Chickenpox vaccine

[Bytheseainsummer]

I enquired about this about a year ago for my toddler but was discouraged by the pharmacist at Boots - she gave me the impression it was best to catch in the wild as it were.

I am now wondering about it again, does anyone have any further info or advice? I think I’d like to get it for him but also don’t want to potentially cause problems for him further down the line. He’s two and a half.

It is better caught as it confers longer immunity. We decided we have the DC vaccinated at 12 years old if they hadn't caught it. Thankfully, they did catch it.

This is a link to the CDC website:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/varicella.html

It does say:

"Most people who are vaccinated with 2 doses of varicella vaccine will be protected for life."

And another good Q & A from Cleveland Clinic:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22136-chickenpox-vaccine

DD got chicken pox 2 years ago when she was 4. Rushed to A&E when I couldn't get her temperature down and she went floppy. 5 days in hospital, whole body swollen, on aggressive antibiotics. She has scars all over her body. I can't stress enough how I wish I'd got her vaccinated. She caught it from her older brother who was very sporty but felt totally fine.

I meant spotty not sporty...

DS 1 was vaccinated agains cp after much research and had no ill effects from it.

DS2 caught CP before I got him booked in for vaccination but would have had him vaccinated had I had the chance. Thankfully he had the mildest dose possible and was absolutely fine with it.

There won't be a DS3 but if I wanted/had another, I'd still book in for vaccination as I know how bad it can be!!

There’s no evidence the vaccine wears off.
I f you were worried you’d get vaccinated again.. or if older have the shingles jab

In some countries the vaccine is given with the other injections that children have at a young age

It's not given free in the UK because of the cost

The vaccine if you have both injections last around ten years

I had a similar experience with a pharmacist in Boots, I wonder if we saw the same one 🤣 She was quite unpleasant tbh. It put me right off Boots, as for someone who was supposed to be giving my young child a medical intervention, she didn't seem very intelligent at all... that sounds really nasty, but the things she was saying reminded me of anti vax conspiracy theorists. Not someone who I want to be injecting my baby, at any rate.

We decided to go to a private GP, and the experience was great, no problems at all. I'm very glad we got him vaccinated, and we will do the same for our second child when old enough (but we'll be avoiding Boots!). I'd definitely recommend it tbh, I'm glad it's one less illness we have to worry about going forward!

In Ireland, at the moment, they are assessing whether to add it to the schedule of childhood immunisations. My doctors surgery strongly advise getting the vaccine and my daughter has had her first dose and will have the second in a few weeks.

A friend of mine’s doctor really discouraged and both his daughters got a really bad dose and he was very annoyed about it.

Out of curiosity, where did this "10 year" statistic come from? I haven't seen that quoted on any reputable medical or public health site.

They’ve been vaccinating since 1996 in the US, that makes the first recipients 26 years old. There are no issues with it on a population or individual level, either from
decreased or immunity or getting shingles (for which there’s a vaccine anyway). If you can afford I don’t see why you would set out to have you kid suffer because at best it’s still throughly unpleasant.

No one is ‘setting out to have their kid suffer’, it is posts like that which are really unhelpful. I can’t imagine many people sit there and think hmm you know what, I want my child to suffer.

However, if you don’t have a medical background at all, which I don’t, and are told by a pharmacist it’s best for a toddler to catch it in the wild barking ‘well why wouldn’t you’ doesn’t answer that question as to why catching it in the wild is better. I think I’ve had that answered now although there’s still a bit of confusion. What I don’t want to happen is say for DS to turn 30, get chickenpox and be extremely ill because the vaccine wore off whereas it wouldn’t had be caught it ‘normally.’ I don’t mean to sound prickly but posts inferring that I want DS to suffer or that I begrudge paying are really quite upsetting to read.

You get two shots in the UK. The vaccine doesn't "wear off'. Vaccines stimulate your immune system to produce antibodies. Your immune system doesn't just forget what it learns.
I had ds vaccinated. For health reasons, but also because I met a mum at a toddler group who's daughter had it. The mum actually burst out crying when I asked about a vaccine and said "chicken pox destroyed my daughters face. She used to be beautiful" 😰

@Bytheseainsummer You sound like an intelligent mum who is trying to weighs the pros and cons of a vaccine for your child. Nothing in any of your posts would make anyone think you "want your child to suffer"!

