my residual immunity was very low so I got vaccinated as well. Just worth bearing in mind.

I had my kids vaccinated. Best thing I ever spent my money on. Some of their little friends got very sick with it including infected sores and secondary infections - at the very least, a miserable time for all. There's an effective and safe vaccine, it's totally avoidable. Yanbu

Vaccinate your children against chicken pox. When I was ten, I had mild chicken pox with only a few scars. My adult sister caught them from me, and was very ill indeed.
My scars would not be so bad if I hadn't squeezed the pox, thinking they were zits. My mother used to squeeze my brother's zits under the kitchen light.

I've just had my DS done also getting Men B. Pretty expensive though - 2 X £110 for cp and 3 x £180 for Men B.

I can just about afford it but it's a bit of a hit financially.

2010sl I believe the thinking now is that a single dose of the vaccine is definitely not enough to give immunity. My children had CP so mildly that it would have been easy to miss (I'd have put the spots down to insect bites if it hadn't been for a very close friend having CP at the time) - but I don't know if all "breakthrough" cases are as mild as this.

2010sl (sorry can't seem to make it bold font), they didn't mention testing for immunity after cp vaccine. It is possible though. My sister was tested when she was pregnant and worried about catching cp. she did have immunity (as she must have had asymptomatic cp as a child).
I'm now wondering if I should get a second dose for my daughter after all, reading the comments above. 90% seems fairly good odds though.
I also had men b vaccine for her privately. Its now part of the normal vaccine schedule but she just missed out on it being introduced on the nhs.

splendide do you mean
2 X £110 for cp and 3 x £180 for Men B.
Or
2 X £55 for cp and 3 x £60 for Men B?
The first is very expensive! £760 total?
I've been weighing up cp vax for my boys aged 6&8, having cp would be a gap in their schooling, uncomfortable, and I'd have to take some time off work... But paying £260 for them both though :( still can't decide...

honeylulu I wonder how accurate that 90% is though. Most studies of CP vaccine efficiency rely on reports of CP cases in vaccinated children. However, my experience of breakthrough post-vaccine CP is that it may be difficult to recognise as CP. My children probably had a couple of dozen spots each, and they were recognisable as CP spots for less than 24 hours, and only by someone with good knowledge of what a CP spot looks like in its early stage before the head forms (the spots did not form heads). I'm reasonably switched on medically but I only recognised them because I had a good example of a classic CP case handy!

I think the 90% figure is probably an overestimate. However, if most breakthrough CP cases are very mild, maybe it isn't a big issue.