To keep my kids away from chicken pox party?

[Badgerboop]

More of a WWYD?

One of my friends is having a kids party tomorrow and both of my children have been invited. I've just found out via Facebook that the birthday girl has got chicken pox in the contagious stage. The mother is not going to postpone the party and it's still going ahead.

Neither of my kids have had it. I wouldn't mind the eldest one catching it as I think she would cope with it but I really don't want my youngest to catch it as she's just getting over a cold, ear and chest infection which has knocked her for 6 and neither of us have had any sleep for the past 5 days!

Shall I just decline the invite or just take them? She's the type of woman who will get funny with me if I decline. I thought about just taking the eldest but if she catches it she will obv pass onto th youngest

I would phone social service if someone idiot parents choose to expose themselves to a virus that can be dangerous.

Out of interest what is the advice now on deliberate exposure? I don't know what the probabilities are about having a dangerous bout in childhood Vs a likely worse bout in adulthood? My DCs were vaccinated so it was never an issue but I know a few parents who haven't had it and so are desperate for DC's to avoid it - all other parents I know are desperate to expose.

What do you expect social services to actually do mrsjamie?

It's not illegal not to vaccinate children, and I can't believe taking a child to one of these parties (while totally out of order) constitutes such negligence that social services would get interested. I'm happy to be corrected if someone has actual knowledge on this.

I wouldn't go; my yoingest sailed through with 4 spots and no trouble at all while my eldest got it two weeks later and had literally hundreds of spits and was physically weakened after the spots went away for weeks.
It's an awful disease and would not infect mine willingly. Friends from the states had their kids immunised but they still got it when they were over here. It can be a frightening horrendous thing

Has she warned anyone else? Does she know if anyone pregnant will be there? Only asking because I was born with Chicken pox, my mum had it because a woman at work thought it was 'helping' everyone by infecting all and sundry, so gave it to my mum who was heavily pregnant, and because I was born with them, I was born with weak hollow teeth (doesn't sound like much, but its hell when you have to have dentures at 36 because your teeth are like glass :-( !) and I also had every illness under the sun, had febrile convulsions up to the age of 2 and shingles at 3 which made me ill for months. Bloody irresponsible. Tell her she's a twadge-biscuit! I bloody would!

Just want to point out that my dad has no immunity to it. He's had it at least 5 times, he gets extremely unwell to the point he's hospitalised. It's rare but one of the parents attending may have this problem. The mum definitely needs to inform people

What an utterly selfish, wreckless cow!!

Dont take them and dont apologise - she actually deserves a mouthful for doing something so callous! What a 'friend!'...

I also think you should seriously consider cutting her off if she tried to be funny with you for 'not being willing to deliberately make your children potentially seriously ill'

Tbh if it was a friend of mine, i'd be having a serious word - pointing out how dangerous it could be for others, that its a selfish thing to do and that if she insists on going ahead that she should tell everyone who is invited and leave them to decide if they are coming.

You have seen this on fb, dont you feel a bit like its put you in a very awkward position? Surely you would feel guilty for not saying anything?

A friend of a friend's son died from it. He was only 6. There were complications and 'lesions' spread to his internal organs. They were in complete shock as it first seemed like a normal childhood illness. Children sometimes get chicken pox but I wouldn't seek it out. if you Google it you will see other cases like this.

There is a vaccine for it so keep them away and have that done next time you are at the drs. We had to pay but worth it, I caught it at uni awful.

Surely deliberately trying to get your child infected with an illness is assault of some sort? Also if they ended up dying as a complication of the illness that a parent had deliberately got them infected with could be classed as manslaughter? I'm very much doubt that in law they would be charged with such but in my opinion it should be. No one should have the 'right' to inflict an illness on anyone else in such a deliberate and planned way, particularly a vulnerable person, which a child is.

My little one was 2 when he caught chickenpox. The spots themselves were mild (only about 40 or so) but he was on the cusp of being admitted to hospital for dehydration as he suffered horrendous diarrhoea and vomiting with it. He was off nursery for 2.5 weeks.

Your friend is a dick. She has no idea if anyone else attending is immunocompromised, whether that be pregnant mums or children with cancer for example.

I wouldn't go to the party.
DD1 had it and it was awful.
I had DD2 vaccinated.

Childhood illnesses can be fatal, that's why vaccines are offered, and what about the risk to pregnant women and the unborn baby.
Don't deliberately expose a child to an infectious disease and vaccinate.