Two things....

*There is no evidence that the vaccine " wears off". The above links from the CDC and Cleveland Clinic state the opposite in fact.

*Pharmacists have opinions. That doesn't mean those "opinions" are necessarily correct. It would have been interesting to hear her response if she'd been asked why exactly it would be better for your child to "catch it in the wild".

FWIW, my " baby"😂had the vax in 1997 as a toddler. He is 27 now and has never had chickenpox despite being exposed many times over the years.

Unfortunately my most enduring childhood memory is of being terribly ill with a miserable case of chickenpox at about 11 years of age. I still have some facial scars. My sister was the same while my brother barely noticed that he even had them!

So do your research and make the decision that you are comfortable with. That's the best any parent can do! Good luck😀

Except some people do literally hope their child will catch it and deliberately expose their child to it while young, because they are under some misapprehension that this is preferable to vaccination for some reason. I think pre vaccine it was considered good to do it young as it can be worse when older, but now THERE IS A VACCINE. It is therefore preferable to get the vaccine, than catch it at any age. In my mind, deliberately exposing them to an uncomfortable (and sometimes deadly) disease when the alternative is choosing suffering for your child.

I’m sure the real reason the NHS don’t include it is cost. At a population wide level, there is no financial benefit to them doing it. Of course they don’t say that so there’s rumours about immunity in later life and shingles and so on. On an individual level, there is a benefit to vaccination, so if you can, do. Just like they do in countries where healthcare isn’t f*cked.

That’s different to wanting your child to suffer though @modgepodge . That’s more on balance they believe that it is preferable to have it as a child than an adult. Not the same thing.

Surely it’s preferable not to have it at all?

We paid for our son to have it privately. I'm half American and it's part of the vaccination programme there so I always wanted to get him vaccinated. We will give him the booster when he's a teenager.

So what I am (genuinely) asking is this.

A lot of illnesses seem to be (relatively) mild in children even though they may make the child feel grotty.

If the choice is between no chickenpox and chickenpox, even mild, yes. But if the vaccine doesn’t offer lifelong immunity then that does change things. There’s a lot of information and it isn’t all straightforward!

I’m sorry but we know that getting to adulthood without catching chickenpox is dangerous so if you are in the fortunate position to be able to pay for the vaccine yet you choose to not to do it, then you are wanting your child to catch it. Whilst thankfully chickenpox is rarely serious, it is a very very unpleasant illness and kids do suffer with it. So I do feel like if you can afford to prevent that for your child why wouldn’t you? Absolute no brainer IMO.

It’s about time though that the UK followed all the developed nations, added it to the routine schedule and stopped pedalling the nonsense about it wearing off and shingles which we know isn’t true because the Americans have been vaccinating for 26 years…

Both my kids have had the vaccine.
If you are confident that you can take care of any follow-up (e.g. pay and organise a booster aged 18, although it seems now that this is unnecessary) there’s no reason not to. I suspect this is what the pharmacist is thinking about, that there will be adults vulnerable to chickenpox running about without knowing they may need another vaccination because the NHS won’t tell them.

Getting chickenpox is the thing that is going to GIVE her shingles in later life. Without catching chickenpox, she can’t get shingles.

I was concerned about the potential for the vaccine to wear off and for my son to be in an unknown position in respect of immunity. I decided to wait until he was 12, and if he hadn't had it by then to get him vaccinated, as at that point, for me, the risk balance started to change at that age against getting it naturally.

I might have waited longer than 12 if he had been a daughter, who might have future issues with not having a simple "had it/not had it" if she had a pregnancy in the future.

As it happened he got it as a toddler.

I got my second son (born 2 years later) vaccinated at age 3. Few reasons for changing my mind:

• he was a COVID baby and there was some evidence of that generation having greater risk of complications from chickenpox due to the lack of socialising affecting their immune systems.
• 5 more years had passed since I looked at it for my first son and there is no extra evidence of increased rates of adult chickenpox in the population of countries that give the vaccine routinely.
• I read an interview with the guy who is in charge of the UK's vaccination programme. He has been pushing very hard for it to be part of the UK's vaccination programme. The reason it isn't is because of persistent vaccine hesitancy. They don't want to rock the boat and risk people deciding to not get the MMR. COVID delayed his campaign as pushing for covid vaccinations took precedence, but he's back on it now.