to pay for my daughter to have the chicken pox vaccine?

[cherrybun01]

hi,

UK based so this isnt part of routine immunizations here (as I'm sure many know). I have seen you can pay to have it done in children, I was really for it but have now had doubts put in my mind.

my partner was a bit on the fence but his 4 year old niece had it this year and was very uncomfortable and unwell so he decided okay let's do it. but my mum, who is not massive on vaccines anyway but whole other story there, has said it is completely unnecessary as it's a mild illness and how do I know a vaccine that is not routine over here is "safe"

she has not dropped it since and has made me paranoid and anxious. I just feel like if I can avoid my baby getting in the state that 4 year old niece did and being fortunate enough to be in a position to avoid that why not?

has anyone here had this vaccine for their children? how was it? would anyone not do it, on the flip side, and if so why?

thanks!

@caoraich

I paid for my daughter to have it. I'm a doctor. I really dislike the reasons we don't have it on the vaccine schedule in the UK.

Daughter was totally fine and frankly it is helpful that every time she get a rash (she's quite atopic) she doesn't get booted out of nursery because they think she has chickenpox.

I'm an RN and I was gobsmacked when I learned on MN that it's not on the NHS schedule. Was it omitted just due to cost?

One of the reasons it's not recommended by the NHS is because it leads to an increase in adult shingles, as adults are not continually re-immunised as the disease is less prevalent in society

Thanks @OoohTheStatsDontLie, i'll look into it. He was only a few days old when DD had it and since then he's been exposed many times at nursery/school but has managed to avoid it all this time.

I had my DD booked in to get the jab but she caught in in the interim and was very very poorly. I would recommend getting the vaccination.

DS1 had CP quite badly, no need for hospital but he was really miserable for 2 weeks and had spots all over apart from 2 circles on his bottom. He looked like bubble wrap. Left him with many scars - at least 30 on his face, which have thankfully become less obvious in the 20+ years since he had it. He was quite conscious of the scars for years.
DS2 had it a week later and had a much less spotty version.

My DS had it at 16 months. No side effects. Would definitely recommend.

@Chanjer

One of the reasons it's not recommended by the NHS is because it leads to an increase in adult shingles, as adults are not continually re-immunised as the disease is less prevalent in society

It's odd then that the CDC and WHO both recommend it. There's also a shingles vaccine that can be given at age 50 or over.

www.cdc.gov/shingles/hcp/clinical-overview.html

We were told the exact opposite nature and a quick Google shows that the research supports that.

I got it for DS and will get it for DD too.

Personally I think it's sensible to vaccinate against everything you possibly can, why let children be unwell if you can prevent it.

You can get it on NHS here but only if an immediate family member is immune compromised so it's just as safe as all the others. You'd be getting it from boots not ordering it from eBay!

Dd was booked in for it but unfortunately got them before the vaccination day.

Ds had it earlier this year.

My understanding was not that those who are vaccinated are at higher risk of shingles in later life.
Rather, that the more vaccinated people there are then the more chance there is that non-vaccinated adults will get shingles. Because they are less likely to get CP as a child if those around them are vaccinated and therefore they have less frequent exposure to it.

I had my ds vaccinated. I’m the only one of my family/friends that has opted to do so. I do get a lot of people raising their eyebrows at me if it’s mentioned.

I did it because my ds has been in and out of hospital with asthma since birth and any thing I can do to prevent illness I will do.

My auntie when young got chickenpox and became extremely unwell. It effected her brain, however I don’t know the details. Not worth the risk I think.

MissConductUS

Basically when adults who have had chickenpox, being exposed to children with chickenpox boosts immunity and reduces the risk of shingles.

It is more expensive to deal with shingles on a population level than to deal with small kids with chickenpox, even though some of those kids will be very seriously unwell. The maths works, but I don't like the idea of letting kids get sick so adults don't get shingles. I'll sort my daughter out with a booster when she is in her teens.

I got it for my DC but only after they'd had chicken pox twice and their paediatrician advised that they could get it again. I'm going to pay for the vaccine again as a teen.

