Intentionally give toddler chickenpox?

[Polyethyl]

My mother has just been diagnosed with shingles and her doctor advised her to give chicken pox to my 20mo toddler.
I am astonished. Do doctors generally advise this? My DH is aghast at the idea of making our pfb intentionally ill.
I have had chicken pox. We do not know whether or not my DH has had it as he can't remember and his mother has passed away.
Our daughter is in robust health, still breastfeeding and we have nothing important in our diaries for the next month, so I could take time off work to nurse her through it. But is it really the best thing for her?
Would it be better to avoid Granny and pay for the vaccination?
We last saw Granny 8 days ago - would she have been infectious then?

So many questions. Because I am so surprised by the doctor's advice.

I would not deliberately expose your dd. Chickenpox can cause serious illness for some children, and you'd never forgive yourself if you exposed her and she had a severe reaction.

Dd1 had a bad time with chickenpox aged 2 (300+ spots) with about a dozen scars now. Enough to make me consider vaccinating dd2...

Can someone please guide me to scientific/medical articles on the pros and cons of the vaccination?

There is so much bonkers anti-vax stuff on google it is hard to judge what to do.

of course it may be too late, baby may already be incubating it. Or perhaps I have unwittingly transferred it - I cuddled Mum at lunchtime and then cuddled baby this evening before hearing the diagnosis.

We had the vaccine and it was great. You can have the vaccine within 72 hours of exposure to provide immunity

www.topmedicalpractice.co.uk/#!vaccinations/c1869

Shingles isn't infectious in the same way as CP - you need to contact the matter from the rash directly.

When you embraced your DM, did you touch the rash?

Have you had CP?

We went for vaccination too. CP is at best unpleasant for a period of time and at worst fatal.

I think we will need to get DD's immunity status checked when she is older as immunity may wane and the risk returns.

No. I didn't cuddle mum's rash directly! And yes I have had chicken pox as a child. In fact I had it twice mildly, which I understand is relatively rare.

Can someone please guide me to scientific/medical articles on the pros and cons of the vaccination?

The reason it's not been made standard in the UK isn't about the risk/benefit to the child.

There is some evidence that if you have had chicken pox, as most people have at some stage, then it is exposure to chicken pox in the environment over the years which keeps your immune system strong enough to prevent you from getting shingles (which is caused by chicken pox virus dormant in your body).

So there is a fear that if you start vaccinating children again chicken pox (which can be very serious, as Alpaca says, but the serious complications are extremely rare) then you will see a rise in the levels of shingles amongst older people (for whom it can also be very serious, and is more often serious than chicken pox is amongst younger age groups).

There is now a vaccine for Shingles (www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/shingles-vaccination.aspx) and it's being rolled out free to older people, so hopefully the trade-off will change and chickenpox vaccination will become standard for children. However, take-up of vaccines amongst older patients isn't great.

I'm not envious at all of people who have to make these sorts of ethical decisions.