To get DS vaccinated against chickenpox...

[RowboatsinDisguise]

Mostly because I can’t be arsed with dealing with it?

DH at the grand age of 31 still hasn’t had chickenpox apparently. He was around kids with chickenpox as a child and never got it so is possibly immune. DS will be 2 in a couple of months and is at nursery so does have the potential to pick up CP and bring it home. I’m pregnant with DC2 and can’t think of much worse than dealing with a toddler with CP, and a newborn, let alone if it turns out DH isn’t immune.

Would the GP check DH’s immunity do you think? If he’s not immune, I could just get them both vaccinated. I’m generally speaking a bit suspicious of anything that isn’t part of the routine schedule (not an anti vaxxer at all obviously, just trust the experts to make the right decisions about what is offered) but it all seems perfectly safe.

@randomsabreuse

I was waiting until my younger one was old enough and had done the 1 year vaccs. Helpfully my 4 yo brought it home from school just before Christmas, 1 year old followed 2 weeks later and needed a visit to hospital by ambulance as spiking temp would not come down with paracetamol and had some good wheeze going on as well...

I'd have done the 4yo at 2 (give time to forget 1 yo jabs) in hindsight! Then done the baby at 2 in his turn!

DS prone to ‘viral wheeze’ (likely asthmatic and it on inhalers and antihistamines but they won’t diagnose this early) so this is another good reason to avoid CP!

I got it for similar reasons. My DC were close together and we lived overseas and the thought of the toddler giving it to the baby was too much.

I got the older one (a boy) done. However, I let my DD catch it naturally in the hope that it would give her life long immunity in case she gets pregnant when she’s older.

My ds has eczema and allergies and was scheduled to have the vaccine. A week before he got chicken pox. He was so ill, covered from head to toe and was off school for nearly a month, got infected it was just awful. 8 years later and he is still covered in scars that he’s self conscious about, if he ever has his chest listened to a dr always comments on the scaring.
I wish we’d managed to get the vaccine but we did get through it.

My children are vaccinated against it. Our local GP provided it privately. One of the nurses gave to them. 2 jabs at about £40 or £60 each (I can’t remember) .

You would spend around £20 on meds to help ease CP symptoms and discomfort and you end up with an upset child for few days, add to that possible scarring. .Once in the body, Virus will stay dormant and can back as Shingles in later adulthood.
Plus, not forgetting that you will have to take time off work to look after a poorly child.

I got it when I was 9 and it was horrible. My husband has visible scars from it on his face from it- he got it when he was 17 and had a covered with it.
I would rather not get CP in the first place.

My DS had it last summer and my DM said I hadn't had it as a child and I had been around children who had it. I told GP and was told to just be mindful and if I caught it they would give me anti-viral medication.

I never caught it from DS. GP said I must have had it when a child but very mild. DS had or pretty mild too - only a handful of spots.

Could be the case here?

Both mine had it when they were 2. Have both been in classes when it's going around and never caught it. I'm pleased they won't have it, mild or otherwise. Good idea to get your dh immunity tested too.

I vaccinated mine for all the reasons you have said. We travel a lot too (well not at the moment 😂) and in other places we’ve been it’s on the childhood vaccination program.

NHS have a lovely description of herd immunity on the chickenpox website as the reasoning behind why they don’t offer it, but I suspect it’s to do with cost too, considering in many cases it’s mild.

And getting it updated as an adult is v easy.

I spent so long considering it that my son actually caught it in the end. Then my work colleagues, seeing the disruption it caused me, rushed out to vaccinate their kids. We had gone as far as getting a test done to see if he was immune as he kept mixing with kids and not catching it but he was not. His case was quite bad but he was ok in the end (no hospital or anything but a careful visit to a doctor who commented). No help in your decision but that's what happened to us.

I looked into this loads. My conclusions were:

With one dose, immunity often wore off. They now recommend two. They haven't PROVEN this lasts to adulthood, but this doesn't mean it will definitely wear off. It's tricky to test because the countries who have been vaccinating for a while have a greater herd immunity so if people are less immune they are still unlikely to catch it. It may become part of the childhood schedule in the next few years anyway. If not, I will offer my DCs a blood test. This issue would occur with adults moving countries too.

Chicken pox is NASTY as an adult. We vaccinated DD. A few years later, baby DS caught it very mildly. We weren't actually sure if it was CP or insect bites, until DH caught it. We didn't know he hadn't had it. If your DH can be tested then great, otherwise I'd be tempted to have him vaccinated just in case. Personally I am still going to vaccinate DS, as his case was so mild (about 10-15 spots) and at 4 months so I think he may have had passive immunity from me.

I had CP as an adult when DD1 then aged 1 got it. I would advise your DH to get the vaccine if possible. I was ill for
a month. I was in a lot of pain from the spots on my scalp. (I had long hair).

