To hunt down these bastards who exposed my son to chicken pox

[littleredbumblebee]

User name changed as outing

went on a caravan holiday last week for 5 nights and my son who is 11 played with some kids from other families and had a great time- all good

On the last night one of the smaller boys was running around with no shirt on and he has spots, one of the other families asked and his mum said oh he has chicken pox but we though getting away would do him good.

I told her my son had never had chicken pox and said I bloody hoped my son was not going to come down with them. One of the other parents also said they should not have brought the kid. Basically it ended up with them going inside the caravan in a huff. The next day we all left

So today the day before my son is use to start at high school he woke up covered in spots and now has chicken pox and won’t be in for his first week at high school. Tonight he is now crying saying he won’t name any friends now and he won’t know his way around and no amount of comforting will calm him down. Very few kids for his school are going to this high school and he is so upset he will have missed out on making friends.

We have been in touch with his form tutor who has been great and has said they will support him and catch him up but I could bloody scream. How can some people be so bloody selfish.

I genuinely bow to your superior knowledge but my mom is adamant I never had it. To my knowledge my DDs have never had it. It must’ve been mild like Covid was for some who didn’t know that they had it while others were so ill. I know CP can be nasty.

My dc are in their 20s now.

Blinkin’ heck @BoreOfWhabylon , what an incredibly sobering thread. CP can go to the brain and cause swelling. What a harrowing experience.

You're right that it's not a compulsory vaccine. Many people don't know about it or can't afford it. You're wrong that it's better for kids not to have it.

Yeah but you attended those parties through choice. What those awful parents at the caravan did was take away the other parents choice and spread it around, whether they liked it or not

I find it strange the way people overreact to what were classed as childhood illnesses in my day when parents set out to make their child catch them. I know only two people who suffered complications. One was indirect as his mother caught Rubella whilst pregnant and he lost both his sight and hearing in his early teens. He was subsequently put in a 1980's mental hospital and died, I believe. of neglect. The other got mumps late in life. He lost all, his hair everywhere and became gender neutral. However, with Covid five people I knew died and only one was over 50! Others had long term complications with two ongoing three years later! Yet after the first few months people were very careless about masks, distancing, etc. Life will always have risks. I rode motorbikes for decades with many friends saying it was too dangerous. I gave it up when the children were young but resumed when they went to university. At over 70 I tend to use my Harley mainly in good weather. The weather does not really bother me more the numerous morons driving cars. Though I am getting on I can honestly say I think there are too many elderly drivers who should not be driving!

You probably got exposed to a very low viral load (for example, breathing in a tiny amount of virus at a playground or something while outside), and your immune system was able to mount a response very quickly, resulting in a very mild infection - perhaps your parents thought it was a heat rash or hand, foot and mouth etc.

Viral load matters quite a lot with chicken pox, it is the reason why cases generally get more severe as they "move through" a house with several siblings in it. By the time you get to the third or fourth kid, the poor kid has been breathing in a heavy fog of virus being emitted by all the other kids, meaning their immune system gets overwhelmed before it has a chance to mount a response, resulting in a bad case. These are often the kids who get scarred, although it also depends on your own dermatological characteristics. Scarring was a big reason for not wanting my kids to go through it. A friend forgot the vaccine and her son has some noticeable pockmarks.

My kids both got the "super-mild" version of CP a few years after the vaccine, where they got a few tiny spots, so I am confident their overall immunity is very solid. I don't think the CP vaccine is completely stopping the circulation of the virus, but it is preventing the bad cases where kids get crusty and gross and often wind up with pockmarks.

You don’t get shingles if you’ve never had chicken pox. The virus lies dormant in your system and emerges again later.

I'm sorry to say it different to some other comments, but chicken pox is once per liftime, a child should have it as soon as possible and it is good he finally got it done, imagine he would get it later in life it could be really really bad and leave scars. I appreciate it is uncomfortable, but it is good it is done.

People didn't deliberately expose their children to CP because of a belief it was fun or just for the heck of it.

It was done so that they would get the virus as children and not suffer the very severe illness that can present in adults.

They weren't idiots keeping up with the Joneses. They did it because it was the only way to avoid the risks that come with adult exposure.

I took most of my kids to a CP party before vaccines were available. The youngest was born after 1998 and was vaccinated.

My DCs were also vaccinated against rubella so that no other people would experience a disaster like the one you mentioned. One such incident is one too many as far as I'm concerned.

