To worry that DC still haven't caught chicken pox?

[ASnowballsChance]

DC aged 10y and 5y still haven't caught chicken pox. I know it can be more severe the older you get. This is slightly complicated by me not being immune to CP despite having it as a child and being in contact with it since via siblings.

Anyone else have older DC not yet caught it?

My kids are 9 and 12 and have never had chickenpox. Thank you for this thread as I had no idea Boots and Superdrug did immunisations so I’m going to book them in.

I’d get them vaccinated.
I got it when I was 29 and 35 weeks pregnant with my second child, it was awful.
Thankfully it was before Dr Google so I didn’t know about all the possible complications, but I was plastered with spots, including where the sun don’t shine!

Both children have had it but if they hadn’t, I would have got them vaccinated in their late teens

Sorry to butt in here, but in case others are reading - it’s much better to get children vaccinated in childhood, when the 2-dose vaccine is around 99% effective; it drops to 75% in teens and adults.

I’m not absolutely sure of the drop off rates and thresholds but it’s definitely worth bearing in mind - it surprised me when I first read it!

That's quite a steep decline in effectiveness for adults and teens, suppose it's still better than nothing though.

Yep. Having had the disease in my 20s, I’d take a 75% chance of not getting it!

Although interestingly enough, the last GP I spoke to about me not being immune to CP said that she reckons I would be fine if/when my DC catch it. I wonder what that was based on, I didn't think to ask at the time.

Probably what my mum was told, that I’d had it without symptoms.

Except it turned out I hadn’t. I also know a bloke who got it from his kids aged 40, he was horribly ill.

Stevie69
I thought I was reasonably confident of not catching it until someone took their CP infected child on a plane on seat next to me when I was 21......

When DS hadn't caught it by age 6 I worried like you, OP. I worried he;d get it as a teenager or adult and be very ill, so I booked him in to have the vaccine privately. Which I then had to cancel because he came home with chickenpox a few days before! He had it mildly, thank goodness (PoxClyn/piriton thank you too). DS1 had it as a baby and was horribly ill and sore with it. He still has scars whereas DS2 has none that I can see.