Should I take nearly 4 year old dd to chicken pox party?

[happenedagain]

My dd is nearly 4, my friends little one has chicken pox, I'm wondering if I should take her to catch them? Or just wait untill she naturally catches them at school?

Bubbleymummy - I've never heard of the risk of serious complications or death from the chicken pox vaccine. Is there a study that shows this? Seriously, I'd like to know as I'm thinking about getting my baby vaccinated after how ill my older boys were.

I thought with the boosters they are unlikely to need this if they are exposed to chickenpox having been vaccinated.

I do find it tends to be the parents of children who haven't had chickenpox that say that it isn't serious. I was shocked and horrified at how ill my children were.

No.

And what everyone else who has said "why the fuck would you deliberately expose your child to something that might kill them?" has said.

I have a theory that people who do this are the same people who then think it's OK to go shopping and expose other children (who may be immuno-compromised in many different ways)

If you do a MN search you'll find far more eloquent reasons as to why it's a moronic thing to do, but I can't be arsed to argue the toss.

schmee, every vaccine carries that risk - very rare but still there. I was just pointing that out. There are potential complications with every illness as well and it isn't possible to vaccinate against everything. I just think people become a bit 'scaremongery' abour illnesses once vaccines become available whereas they woukd just get on with it otherwise. IMO the cp vaccine is an unnecessary one for healthy children ( I realise that immunocompromised children have to take extra precautions) and creates dependence on a lifetime of boosters of decreasing effectiveness. Current estimates are every 10-15 years iirc and of course there's no guarantee it will work anyway!

my dc are both vaccinated against cp.
costs about 60£ privately, ask your gp he might do it for you.
it is recommended to have children with eczema vaccinated, as bad skin + the spots are not a good combination (can lead to very bad skin infections).

Thanks bubbleymummy - I actually didn't know there was a vaccine available when my 3-year-old got spots on the inside of his eyes and was sent urgently to hospital due to the risk of him going blind. So it wasn't the knowledge of the vaccine that made me "scaremongery" about this.

Thanks mousymouse.

mouseymouse - how did you go about getting a private jab? dd has not had the pox and is 11. I've always said if shes not had it by her mid teens then I'd get her immunity checked and her have the jab, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is better to do it before Secondary school.

(doh, should have read your post properly - a pain asking the gp though - would I need to take dd or can I ask at one of my own appts?)

I was very ill from CP when I was a child and still have visible skin marks today. Not to be recommended.

Sigh... So easy to see what way the UK is headed when you read these threads.