Chicken pox vaccine

[dalel]

Hi I'm new and been seeing a few post on the chicken pox vaccine.

Thinking of getting my daughter vaccinated against it. It is going round her nursery at the moment so more than likely she is going to get it anytime now.

Whenever she's Ill with anything it really does affect her bad.

Would you advise me getting got her?
What are the pros and cons?
Is it worth it?

I'm really in 2 minds

I had the vaccine done for myself last year as I’m not sure that I had chickenpox as an adult. I’m planning on starting a family soon, and I don’t want to have to worry about no immunity when pregnant then have to worry about catching it from my child. I wouldn’t hesitate to get my children vaccinated too. I hope the NHS reconsider adding it to the vaccination schedule. So many other countries have had it routinely for years with no ill effect so other than cost cutting there not good reason not to offer it, especially with a shingles vaccine for adults now.

I had my son vaccinated. IMO if you can spare the cash why wouldn’t you?
its proven safe, effective and means my child won’t get an illness that can cause medical problem (low chance) but also make him miserable and feel rubbish.

My son had it he was absolutely fine no side effects.

You can be vaccinated against shingles these days, I think you have to be 50 though.

We had DC3 done as DC2 had it three times and was v v portly. I wouldn't want another if my children to be in that much discomfort if I could prevent it.

I got my youngest vaccinated. No problems at all. I can remember the stress with my older child every time CP went round nursery - will he or won't he? We both worked full time and the worry of how we would juggle was immense. (He did get it aged 1 and I was so relieved it was over. )

Youngest has only had one dose. Ideally they should have 2. The first dose triggers immunity in 90% people and the second in 97%. I kept forgetting about the second dose and now she is 8 and has been exposed to CP multiple times so I'm happy to assume she's immune.

I got my daughter vaccinated, no side effects. From 1 until 3 she was ill constantly, fevers, coughs, colds, bad tummys, sickness bugs and we had to take so much time off work. So the last thing we wanted was for her to then get chicken pox and not be able to go to nursery and us have to use up more annual leave to be at home. Also because they can become quite poorly with it and i didn't want to risk it.

I'm in the US where you have to show proof of either vaccination or having had chicken pox in order to enter kindergarten at 5.

My older 4 DCs all got wild chicken pox and we spent a miserable month one year sealing with it. By the time my youngest was born the vaccine had become available and her chance of picking it up had gone down significantly. So she had the vaccine.

My thought was better get the exposure than risk coming into contact with it later in life. Plus of course, she had to get it for school.

So far one DC who had the virus has had shingles (at age 21). No other ill effects to report.

If the virus is doing the rounds in your child's preschool she'll probably get it anyway.

They've been vaccinating for at least 25 years in the US. There's a huge amount of data showing it's effective and safe.

"I have a friend who is a doctor who really recommends against it, if you have a fit and healthy child. The view is that with less chickenpox in childhood generally, the chances of shingles in adulthood increases as adults aren’t exposed to low levels of chickenpox. Shingles in vulnerable adults can be really dangerous."

Meh, you can get boosted. And anyway, in the case of the individual, does (maybe) getting (and suffering with) wild chickenpox at some random point in childhood provide better lifelong immunity against shingles than getting 2 licensed vaxes 4 weeks apart at the age of 3? Particularly as the vaccinated child will still be exposed to the virus as often as an unvaccinated child and thus presumably get boosted a bit that way anyway?

I can sort of see the herd medicine idea and the NHS costing thing but I'm not going to leave my children unvaccinated to provide a "free shingles vaccine" to older people. I would if the virus symptoms were equivalent to a mild cold. But not days/weeks of an intensely itchy or painful rash that could be all over their faces, hands, tummies, gentialia and the rest ; with a small but significant risk of scarring and a much smaller but hideous risk of being permanently deafened/blinded or killed. Sorry, the herd can get stuffed.

I'm in the uk and have paid for my 2 kids to be vaccinated.

