How did your child get chickenpox?

[Lee22e]

Hello, I was just wondering what the most common method of transmission was. I got it from my sister who got it from primary. I'm dreading the idea and want to prepare. Is there a season for chickenpox? NHS writes that you typically would require 15 minutes or more of contact? I figure it might be better to ask for personally experiences. My child is 2 and stays home so I assumed relatively low risk until my brother said that you can get it from someone in line at a shop. I will gratefully take any advice available

Very rarely children can contract chickenpox after having the double dose vaccine - however it is a mild case (ds caught it and had 6 spots, no fever, no illness) - but it is something like 2% of children that have been vaccinated.

As it has only been rolled out as a nationwide vaccine (in US, Australia, Japan etc) in the last 20 years, evidence is ongoing as to the long term efficacy of the vaccine, and whether a booster is needed.

OP- forgive me, but do you have anxiety generally about your children's health? Because I do think it's quite unusual to be worrying in this way......

Ds caught it at nursery 2.5 years..had two spots and was fine. Dd caught it from ds, she was tiny....absolutely covered. Both had piriton liquid to stop them itching and were fine. The private innoculations were £45+ 10 years ago I think. Better for them to catch it when they are little as older children seem to suffer with more pain.

DD1 got it from school the October after she started, very mild and no other symptoms. Dd2 caught it from DD1 and was covered. Had about 5 big pocks for a week then they spread. High temperature, near constant itching. Piriton, paracetamol, and eurax cream were my saviours! Ds caught it when Dd2 developed shingles at age 6. He was covered too, slept a lot and had a shockingly high temperature.

If you're worried about a severe case, get vaccinated. I wish I'd done it, my eldest caught it from a friend when he was 3 and I've never seen him so ill. Only the soles of his feet escaped, even his little chap was covered. He became incontinent for several days as he was too sick to move, but changing his nappy was a nightmare. His fever was very high, but he was in so much pain that I couldn't take it.
His little brother was 4 months old at the time and caught it too. Thankfully he was nothing like as unwell, but does have a couple of facial scars still and as it happened well over a year ago they're probably not going to improve much more.
We used piriton, calpol and poxcilin which is a spray on mouse to help the itching and prevent infected spots. It was nasty sticky stuff but I think it helped. A friend of mine would put her son in a baking soda bath when the itching got bad. He loved it, apparently.
I wish I'd got them vaccinated. I've heard that it isn't 100% for preventing catching it, but if they do get it then it's much milder.

Did got it at age 3 when at nursery. She gave it to ds who was around 6 months old. Dd was very itchy and there were a couple of sleepless nights. Ds didn't suffer too much at all and was just spotty. Ds went on to have shingles at age 3 which was a bit crap especially as it was misdiagnosed as eczema by the locum Doctor who gave me cream to rub on it ...ouch!

Thank you. Indeed, I am very anxious. How much of the UK population gets inoculated for chickenpox? Is it a vaccine that the overall population does not get?

It's not a standard vaccine, no, it's one you can only get privately.

As far as I understand it is a perfectly safe vaccine (I think it is the same one they use in other countries) but the NHS have decided the risks or side effects of chickenpox aren't enough to warrant rolling this out as a standard vaccine.

The vaccine isn't yet available on the NHS - there were concerns it might lead to more shingles in the elderly, but now 70+ people are getting a shingles jab, I predict the NHS may well offer the CP jab to children say 5+ in a few years time.

Currently you have to pay about £150 for the vaccine so few people get it - maybe 10% of the population think to do it if their child gets to school age and hasn't had it, then 9/10 of those find their kids get it naturally first (i was one of those, mine got it age 2 and 3 so no need to vaccinate to avoid my own experience of getting it badly age 16).

I'm still waiting for Ds to catch it as he's now 7 but having being exposed to it many times we've had nothing.

Mine are bith vaccinated privately - not cheap though about £150-200 for the double dose each.

Ds was vaccinated on the NHS, as he has an underlying health condition, to pay in our surgery it is £140 for the 2 jabs required.