Don't rely on your GP to get your DH anti virals either. I became ill on a Friday afternoon and unsurprisingly couldn't get any medical attention until the Monday when I was crying in pain.

When DD1 was a baby, she had injections of immunoglobulin in her tiny little legs as someone on the labour ward had CP and I wasn't immune. It was excruciating to watch. She later has CP aged one and got shingles aged 7.

I would strongly advise any adult hasn't had it to have a vaccine.

I had DD vaccinated when I was pregnant with number 2. She was about to start preschool and I thought she was quite likely to catch it, and I really didnt want a poxy toddler and a newborn at the same time. Also chicken pox isnt always mild and can be really nasty in a minority of cases so I decided the vaccine was worth having even though it's not routine.

They arent sure how long immunity lasts so she may need a booster in adulthood, but if she knows that then she can just get the booster later on... not a big deal.

Friend of mine had her daughter immunised. Chickenpox went around the class and she still caught it.

My DD not immunised and still hasn't caught it so we're a little worried.

I come from a country where the vaccine is on the regular schedule, so older dc had it. We then moved to the UK. Kept on meaning to get youngest DC done, but they won't do it within weeks of possible exposure and they kept being in that two week period so we couldn't. Then there was a shortage of vaccines.
Long story short, she ended up getting chickenpox from a friend. Also gave it to DH who suffered horrendously. Strangely, the older DC who had been vaccinated still got it mildly. We are assuming that it is due to different strains.

Definitely get it done. Every GP I've spoken to thinks it should be a routine vaccination and they're waiting for it to be added. I had my youngest two vaccinated after horrible experiences with my other children on CP. This included one who needed sedating, one who is scarred and one who was admitted to hospital with suspected encephalitis (actually turned out to be the early stages of sepsis) - 5 day stay in hospital on IV antibiotics. Also you DH should have the vaccination too to keep him safe from CP in the environment - he may be able to get this on the NHS as Cp in adults can be very very serious.

You've had inaccurate information about it wearing off in adulthood.

The vaccination was only invented in the 80s and not given to any country's population as a cohort until around the mid 90s. Naturally this means we've no data on how it looks across a population cohort after 30 years, for example. People read this as immunity waning rather than us not knowing.

If your DH was exposed as a kid but doesn't think he had it, he may have had a very mild case.

Had my Dd vaccinated when she was 13 months old. No sides effects. She will need a booster when she’s in her late teens as the vaccine does wear off.

Saying that, she still caught CP! She breezed through about 5 outbreaks at nursery and reception, with not a single spot. Then another outbreak and she succumbed! Although she only had about 40-50 spots and was not ill in the slightest, and thankfully over half term otherwise we would have had to keep her off school.

I got my youngest vaccinated because there’s no way she wouldn’t have picked the spots. No side effects at all and it’s nice not to worry about if. My eldest had a horrible time with chickenpox (got an infection and was miserable) so I didn’t want my youngest to go through the same.

Oh and I think the NHS don't vaccinate because they are worried about adding another vaccination in when some people already feel it's a lot and also there is the worry about rising shingles cases in adults if there is no CP circulating to boost immunity. I also read you are less likely to get shingles if vaccinated which is a positive. (Something to do with a different virus type being less likely to reactivate).

My son has a heart issue so we were advised to get it done (although still had to pay privately for it ). I would have done it anyway to be honest - even just normal chicken pox is rubbish, but a family members son nearly died from chicken pox, I don't think people realise how many children suffer from complications with it/how serious it can be. I used to live in Australia and all children there are vaccinated against chicken pox, I was told by someone in the NHS that it's a cost issue here which I can well believe.

Definitely check if he can have it done while you are pregnant though - I seem to remember inbetween the two injections I was meant to keep my son away from pregnant women?

We vaccinated our daughter, aware it's usually mild but didn't want to take the chance. There was an outbreak at nursery after her vaccination and she was fine so it did its job

DD caught chicken pox while I was still in hospital with 1 day old DS. It put a stop to DH visiting and it was a pretty rubbish few days afterwards - dealing with a newborn, recovery from an unplanned section and poorly DD. I'd vaccinate!

Yes, one of the reasons the NHS don't is because of concerns it will lower MMR takeup. There's mention of it in the CDC minutes. I suspect that's probably the right decision when making policy recommendations on a population level, but obviously as an individual parent it doesn't factor into the decision making.

I would add that someone at my secondary school actually died from
complications of Chicken Pox. This was back in the 80s, but still. It it is not a mild illness at all.

I paid to have mine vaccinated. Like a pp said, it's not definitive it doesn't last a lifetime so I'll keep an eye on the research and pay for my then young adult/adult children to have a booster as necessary as it was our decision to vaccinate them.

This is a tricky one. My dc both had it, one of them had it mildly at 3, then recaught it from my younger one at 7 and was VERY poorly with it. There are quite a few countries which have compulsory Vaccination for CP.
Both my dc recovered fully and obviously the vast majority of kids recover.