I would go. Both mine had chicken pox young and I'm glad they got it over and done with. My cousin got it for the first time in her late twenties. She had a terrible time and has visible pox scars still. They fade better and skin recovers better if caught when young. At the time all their friends caught it too, and in a way it was actually a comfort to them knowing they weren't the only children going through it and they were all off school at the same time. So that is what I would do. Others may of course beg to differ. Each to their own.

We nearly lost our DS aged5 from chicken pox. He was hospitalised for two weeks.
DD3 & DS7got it a week later and although very spotty they were fine!

I would always decline an invitation like this! I would still decline even though all 3 of my children have had it!!

Just for information (from the WHO): Yes, it is possible to get chickenpox more than once, but this is extremely rare. Most people who have had chickenpox won't get it again because they're immune to it for life. However, some people who have had chickenpox will develop a related condition called shingles later on. Your father is indeed very very unlucky, Redusul.

I would decline - I'd always thought I may be immune until one ds got it aged 4 followed a couple of days after by second ds aged 16 months and me aged 37 - boy was I proper poorly ... don't go - if they get it by accident fine but I wouldn't go looking for it and I think she's irresponsible to not let all parents of kids invited know what they may be letting themselves in for!

FFS, just vaccinate your DCs - The NHS is using your DC's suffering as a cheap means of keeping down shingles.

Barbaric.

If your children are only nursery age, how big a deal is this party? I would understand if a hall and entertainer had been booked, etc. If it's a party at home, it's more easily postponed, I would imagine. And children that age aren't fixated by exact dates! It doesn't sound as if the mother has really kept everyone in the dark though - you have been informed in advance. So you can politely decline on the grounds that your youngest child is still ill - you wouldn't want to share her illness with the other kids either, would you?

My reading of this post is that it's a birthday party where the child has come down with pox, rather than a 'chicken pox party' which is a get together with the sole purpose of infecting others. If it was my child I would postpone the event, even if the child is ok at the moment she might be feeling grotty by the time her party happens and not enjoy it much.
I would probably not take my child to the party as a guest either, there's a good chance it will be cancelled at the last minute anyway and if your ittle one is poorly anyway don't risk it.
My understanding of the vaccine situation is that if you haven't had pox by the time you're 12 or so that you can then get vaccinated on the NHS as it is an illness that tends to get worse as you get older.
I should think that eventually it probably will get included into the standard panel of childhood vaccinations, I guess it is generally the least serious of the main childhood viruses and that it is down to cost effectiveness (amount of serious illness prevented in the population as a whole vs cost).

DECLINE 100% decline. ABORT the party

Is the woman..riding on the cuckoo train. Holy jeebeezzz...

No way on earth will I allow my kids go and risk it. Chickenpox is no fun and games. Even if I paid for my child to attend a party i.e pizza hut etc. I'd rather miss out on my money than risk my child.

Family first, always.

And if that 'woman' will be funny about it, let her. Seriously, irresponsible of her. If I were this 'woman' there is no way I would let other children be exposed.I doubt it'll be fun for the birthday child either. poor thing.

The vaccine may protect from chicken pox, but it's quite clear on the NHS website (can't remember which one for those whom I'm sure will jump on me) that it's not in the recommended schedule because it doesn't protect against shingles - which is considered far worse. And chicken pox can be a far worse illness when you're older. Just sayin'. Wether you go or not is entirely your decision - I probably wouldn't want to expose my youngest if he'd just been ill either to be fair.

A GO friend brought her child to my house to deliberately get him aged 2 to catch it.He drank from her beaker another boy who came to play the same afternoon did not catch it.The GP had had a patient in his 30 's die from it and wanted him to catch it.My sister and I caught it in our twenties I would not wish that on anyone.Deliberately ensured 3rd child caught it at a party but very irresponsible not to tell everyone.When daughter was in special care there was a baby in isolation his mother was at another hospital on life support after contacting it in pr gnat you her lung collapsed.She was learning to walk again 6 months later as we kept in touch with a relative.

Some odd predictive text here GP and pregnancy!

The vaccine may protect from chicken pox, but it's quite clear on the NHS website (can't remember which one for those whom I'm sure will jump on me) that it's not in the recommended schedule because it doesn't protect against shingles

Of course the NHS website says that, they are trying to justify their failure to provide it as part of the regular schedule.

If they were to provide it, then they would face the double whammy cost implications of the vaccine itself, and the (short term) increase in shingles.

In a generation or two, we could have completely eradicated chicken pox the NHS is just to tight to fund it. In fairness, why would they when suffering DCs provide a neat solution to the shingles issue.