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.

It’s more than £150 all in though.

I don't understand this post but maybe it's just me. You don't catch shingles so why would kids having the CP vaccine make any difference to the elderly?

Selfish on the part of those parents absolutely and they should have kept their child indoors but realistically it's amazing you've managed to avoid him getting it for this long... probably better in a way to get it over him now than get shingles when he's older. Loads of kids transfer to new schools later in the year and make lots of friends. It's just hard because starting high school is daunting enough as it is. I hope he gets on well when he does start.

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, by the way:

There is growing evidence that the shingles vaccine reduces the risk of dementia - the latest shingles vaccine seems to lower the risk by about 17% or so.

So ALL elderly people should be getting this vaccine anyway, no matter what. In cost-effectiveness terms alone, it’s a no-brainer for society.

So even if letting kids catch the Gross Scabby Disease were some sort of shingles-preventer in the elderly (which it doesn’t seem to be, given that most countries have been vaccinating against it for a few decades now and shingles rates, age-adjusted, seem about the same), this still would not be a reason for letting them catch it, because vaccinating against shingles for the elderly will be the norm going forward anyway.

The theory was “By having kids catch CP and pass it around each other, this means that the CP virus will be sort of floating around society in tiny little doses all the time, meaning that immune systems of the elderly will be exposed to it, and this will “top up” their immunity levels against the virus, helping them to keep the virus as dormant as possible within their own bodies.”

I mean, it’s not necessarily a stupid theory at all (it maybe does work that way with some viruses), but decades of CP vaccination in other countries does not seem to be causing issues. And, as I mentioned in a previous post, the real reason for the NHS coming out with this stuff is because they don’t want to admit the real reasons why they have not offered CP vaccine up to now (basically: panic after the Wakefield scandal, plus the cost of administering a separate vaccine - see my previous post).

It’s upsetting for sure, I think chicken pox is one of those childhood illnesses which is extremely rare to avoid to be fair. It wasn’t so long ago that people were holding chicken pox parties like psychopaths. It’s also a vaccine whose efficacy wains a fair bit I think, so let this be a reminder to anyone reading this to keep the vaccines up to date if their kids were vaxed a long time ago. Also spare a thought for the families with immuno compromised people in them, they must feel this rage quite a lot

I’m in my 50s , I’ve never had chicken pox nor actually any other childhood disease , I’ve been exposed to chicken pox at least 4 times but I’ve no immunity at all ,

oh and my mum got the shingles vaccine and got shingles 6 weeks later, she’d never had chicken pox before either, she only got the vaccine as my granny had shingles in her eye and up into her scalp

Ahh poor lad I can understand he's upset. He shouldn't be off that long and by the time he starts the rest of the class still won't know each other that well.
He won't be long in settling and making some friends
A neighbour of mine didn't think to tell me her daughter had chicken pox and I was seven months pregnant.
I caught them but thankfully all was fine with the baby.

And what a lovely surprise that would have been for him.

"Hey son, we're not having a holiday this year. I've bought you an injection instead. Enjoy!"

OP it is really unlucky timing and the family sound irresponsible. I would be upset too.

Going to high school is a big step and he's understandably worried. I hope he's not too ill and that you manage to reassure him. There's a lot of jostling around and rejigging of friendships during year 7, especially throughout the first term.

Would it help if you encouraged him to reframe it as this being his chance to make a dramatic late entry as the kid who was too cool for the start of school? Maybe think up outlandish reasons why he wasn't there - kidnapped by aliens, carrying out a top secret mission etc. Obviously not to say to other people but so that he can have a private smile to himself if kids ask where he's been.

So yes, there's a vaccine available and even though HM Government don't think it's important enough to include in the childhood vaccinations schedule, we're all supposed to know about it and pay £150 we don't have to have our children protected so that everyone else can take their pox ridden children on holiday. Really???

Nobody, vaccine or not, should knowingly take a child with CP anywhere in public because there could be immunocompromised people (who can't have the vaccine, because they're immunocompromised) and pregnant women, who could become seriously unwell as a result of catching it.

If this thread was about D and V rather than CP, everyone would be up in arms saying that no way should you take a vomiting child out in public, but apparently CP is OK because there's a PRIVATE, PAID for vaccine available and everyone should know about it by osmosis or something and prioritise everything in their whole lives (including a three day caravan holiday in North Wales) to get it.

Right, OK.

OP, I'm so sorry that your son has chicken pox right now at the beginning of year 7 - I hope he recovers quickly and settles really well into his school.

And no, YANBU for expecting parents with pox ridden children to keep them at home

Ffs are you for real, an annual caravan holiday is probably the most budget holiday you can get, I don't think OP is made of money. Not to mention that there are so many potential vaccines to pay for above Chickenpox so it's going to cost much more than 150

Probably. Does OP have more than one child though? She has updated that her DS had the first dose of vaccine and reacted badly so she wasn't deliberately prioritising holidays over health.

The vaccine is given to children from the age of one. If a parent truly believed getting the chickenpox vaccine was in their child's best interest, they could certainly put money aside every month in more paletable chunks as their baby grows up - it isn't like you just wake up one day with a one year old.

Well then his CP should be very mild and her anger even more unwarranted.

There seems to be plenty of literature that says otherwise.

I didn't say that the purpose of not-vaccinating was to protect the elderly against shingles.

I just said that not vaccinating does protect some people against shingles.

And it's not the the elderly because most of them would get the vaccine, but the younger adults who are too young for shingles vaccine which I believe isn't recommend for under 50s and hasn't been tested on under 50s.

Selfish, entitled arseholes. Unfortunately (as you can see from the thread) they walk among us.

Particularly dangerous for the elderly to come into contact with it.

Does your son have a friend who he could FaceTime? Have a word with the school and let them know how he’s feeling too. Hope he’s better soon.

Vaccination doesn’t mean you are impervious to it, you can also get cp more than once (meaning he could still have ended up off school possibly).

Its not standard in the UK, they don't routinely vaccinate against chicken pox here. thats assuming op is in the UK.

That particular post of yours was pretty stupid and insensitive and tone-deaf (not to mention inaccurate) though imo 🤷‍♀️ - you really managed to cram a lot into one short post! Reporting the response as a personal attack is also pretty questionable.

Sorry to hear this I really am people are so self centred and basically don’t give a crap. Hopefully your little one recovers asap and will be back in school in no time. As for the parents who knowingly exposed other kids and adults they need a good kick in the arse a really hard boot

Unless you know op you have no idea how much it costs.

What do you mean by, "...come down with them"? Who is 'them' ?

Once the spots have dried up chicken pox is no longer contagious.

Your son would probably have caught it sooner or later, it's a shame it happened now but he will be fine once he goes to school. Kids will be going off sick with all sorts throughout the term.

I note he had the first chicken pox vaccine years ago and developed a bad reaction so it's understandable you didn't pursue that.

Sounds as if the school are caring. DS is probably feeling more teary and emotional from being ill than he would otherwise.

But to add to the chorus - he should have been vaccinated, and that's on you.

Then maybe seek out people who have chicken pox and try to get it when the children are young. We went to a chicken pox party back in the 1990s. By the time youngest DC was born everyone was getting vaccinated and nobody was catching it in the wild. I had to get DC vaccinated.

Adults and teens usually have worse symptoms than children do.

It's been a thing since 1998.

My friend’s toddler developed lesions on the brain and died from chickenpox. Rare, I know. All of mine were vaccinated.