Wwyd under these circumstances re chicken pox vaccine.

[upjacobscreekwithoutapaddle]

Have also posted in wwyd but normally get sensible advice here so double posting.

4yo ds has had a rotten year with his health. He recovered well from a tonsillectomy 4 weeks ago only to succumb to an awful d&v bug last week.

I need my little boy to have a break, he's lost a ton of weight and is very pale. C pox is doing the rounds in a big way at his school, and the schools my husband and I work in. If I knew he would only get it in its mildest form I wouldnt worry but he is so susceptible at the moment and knowing him he would be really poorly with it. If you were me would you just have him vaxed and not run the risk (im erring to this) or just adopt a wait and see approach. Other factors of course include issues with dh and I needing to take more time off when we have had a lot already due to his op etc. Help me please??

A lot of my friends with children with darker skin, african and asian have all had their children vaccinated as the pox can scar their skin quite badly.

You need to have 2 injections about 3 months apart, and it is live vaccine, so there is the possibility you can get chickenpox from the jab, or as happened, everyone else around you gets chickenpox!

The jab didn't seem to have any other side effects, if it had been round when mine were little, I would have had them done, and in the USA you have to have it before you can start daycare or nursery.

If you can afford it, I would, poor little thing, he does need a break!

We had a dilemma after DD3 had septicaemia a couple of years ago. She had not had chickenpox and there was a higher risk for her as the bacteria that caused her septicaemia is one of the complicating factors seen with chickenpox. In most kids it would be unpleasant but in her it could be life threatening but we wouldn't know. We spoke at length to the infectious diseases consultant who basically said they are not certain vaccine immunity is lifelong with chickenpox. If we vaccinated she had the risk of catching it still as an adult, but this was not certain. Adults tend to be more sick than kids. In most cases of chickenpox in kids the immunity does appear to be lifelong however. So, did we vaccinate and risk issues when older? In her case our GP was advised if DD got chickenpox that she must have antibiotics from day 1 to try and prevent any secondary infection. As it happened DD did get chickenpox within 6 months of her illness (her sister had shingles and we think she caught it from her) and within about 2 hours of the first spots she was on antibiotics. She sailed through the illness with thankfully no bother despite our obvious concerns. I think it was the right decision for us. In all honesty all 3 of mine have been different in how they were. DD2 was young and I suspect part of the reason why she got shingles later, dd1 was a toddler and pretty poorly though not hospital type poorly. Dd3 was also a toddler and had a relatively mild illness despite having been fighting for her life only months before. I don't think you can predict how it will be really.

There isn't a right or wrong answer in your case, go with what feels right for your situation.

Two out of three of mine had the vaccine at the same time as mmr (standard in Canada).
They did get chicken pox (about three years later) but a much milder version that their un vacc sibling. Much milder, to the extent that the first one only had a few spots and wasn't identified as chicken pox until the other two caught it and everyone had a lightbulb moment.

We decided to vacc as my 21mo was dx with chicken pox at the same time that her 10 week old brother was dx with double pneumonia from rsv. It actually turned out not to be (lucky stars somewhere) so we decided to get them vacced on the ordinary schedule here, which was chicken pox with mmr.