In thinking you should vaccinate against Chicken Pox if you can afford it?

[shutyourlittleface]

I just don't see the downside.

I currently have two mum mates moaning about their nurseries having confirmed chicken pox cases. They could just have their kids vaccinated to alleviate the worry surely?

@Passthecherrycoke what is your story? 😳

@NailsNeedDoing Apologies for misinterpreting! But I still disagree - vaccinating all children against rubella creates herd immunity, which protects women who can't receive the vaccine, or for whom the vaccine hasn't worked. The incidence of rubella would be much much higher without the MMR and more pregnancies would inevitably be affected.

Had our daughter vaccinated. We also travel so she's vaccinated for Hep A and Typhoid too plus all the routine vaccinations. I'll do as much as i can to reduce the risk of her being poorly and suffering.

Seeing the fuss people make about being vaccinated against killer diseases, I can't see it catching on!

I really wish I had had my DCs vaccinated. Eldest got it at 3 and passed it on to his then 5 month old sister (who was prem, ebf and so I had hoped I might pass on some of my immunity, but no such luck). DS was very poorly with it, had hundreds if spots but coped reasonably well.

Poor DD was covered to the extent you couldn't have fitted a pin between the spots on her forehead. Even though she couldn't scratch (too young) she has a lot of facial scarring. One of the spots on her leg split and she ended up in hospital with an infection. All in all it was an awful experience for everyone and if I had the time again I would have vaccinated. If it gets introduced on the NHS soon that would be so good and I would fully support.

@BeanCalledPickle Thanks for the informative post. I'm in my forties and had CP as a child. If we're moving towards a society with increased vaccinations and less wild CP then in a few years, I'll be one of those elderly people at greater risk (not scaremongering, just following the logic).... is there anything I can do to decrease that risk? Would a vaccine have any effect on me? (Sorry if that's a daft idea)

I’m getting my daughter vaccinated soon. My sister nearly died from chicken pox and ended up in a wheelchair for a long time.

@MaggieFS There is a vaccine for shingles, which is available on the NHS for those over 70 and which you can get privately at any age if you're concerned.

MaggieFS there is a shingles vaccine available for those in their 70s

yes, YANBU, both of mine are vaccinated, it should be free for everybody.

My daughter hadn’t caught it by 6 1/2 despite it going through her class, so we vaccinated.

She’s an only child so no siblings to catch it off.

Is there a way to find out if your DC has had CP? Should you do the vaccine if you aren't sure?

DC was ill when I was pregnant with DC2 with suspected CP. The GP tested my immunity in case I hadn't had it (turns out I had) but could only say that they suspected it to be CP, the spots weren't developed enough to be sure at that point. She only had about 10 spots in total but three of them were close together and became a horrible scab. I'm still not sure if it was CP.

I'm planning on getting DC2 vaccinated but not sure what to do about DC1.

Personally I found it quite a difficult decision to make re zoster vaccine

Even harder has been the menB vaccine which is the first ‘designer’ vaccine so potential for unknown off target effect.

Have people also been electing to vaccinate for that outwith the ages of the vaccination programme?

We’ve spent months deliberating getting our DD vaccinated as she tends to get scarily high temperatures with any sort of virus and nurofen is the only thing that helps. Obviously you cannot use that with chickenpox. However, we just couldn’t find enough information regarding the long term affects of the vaccine, would she have immunity for life etc. Anyway we made a decision and I was about to book a vaccine for my DD and she ended up with chicken pox last week. Took the decision out of our hands. She been fine so far, a little itchy but definitely not been miserable.

Had I known this was how she would be then I wouldn’t vaccinate. But equally she could have been very unwell with it.

Why are those of us who have chosen not to vaccinate against CP being ridiculed? I made a considered choice, looked at lots of stats from reliable sources not just a random google, spoke to people who have more knowledge in this area than me and came to my own conclusion to not vaccinate. Both of mine have had it, one mildly one a lot worse but nothing hideous and only one tiny scar between them.

I also did the same with the Men B jab - my eldest was a month outside the catch up group, I didn't do it privately as I looked at all the statistics and the risk was so minimal for her at the age she was it did not to me make sense to give her the catch up.

I am definitely not anti-vac but able to do my research using valid sources and come to my own decision which included our personal situation at that point in time.

I would never judge someone who did go down that route to vaccinate, but as it is optional why assume those who don't are too thick to make an informed decision.

I had my DS vaccinated a few months back now. He had a convulsion last year, and ibuprofen is the only thing that will keep a temperature down, and not being able to give it if he was to have got chicken pox scared the hell out of us. He had no side effects from the vaccine, and to know he's now vaccinated against it is one less thing to worry about. Absolutely worth the cost, and couple of seconds he moaned for afterwards, nothing some milkybar buttons couldn't fix!

Should be available on the NHS really. It's all very well saying that it's OK for an otherwise healthy DC to catch it to develop immunity but what about those with lowered immune systems such as people having chemo or those with autoimmune diseases?

I’ve vaccinated mine, as happens in many developed countries. The UK doesn’t on cost grounds and some outdated notions about shingles, which there is a vaccine for anyway. To me it was a no brainer, CP can cause horrible problems, not to mention scarring

@KittenSnuggler is there amy need to swear so much? Besides not everyone is in a position to spend £150 on a vaccine.

Where I live it is mandated to attend free school. Absolutely hate it. The addition of chicken pox to the list makes me suspicious of every other mandated vaccine because this one only made sense when they considered missed days from work and school on the equation. We also have adults getting shingles at higher rates because there is no chicken pox in the wild to keep the virus at bay.

If I could have afforded it at the time both of mine would have gotten it.

But, unfortunately, my girls were exposed before we had the money. My eldest was pretty poorly with it and there wasn't an inch of her body that didn't have spots (including the soles of her feet and palms.) She also had 2 different bacterial infections, 1 which appeared 3 days before the pox did.

My youngest wasn't old enough for the vaccine at the time but was pretty ok apart from getting an ear infection straight after.

If you get your children the chicken pox vaccine, they will be less likely to spread it to people for whom chicken pox would present a grave danger, such as premature babies and people with compromised immune systems. It really is selfish to let your children wander around with a highly communicable disease.

My eldest had it at 18 months, a reasonable dose I’d say, neither mild or really really bad. It causes a weeks disruption to our lives and he was uncomfy and difficult to deal with. He has a few scars on his face and forehead as a result.

We then moved abroad and we were offered the vaccine. Total no brained for me - rest of my kids had it as soon as we could.

I hadn’t even realized until then you could vaccinate for it.

I haven’t vaccinated against chicken pox. We spoke to our medical professional friend and made the decision from there.

My friend got his son vaccinated against CP, his only 3 and a half now and had it over 2 years ago. He is absolutely covered in them, got them from nursery, bless him.
When they spoke to their GP on the phone he said that there are so many people getting it at the moment who have had them before and it’s because of a new strain that means the vaccination may not offer protection from it.
Not sure how true that is.