Chicken pox vaccine for 1 year old

[hmmjauso]

Would you? Have you? No idea what’s best!

I would have. Indeed I had it booked for my children age 6 and 2 having saved for a few months for them but unfortunately a week before the vaccination my son developed the pox and although he coped pretty well with it his sister was terribly poorly when he passed it onto her a week later. I'd have given anything at the time to go back in time and book the vaccinations earlier.

I didn’t, didn’t know it was on option, but definitely would have if I’d known. A friends daughter was hospitalised with it, she had hideous huge blisters that got infected, it was scary. My DS had a normal case age 2 or 3 and even that made for a wretched few nights.

I have and would do so again.

Cannot see any reason why you wouldn't if you can afford it.

It always troubled me that it was part of other Western countries routine vaccines but not here.

My husband never had chickenpox. We vaccinated our son as our GP said the if he caught it could cause issues and if I was pregnant and he caught it, the outcome could be serious

Can I ask you all organised it with under 2? Any pharmacy I speak with say from 2! TIA

Boots and Superdrug are 12 months plus.

We did it a local pharmacy when DS was 13 months, with second jab a couple of months later.

We paid for our son to have it and don't regret it at all. No side effects at all from the vaccine and having seen some of his nursery friends suffering with it, I'm glad he skipped that.

I have a small scar on my face from chicken pox despite having a very mild case, so wanted to avoid that for him.

It’s standard where I live, and a requirement for me as a health care worker. As it happens I have immunity from childhood illness before a vaccine was available, which left my face scarred.

Boots do it from 12 months - I just booked it online.

The research isn't clear yet. It's too early (relatively speaking) to make any conclusions. But it is safe to have a booster if it turns out people need it in later life.

Paid for both if my kids, it’s a standard vaccine in my home country. Neither had chicken pox or issues after vaccine.

my friend’s child had bad chicken pox and was sick for three weeks, it was a nightmare and she nearly had to quit her job.

Re cost: I am self employed and not being able to work for a few days to look after a sick child would cost me more than the vaccine.

we did

My youngest had it at about 18 months - his big brother had ended up in hospital over Christmas when he caught chicken pox and developed a secondary infection, also at about 18 months, and none of us wanted to go through that again! It can be mild but it can also be really nasty.

I ask this on every chicken pox vaccine thread but does anybody know if you should vaccinate if your child got it very young? I have heard that if they get it under one they can get it again. Mine had it when she was 6 months and was so ill. I really don’t want her to get it again so keep toying with the vaccine

I wish I did :-( DS caught from a friend and then DD caught from him, she had it SO badly and still has scars

I would not, varicella vaccine lasta 10-20 years- just in time when it would have higher chance of complications.

chickenpox as a child is usually a mild illness and comes with a benefit of lifetime immunity,not a temporary immunity like with a vaccine

Ds isn’t.
i have paid for extra vaccines here also like like Men b which isn’t included in schedule (not in uk).
But when I asked about paying for chickenpox vaccine the paediatrician was very against it, and said they don’t recommend here, so they wouldn’t book him in for it. They still think catching it naturally and getting lifetime immunity is better, as he said it’s only a 10 year guarantee so could need vaccination every 10 years for life, and worse if it runs out as an adult.

From NHS website

‘Being exposed to chickenpox as an adult (for example, through contact with infected children) boosts your immunity to shingles.
If you vaccinate children against chickenpox, you lose this natural boosting, so immunity in adults will drop and more shingles cases will occur.’

Mmr is the same in a way, i have had 2 mmr-s as a child/teen and have no antibodies. Same for many others,when in childbearing years measles is dangerous the fetus during the pregnancy

hence why they are all childhood illnesses, lower risk of complications as a child with lifetime immunity as vaccines are not 100% fail proof either, how efficient they are depends on anything from if the vaccine was stored properly to the state of persons immune system at the time they got the vaccine

My second had it. Didn’t know it was available before my first had chicken pox but after a week of him feeling horrid, me & DH having to juggle work and him being left with long term visible scarring we got number 2 vaccinated. No adverse effects.

Mine both had it as was standard where we lived at the time ( given in combo with MMR). It became a bit self- perpetuating as we knew even if they didn’t have the jab they’d be unlikely to get CP as children due to high vaccination rates and therefore risked getting it as a teen/ adult when we moved somewhere like uk with much lower rates. In hindsight I think I still would have had them done though- HFM was bad enough and two of them getting it in tandem could have meant 3 weeks out of action.

@Bingsbongs @Caspianberg You've mis interpreted what you've read. There is no evidence that immunity wanes at 10-20 years. Only that there isn't enough conclusive evidence that it remains, because the test populations aren't old enough yet for that data to be available.

This is a very recent study which does show so long as you have both doses it appears to be just as effective 25 years post vaccination. They'll probably release updated data ever 5 years tracking whether there is any drop off of immunity.

My hope is that it will be lifelong immunity from the vaccination. But as mentioned in my previous post - we won't know for a few more decades yet and there is a booster should you need it.

@Curiosity101 - I haven’t it’s what it says on cdc, nhs, local specialists.
Im not against it myself, I’m just saying what all the large health organisations are currently saying.
But they are all still saying it’s an increase in shingles vaccines needed for over 55s ( most vaccinated aren’t at this age yet), and not lifetime.