Chicken Pox vaccine?

[Mamabananananana]

A friend from another country informed me that she intended to get her child vaccinated agaist chicken pox. I didnt even know there WAS one?

Has anyone on here bought the vaccine for thier child?
its rife, at the moment: £140 seems reasonable to avoid it!
DC attends baby classes but not a nursery, so less likely to pick it up

• reasonable to me , a working parent. Bloody appalling if youre a SAHM

i called for a chat with my GP about it, but the "call " is over 2 weeks away.

We opted to get it for our DC as seemed worth the money to avoid them getting it badly or is needing to take time off work (self employed so would lose money).

Lots of people from overseas seem to get it as they can't believe it doesn't form part of our vaccination programme anyway!

Yep! We got it for DD when she was 1. So nice to not have to worry about it. It's done as standard in a lot of countries. With time missed at school/nursery/cancelled events, the cost isn't really that much in the end either.

Yep I got it for mine. Standard part of childhood vaccinations in lots of other countries

Yes, child number 1 got it and child number 2 shall have it when they turn 1. We had it done at Superdrug. All fine and dandy.

My baby isn't old enough yet, but when the time comes I will get her it. Chicken pox can be miserable (and very occasionally children can become seriously unwell with it) so if I can spare her that then it seems worthwhile. It also means if you have any future babies they will be protected from their older sibling bringing chickenpox home from nursery/school (neonatal chickenpox can be very serious).

We got ours vaccinated for free as my mum is CEV - there are exceptions that you could possibly look into?

however I completely agree £140 is obscene. What next? £20 for MM an extra tenner for the R?

Considered it but in the end DS had chicken pox quite mildly. My understanding is it should be boosted in 10 years time? If you don't have the booster you may then be more vulnerable to chicken pox as an adult which isn't good.

@starpatch yes i was looking to see the "cons" as its seems mad they wouldn't vaccinate unless there was a down side? All i could read was "more likely to get shingles" ??

what was the side effects of the vax?
feel like DC just got over the 12 month vax :(

They don't vaccinate because it would cause a big increase in shingles cases in adults and would cost the NHS money. I suspect they will vaccinate against it in coming years though.

Re: the booster, unlikely as vaccination rates are so low here that kids/adults will be exposed to the virus plenty and continue boosting immunity. The 10 years figure is just from a study that found after 10 years kids still had immunity. There haven't been that many studies on longer-term immunity, and those have tended to be in countries with v high vaccination rates where it's not endemic in the wild like it is here.

And DD had no side effects at all.

@Hugasauras hmmm.... thats what im gettinh confused at: if it would cause an upsurge in shingles, then are vaccinated children not more likely to get shingles over their unvaccinated and previously exposed peers?
or is my sleep deprived mum brain not thinking this through logically?

This explains it better than I can type!

www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/uk-chickenpox-vaccination/

The issue isn’t that vaccinated kids could get shingles as adults, it’s that if there is less chickenpox circulating generally, adults wont have their immune systems regularly ‘reminded’ of it so they are more likely to get shingles. That’s probably very unscientific but you get my drift.

I think the ‘needs a booster after 10 years’ thing is out of date. DD had it, and they said that she might need a booster at 18 but they guessed that by the time she’s that age they will have the evidence to show that it gives much longer immunity.

For me it was a no-brainer. The reasons that the NHS don’t do it are nothing to do with benefitting my DD, and if I can save her (and me) from a miserable time, it’s an obvious thing to do!