To pox or not to pox...

[WildAboutMyPlanet]

To those of you who have DC but didn’t have pox as a child, what did you do?

I haven’t had it and know it can potentially be very dangerous (even deadly) in adulthood...so do I make sure that DC gets it and put myself at risk? But I don’t want DC to then be in the same position, I would rather they were safe and I took the risk to be honest...

Anyone been in the same position?

YABU - Avoid like the plague just in case
YANBU - Go ahead and get itchymy friend!

My DD had the vaccine, it was well worth it.

My DS had the vaccine at Boots. I haven't had chicken pox. CP went round his nursery last year and he didn't get it. So for us the vaccine has been very effective so far. The cost is more than cancelled out by the week minimum we'd lose in pay if he got it and one of us couldn't work

I was going back and forth about getting the vaccine, DD managed to get it on the last day or two before had to isolate them go in to lockdown. You can imaging how confused I was when she came up in spots after 3 weeks of isolation

I’d be more concerned about getting chickenpox yourself, and would recommend the vaccine, as it’s very likely your children will encounter it in school or childcare settings.

I had it at 21, along with my 18 year old brother, and I was terribly ill, both of us had dangerously high fevers and were much more ill, and for longer, than we would have been had we caught it at primary school age, or earlier. I can remember the misery of not being able to lie down because of the pressure on the spots, having one on my eyeball so I couldn’t wear contact lenses and too many on my nose to be able to wear my specs, so sitting up in bed through several nights, unable to read or watch tv, just waiting for it to improve. Horrible.

America and Germany vaccinate as part of the standard injections for children of a certain age. I believe the only reason the UK don't is because of cost

We had DD vaccinated a few months ago, she would have been about 15 mths. Small private travel clinic listed on NHS.com. Boots and Superdrug weren't offering it at the time (Covid)

We thought long and hard about it and read a lot of feedback from parents who had children vaccinated and possible side effects etc. Luckily DD was fine, just cried for a few minutes

Looking to the future we didn't want to have her out of nursery for 2-3 weeks and us off work and more importantly if we can save her from going through something that's not nice then why wouldn't we. She caught Hand, Foot and Mouth twice last year and the second time she also had a separate virus (Bulus?) on top of HF&M and had to stay in hospital so we aren't extra cautious with her now hence pox vac

It also means in later life you're less likely to get Shingles

As an adult I'd get myself vaccinated if I were you OP.
Dd was vaccinated at 13 months (living abroad) but still got CP when she started school, very mild though and again the following year. Makes me wonder how bad she would have had it without the vaccine.
Oldest Ds got it at age 5 Ds 2 never got it at all, he was a newborn when Ds 1 got it. Maybe he got immunity from me as I was breastfeeding.

I never had chicken pox as a child. I caught it as an adult and it wasn’t any fun. I wasn’t that sick, but I had to have more than a week off work just a few weeks after starting a new job. I got all my kids vaccinated.

How old can you vaccinate from?

I caught it when I was 27 (my mum swears I had it as a baby).

I had over 300 spots (I counted them), I was covered from head to toe. I couldn’t sleep for about 7 days, I felt like shit. I ended up having nearly 3 weeks off work, I was very tiered.

I would avoid it if you can!!! Or can you get the private test to see if you have antibodies?

Oh and I still have scars as a result, 13 years later.

vaccinate

@OhDear2200

I still have my scars from when I had it as a child, nearly 30 years ago. So it's not just adults who can get pox badly!

I chose to vaccinate my DS and he has just, at six years old, had a mild case of the pox. If I'm honest, I was hoping the vaccine would protect him for longer than it has, however he was very mildly affected so if the vaccine enabled that then I'm grateful....

I have recently learnt that cp is dependent on viral load, I thought that was interesting and had I known that when mine caught it I would have done things differently.

No one advises you to get chicken pox. It can kill both children and adults- it’s rare but does happen. There’s no need to get it all as there’s a vaccine. It would be really irresponsible to deliberately spread around a disease.

Our daughter caught it in Yr 2 at school. She became very ill and 10 years later still has 100+ chickenpox scars. I advocate vaccination to everyone.

Get the vaccine for yourself but let kids get it naturally while they're little. I know someone who didn't have it as a child but caught it in her 30s. Blistered head to toe.

You do realise that chickenpox can still have complications in children and cause them to die. Something I read not long ago was about a parent deliberately exposing their child to the virus but the child then died due to complications. It's not a game. Would you deliberately expose your child to meningitis if they were not vaccinated?

There is a vaccine available, it's pricey but you can get it from pharmacies etc.

We've had our DC done, definitely worth it in my opinion!

Vaccinate. It's an awful thing to get as an adult.

Definitely vaccinate. Australia is another country where the chickenpox vaccine is now part of the vaccination programme for children.

Another reason why it is not part of the nhs vaccination programme is cost. Ever time something gets added it means more cost. But I think it’s really important to understand that just because something is not available on the nhs does not mean it’s not a good thing to have.

My son had it 6 times. There was no vaccine 30 years ago....get the vaccine.
We had a boy in nursery die from it, with complications.

@Igotthemheavyboobs you can vaccinate from 1.

@lanthanum it's not that it doesn't last, it's that because it is relatively new (I think around 20y old) there hasn't been enough time to see if it lasts/whether it lasts.

I got my DD vaccinated, she comes to work with me (nanny). About 3 weeks after her second dose, my younger nanny charge came out in some of the most vicious chickenpox I've ever seen. She played v closely with him, shared baths with him, spent a lot of time in close contact and she was completely pox free. I was so relieved as I've seen some pretty horrid cases when children catch it from siblings, with the high viral load, and I can only imagine how unpleasant (or worse) it would have been for her.

I’d thought about getting the vaccine for myself as I’d never had chicken pox as a child. However, I could never get very good information on it (including asking the nurse at my GP surgery).

I thought about it and never acted upon it before my daughter got chicken pox.

My daughter had it quite mild and at the time I started to check what to do if you get it as an adult. Advice was to contact GP so as soon as I noticed I was getting spots I called and they prescribed anti-virals. I think (can only assume) that these helped the reaction I had. It certainly wasn’t a nice experience but from what I’ve heard about others I think I got off lightly.

Chicken pox can be deadly - around 9 children a year on average die from complications in the UK. Approx the same number who have died from COVID -19. I vaccinated my children.