We had the option to vaccinate (lived overseas) and declined as it means boosters for the rest of your life. Instead they caught it within 6 weeks of returning to the UK. How anyone gets to 11 without catching it. My neighbour brought her then 4 year old around to make sure she caught it! It is short and mild is 99% of children

I remember being abroad a few years back, and was a pregnant woman who's never had CP. There in the pool playing without a care in the world was a child covered in very raw chicken pox all over. I was livid as of course it's very dangerous for pregnant women. I couldn't believe no one had said anything to them. I had to call up our holiday reps and beg with hotel staff for them to do something and they ended up having to isolate in their room which I couldn't believe.. was NEXT DOOR to mine. I got moved in the end and was terrified to go in the pool from that point on. Having grown up in a big family who had CP parties I'm a believer of early exposure because I had no knowledge of a vaccine. Will definitely look into this for my kids.

Some people think running about not mentioning it beforehand is ok, Not selfish unless you want it.
Can your son use a laptop, or phone to keep in touch with people starting school, he will quickly settle in and find his niche friendship group once he is well.
We had a child visit and casually mentioned thry had it oh it was infuriating because the child was to young for the vaccine.
Free here, why not in the Uk!
No vaccine should cost.

My 2 year old had CP very mild this year. It was going around nursery and he got around 5 spots on his back - but the pharmacist told me he'd likely get it again as it was a mild form🤷‍♀️

After reading that link to previous thread (from 2013) where a baby caught chicken pox (after his two sisters had it), I don’t think the number of spots are in itself indicative of a mild infection. On that thread, the 17 month old baby only had three spots on the underside of his foot, yet the CP had gone to his brain and caused it to swell. The mother being unable to rouse the baby was the first apparent symptom. The baby had to be kept sedated (waiting for his brain swelling to reduce) in hospital while being treated in a high dependency unit. Even then the 17 month old regressed to the ability of an 8 month old, having to be fed through a tube, and a weak left hand side. Hopefully with therapy, he recovered fully.

Yourself included, maybe?

Further booster doses are not needed. If you get chickenpox after being vaccinated, you'll usually have milder symptoms than someone who has not been vaccinated.

Chickenpox vaccine - NHS

They don't have chicken pox in the routine vaccinations for children in the UK. Only at risk people can get it. I don't know if you can get a private one.

Vaccine? Most people wouldn't be aware there is one. It says it is only available on the NHS, it isn't standard and only certain people are eligible.

You can get it privately at almost any chemist including Boots.

I have to say, I really don't understand why health visitors and GPs aren't educating people about the availability of this, let alone why the NHS hasn't added it to the vaccination schedule.

"Hunt down the bustards!" Omg! I hope that's just tongue in cheek! Your DS has Chicken pox,not bubonic plague! He would have caught it sooner or later. Its rotten luck, he missed his first week in High School but good that you were able to contact the school and be assured he'll be supported. You would have hated the 60's, Mums then had 'Chicken pox parties' Idea was if one child caught it they would all have a get together and catch it at the same time. Get it over with! ... Hope your DS is over the worst of it now.

I've never had it either. My Nana didn't have it either in her 91 years of life.
Working in childcare and schools, I have been exposed to it frequently. Both of my children have had it too.
At 50 I'm slightly concerned about shingles in the future but I assume you get some kind of immunity blood test before they give you the vaccine?

The vaccine isn't common in the UK and many GPs won't give it.

I had the same thing happen when mine attended a SureStart Centre. Mine then got chicken pox whilst we were on holiday. We ended up creeping out at night and warning people to stay away whilst they played on the swings! My MIL was furious as she'd planned all these activities which we couldn't do. My friend miscarried from catching chicken pox at around the same time. People seem to not realise the implications of letting their child run around with it. The mother of the kid we caught it from just didn't care.

I hope your son is feeling ok other than missing out.

Love the victim blaming on this thread. It's like people want 100% of responsibility placed on those on the receiving end of shitty behaviour, with none on the perpetrators. It's very odd.

Yes OP they did your son a favour, he could have been deliberately exposed by someone when his future wife was pregnant. Why didn't you get the vaccine that so many don't even know about in the U.K. and that you actually did try to get but had an adverse reaction to anyway? I think at this rate if you served deliberately contaminated food, some would be saying that's the same as serving something you didn't know was contaminated.

I had chicken pox as a kid and then developed as an adult awful shingles which cost me a fortune in Aciclovir and were bloody painful, so my daughter is vaccinated. The train has left in your case but it may be useful for others. And yes, some people are really selfish.

Some people are just bloody selfish! I took my 3DC to a soft play a couple of weeks ago and my 10yo pointed out to me a little girl plastered in raw spots (clearly chicken pox) 🤦‍♀️

We also had family visit the day we came home with our newborn baby and they rather casually announced how they’d all had a sickness bug, one of them only being sick the night before their visit but before informing us of any of this they got him to kiss my baby on the head!

Some people really have no consideration for others! I hope your boy isn’t too poorly and I’m sure he’ll catch up and make lots of lovely new friends ☺️