Just bear in mind that chicken pox is worse and more likely to cause complications in adults, and studies have found that the vaccine is less effective in adults too.

Gillian that makes sense. I think on balance I'm probably going to go for it, like others have said shes my child ultimately not my mums! its nice to have some reassurance too. my mum still has that autism theories in her head from the 90s and has never quite been able to move on from it. I never had my MMR or Hep B jabs for example because of her paranoia and neither have my sisters who are both considerably younger than me.

@caoraich

MissConductUS

Basically when adults who have had chickenpox, being exposed to children with chickenpox boosts immunity and reduces the risk of shingles.

It is more expensive to deal with shingles on a population level than to deal with small kids with chickenpox, even though some of those kids will be very seriously unwell. The maths works, but I don't like the idea of letting kids get sick so adults don't get shingles. I'll sort my daughter out with a booster when she is in her teens.

That is a bit Malthusian. And there are lots of adults who have no routine contact with children at all. And there's a perfectly good shingles vaccine.

I don't like the way the NHS looks at it either.

I avoided it for years as my DS has eczema. I did think about the vaccination but I have read it is not lifelong immunity, although I can't remember where as it was quite a while ago. Sorry.

When he did get it, he got it quite badly, but he didn't seem to be affected much, he kept telling me it wasn't half as itchy as eczema, so you just can't tell!

My GP said the problem with the vaccine is that doesn't offer life long immunity, so they can catch it when the immunity wears off, the DC are older and affects them more, I was particularly worried about DD then potentially catching it when pregnant.

This was my reason for not having my DD vaccinated (and I’m generally very pro-vax for context). In the US, I believe that everyone has the vaccination as part of the usual slug of childhood jabs, therefore the incidence in the population is likely to be lower. Here, it’s pretty prevalent as most kids aren’t vaccinated - so my concern, like the previous poster, was that my DD didn’t get round to having the booster and caught it when she was pregnant. My older child had chickenpox when I was pregnant with DD, so it was at the forefront of my mind.

@GwendolineMarysLaces as well as that having some chickenpox circulating in the community helps to protect everyone from shingles.

How?

I was going to have DS vaccinated against it if he didn't get CP by end of primary school (because I know how nasty it can be in adults/older kids). As it happens, he got it in Yr 5 (he was the last one out of his school class to get it). Actually my DD got CP first, and I just thought, there's no way I can get him booked in quick enough to get the vaccination, so we rolled with it. DD was covered but ok (she's 7yrs younger than DS); DS had an awful time.

@SoEverybodyDance I had it when I was 19 and can assure you it is was as itchy as eczema! But having had very bad eczema all my life, I think I was better at not scratching than I might otherwise have been. God it's itchy though - you don't even know you're scratching sometimes. I have scars from where I scratched the scab off even though I was being really careful.

If anyone is worried about immunity fading in later life, they can have a booster. I intend to let my son know about this and look into the current research around it when he's in his late teens - he can then make his own decision about it. Right now it seems like it would be a good idea, but who knows what the evidence will say in 15/20 years.

In Germany. Here we get it with the MMR (as separate vaccinations for the first dose and also possibly some time apart - can't quite remember -, in one vaccine with the second). It had just been introduced when (IIRC) my middle child was due to have it and at the time, and also due to a couple of factors relating to his health history, I decided against it and he actually had single measles vaccine initially and the MMR after that. Both children got CP at a typical age and were absolutely fine with it, mild doses (definitely milder than I remember my own being at the same age), but started it exactly 2 weeks apart so if I hadn't been able to WFH it would have been a nightmare. Dd came along some years later and has had the vaccine. I'm thinking about getting MMR boosters for the children when they reach adulthood. So I'd see no reason not to get a CP booster in adulthood either.

Someone said you have to wait 28 days between the MMR and varicella, this is incorrect. In America they're often combined in the MMRV if not they can be given at the same time. If they're not given at the same time then you need a 28 day gap between.

If I knew how much it would have affected ds1 I would have vaccinated him. But I wasn’t aware a vaccine for chicken pox existed at that time.

He then passed it on to his younger brother, who had a fever for couple off days and few spots.