In our nursery it's taken a while to spread through the class and the only two kids to have dodged it are vaccinated (my DD and a GP's child).
My DM paid for my kids to be done as she said she didn't want to leave home to stay with us, to do childcare for poorly kids on concurrent weeks, much as she loves them

I've just had my 3 year old vaccinated. There did seem to be some side effects with both, but only a day or 2. I felt it was worth it to not worry about catching it.

I'm American but live in the UK. We paid for our DS to be vaccinated. It's a nasty illness that can be prevented with a vaccine so why wouldn't you? He was fine after both doses.

@ShirleyPhallus that's so interesting. I had chicken pox twice as a child and shingles in my early 30s.

I had my eldest vaccinated at 1, once enough time had elapsed from the 12m live MMR vaccine. She has never caught chickenpox so I assume the vaccine worked. She starts reception in September.

My twins are 14m and we’ve also booked for their first chickenpox jabs. When they were having their routine 12m jabs I mentioned to the nurse about having the chickenpox vaccine, and her comment was that she expected it be part of the NHS vaccination program in the near future. No idea when that will be though, so we are paying privately.

I researched it and given that the vaccine is routinely given in other countries, I couldn’t see any good reason not to vaccinate.

Much as I love the principle of the NHS, not having children vaccinated because it would cost more if older people get shingles (particularly when there are boosters) isn’t a good enough reason hence why mine are vaccinated. I remember it being hideous as a child.

You have to be between 70 and 80.

You can also get Shingles vaccine privately

Hi op, I had both my DC vaccinated against chicken pox in january, I'm in the UK, it's been going round DCs preschool but the vaccine seems to be working!
The vaccine (2 doses gives your child a really high level of protection) chicken pox can be nasty, children can feel rotten with it even with just a seemingly mild case, but they can also end up in hospital due to complications from it, and in serious but thankfully rare cases, death. It wasn't a risk I wanted to take for my DCs. Worth every penny in my opinion.
It's very safe, it's used in many other countries as part of the vaccination programme. I think there was talk of it coming in over in the uk just before the pandemic. From the info I got when I took my DC it's safe, very effective and my DC didn't flinch (which is quite common from other posts on here) they were fine afterwards, no side effects at all.

Yes I had them both vaccinated at after the 12 month MMR jab (you have to allow a bit of time after this). No side effects except DC1 had a small rash around the injection site on the second jab.

Pros = not having to worry about chicken pox, my friend’s little boy ended up in hospital. It’s rife here at the moment at DC’s school and nursery.

Cons = cost and having to go back for the second dose

They had it done at Superdrug, you can book it online.

I had a negative reaction from a GP about it (he couldn’t understand why) but my formed who is a GP had her own daughter vaccinated.

*my friend

DD had it at 3 as we have a family member who was severely immunocompromised after a bone marrow transplant (if DD hadn’t had it she would not have been able to visit at all due to the risk of her passing on any incubating chickenpox). The NHS vaccinates children in this position but only if it’s a household family member, which we weren’t. So I paid privately and she had zero side effects.

Am very happy we did as all my nephews and nieces suffered really badly with chickenpox and I was to spare DD that. I do know of a child who was vaccinated but still got breakthrough CP - but literally only had 3 spots! If they do (rarely) get a breakthrough infection it is v v mild apparently.

My eldest was hospitalised with Chicken Pox. It was horrendous.
My youngest has now been vaccinated. 2 doses booked through Superdrug. No reaction to the jab. I think it was £120 for both doses.
I wouldn't hesitate to get the jab. I wish I'd done it for my eldest.

(Another thing that prompted me to get it, too, was once being on here on a live thread when DD was a baby, where a mumsnetter’s 15 month old became very seriously ill and was rushed to hospital with what turned out to be chickenpox. I forget the poster’s name but it was very scary, and I made up my mind that we would vaccinate if I got the opportunity. It can have very serious consequences, which is rare but still does happen.)

DS is vaccinated. Why wouldn’t you? (And no, a theoretical risk of increasing the risk of shingles in adults is not a good enough reason to subject a child to a preventable, unpleasant, disfiguring and occasionally serious disease imo).