Ideal age to get chickenpox?

[totallynaive]

I wonder whether I should deliberately expose my toddler to chickenpox now that it seems to be doing the rounds. At his age (15 ms) he won't understand that he mustn't scratch himself, but it would be easier to file his nails down/get mitts onto him now while he is - just - physically controllable than later. Bathing him and keeping his skin comfortable must also be easier than with a larger child. Anyone have any thoughts about the perfect age for this? I remember having it at 5 and it was just awful.

I reckon 1 and a half to about 3 and a half is ideal, if chickenpox is ever ideal.

Also, I won't be off work forever.

I think my 5 yo handled it better than my 2 yo but neither were too bad. Night time was when the itching seemed to be worse but my 5 yo understood it better.

15mo too young imho. It can have serious complications and I wouldn't reccommend deliberately exposing him.

Fwiw my two were exposed (accidentally) many, many times and didn't catch it. When ds did catch it he was 4 and I still don't know where he caught it from and no-one in his class caught it from him.

As I said, ds was 4, dd was 14 months. Neither were especially 'ill' but each had 600+ spots. Dd really suffered with the itching and at 14 months she was too young to be bribed to take piriton and too young for creams like eurax.

We have just had it with a six year old, which was spotty but not too bad - he understood about taking medicine and not scratching, although he was aware that he was very uncomfortable. We are now embarking on it with the two year old (spots are popping in front of my eyes as I type!) so I'll update later!

Expose him when you can, if you think you have the chance to control when he gets it go for it. Otherwise he'll get it at some much more inconvenient time. It's good to be prepared.

Mine had it at 3 months, 14 months, 2.5yo & nearly 5yo & I can't see any that there's any ideal time to get it except below 12yo. The 2.5yo & 3month old had it easiest (not ill at all!), 14m & almost 5yo found it rough (high fever, miserable); it came down to individual child how they took it, not their age at all.

Both mine had it around 2.5 and they were ok. Miserable and itchy and a temp for the first couple of days. However, it does seem to vary massively between kids. My friends son had it at the same time as my dd and he ended up in hospital. It's rare for kids to be that ill with it, but I wouldn't deliberately expose my child to it. On the other had my DH had it when he was 21 and it was awful :).