Chicken Pox Vaccination - anyone had it/ thought about it for their DC?

[countrybump]

I'm thinking about giving my DD, 14 months, the chicken pox vaccine, but I'm unsure.

My DS had CP when he was 2.5, and it was a fairly mild illness, as it usually is, although he did have spots in some very sensitive areas that caused him to be very uncomfortable, and he has been left with a few scars, not on his face, and I'm sure they will fade with time.

My reasons for considering giving DD vaccine, is that I'm thinking that, even though it is usually a mild illness, why let her have that illness at all if it is avoidable?

I know I'll have to pay for it, and I know the NHS don't vaccine because it is a mild illness and not cost effective.

I was just wondering what others opinions on it were, and your reasons for chosing to vaccinate / not vaccinate.

I had it for my son as it is part of the vaccination schedule in Australia. I wasn't going to as I thought it was unnecessary as chances are it is a mild illness for young children & if he hadn't caught it naturally then I could reconsider when he was older. But then I saw a feature on the news showing families who had lost a child to the disease & I thought I couldn't take the risk. I would prefer him to have had a mild version of the actual disease as it offers longer immunity & less risk of contracting shingles later in life but having seen distraught mothers & fathers appealing for other parents to vaccinate their children I went for the vaccine. However if I'd not seen that I wouldn't have had him vaccinated even though I was aware of the same facts - I admit I was effectively emotionally blackmailed! So probably not very helpful to you but just my experience.

Over here it is on the vaccine schedule for economic/productivity reasons, ie they don't want parents taking long periods of time off work when there is an outbreak. For pure convienience it is preferable not to have to isolate a whole family for what could be several weeks if more than one sibling gets it.

Thanks Elvisgirl.
I think I'll talk to my GP about it as well. I really want to prevent her getting it when she is a bit older, as I had CP when I was about 12, and it was awful, and I still have two quite prominent scars on my face, which although not as much of a worry as other life threatening complications of CP, are much more likely to happen. And I just keep thinking, if I could prevent it, then why not?

If you want her to have it then do - tis your choice and these are such difficult decisions I think we all have to respect each others views.

My DCs won't have it. My reasons are that no vaccine is benign - there is a potential for problems with every vaccine. I only vaccinate if there is a good chance they may catch it and a good chance it could be serious IYSWIM.

I had CP as an adult so I know it can be shitty and I know that sadly there can be serious complications. But DS2 had serious complications post vaccine.
You just have to make the best choice you can

It's because it isn't effective long term I think, that a lot of people choose not to give it - though of course as you say it isn't easily available anyway.

If a child has the vaccine they can still catch the illness as an adult, which is often far more severe.

So people tend to prefer their children to catch it - as Elvisgirl says it confers longer immunity, usually lifetime, as opposed to maybe 15/20 years with the vaccine.

HTH

Somebody here (I think DrBenett) was saying that having CP gives you more chance to catch shingles, rather than the other way round. There was a thread here not that long ago.
I personally won't give it to DC. Had a friend who had it done and then had CP shortly afterwards.

I wouldnt get it for my DSs - the vaccine isn't 100% effective so they could still catch it anyway and the vaccine will wear off when they're older (you can not guarantee when) when the illness can be more severe. I would rather they catch it when they are young and be immune for life. IMO it's an unnecessary vaccine to add to an already overcrowded schedule.

The fatality rate for CP is something like 0.0025%. does the risk of the vaccine(every vaccine carries a risk) outweigh the risk of CP? IMO it does not.

DD1 & DS have had it. We lived abroad at the time. We also had 2 friends whose children had CP and developed nasty side effects. We would have given it to DD2 aswell but she caught CP - from DS!!!!! He had one spot, we didn't even realise he had it.

The Americans and Chinese have been using it for a long time now and are just begining to work out timings for booster vaccinations (according to close friend who is also an immunologist). DS & DD2 obviously won't need it but DD1 might.

Maria you can't catch shingles.

Oh, sorry.

I can't find that post at the mo, but the implication there was that if you had CP as a child, you are more likely to have (hope this is the right word) shingles later in life. Sorry again.