have you given your child the chicken pox vaccine

[passivehoovering]

Hi all,

DD is 3.5 and is about to start her second year at nursery. She hasn't had chicken pox, and I really don't want her to. I don't want my darling child to get ill, feel bed, get scars, have awful complications, be seperated from her friends...So I was thinking about getting the Chicken pox vacine for her. I have mooted this with friends who also have children but they seem to want their kids to get chicken pox so I am wavering a bit.

If you have vacinated your children could you tell me how you went about it and where you found info? I don't know if I should try her GP in the first instance and ask them for info from Medline and if they know of anywhere that does the vacine. Also how was your child after? Anything else you can tell me would be much appreciated too.

Thanks

There is a shingles vaccine. The cp vaccine and shingles one should be rolled out together.

No evidence of cp shifting to adulthood from the many other countries who vaccinate.

The nhs doesn't want to roll out a cp vax until mmr levels are up where they should be. Parents in the uk should have the cp vax available like in most other developed counties but are effectively held hostage by the misinformation which is spread about vaccines.

Yes, I'd read that about the MMR vax Elaine. It makes sense they should target one jab at a time. Though there is also the yearly flu they plug, but that's been around a while too I suppose. Also, what IS the incidence of cp in children? I know so many people who've had it as adults, or only had it mildly as children and then again as adults that I'm surprised BBB quotes the incidence as high as 90%.

I had chicken pox at 24 - hideous, felt really ill and could barely move from sofa for a month. My mother even had me sharing a bed with my brother as a young child to try and catch it from him, didn't work!
I was grateful when my 2 had it 'naturally' but as we subsequently lived in America for a while they wouldn't have been able to attend school or any local sports programs without having had the vaccination or chicken pox. Dr in UK provided us with a letter to confirm that they had had it so didn't need vaccination before registering for school.
The choice as to whether to vaccinate or not is always a difficult one and very personal especially for things that are not on the 'standard' list.

We've just had our 1 yo DS vaccinated. The vaccine is on the standard immunisation schedule where we're from ( Australia) and I was keen to get him vaccinated here. I went private and it cost 48quid and no issues with side effects. I understand there's a booster that follows. DS has eczema and we wanted to avoid potential issues with skin infection and complications down the track.

Thanks to all. I really needed to hear personal experiences, thank you.
I will also of course do some more medical research, and will see where we go from there.

I had CP aged about 18 years and was fine. Hardly any spots.

You must be the exception that prooves the rule!

I had DD vaccinated, have no regrets at all. It is not always a mild illness, even in young children.

I would like to see it made part if the vaccine schedule here in the UK.

I didn't vaccinate and both DCs had hideous bouts of CP. There was nothing mild about it: Hugh fevers, spots in mouth so unable to eat, hundreds of spots across face and body, spots in vulva causing huge pain, spots in eyelids making it hard to open eyes. I've never seen children so ill. Over a year later they both gave very noticeable scars on their bodies and, sadly, on their faces.

Their degree of illness maybe rare but I so wish I'd vaccinated.

Sounds hideous hidingforthis! I will ask about getting it for DS at our next pediatrician visit.

Am massively vearing towards having dd vaccinated. It's not easy yo find accurate information but am using worldwidescience.org and will ask folk I know yo get info from Medline. Will make gp appointment to discuss.

Both my boys had CP aged 5 and 2. No complications and they were running around playing with each other the whole time as if nothing was wrong. They were a bit itchy at night but that was for 2 nights only and that was it. I remember it being the same for me, my sister and my cousin when we were younger. I don't know anyone who has had complications from CP. I think the problem is that you are more likely to hear about the 'bad' cases than the 'good' ones even though there are very few 'bad' cases in comparison to the 'good' ones iykwim.

I had CP at 21 (caught from my grandmother with shingles who assumed I'd had it), despite being exposed to lots of infected kids when younger. Interestingly, my mum had a v similar experience.

It was awful. I had them in my throat, in my ear canals, inside my eyelids and was eventually hospitalised with pneumonia. I'm from Australia where it's also now part of the vax programme, wish it had been when I was a kid! I also had measles aged 12, despite being vaccinated, but had it incredibly mildly (probably thanks to the vaccination).

Needless to say I'm planning to have DS (nearly 1) vaccinated against CP!

Bumbley. That's why we have statistics.

Yes, and they show that CP is not a dangerous illness for the vast majority of children.

I had my DS vaccinated as soon as I could because it was recommended to me by the HV & GP. It was recommended as am immunocompromised due to long term drug therapy, combined with a screwy immune system (which is why it's been 'switched off') which means that I haven't got CP immunity , I've had it many times now including as an adult and now I'm on these drugs it's really dangerous for me to catch it again.
Due to this DS was given the vaccination on the NHS through my GP. So far there have been 4 major bouts of CP at DS's nursery and he's been fine.

Dd2 was vaccinated as she has low immunity but I think I heard on the radio today that the cases of chicken pox have risen a lot so they are considering a vaccine program, but I was driving on the motorway and trying to stop the children from arguing so didn't catch the whole bulletin.

Actually I've just looked online at they are considering vaccinating against whooping cough not chicken pox.

I'd like to see proof that chicken pox is a mild illness.

Badly worded above - statistical evidence I meant.

I agree that it's not a dangerous illness for mot children. But can be highly unpleasant for quite a significant minority. And fatal for a rare few

I think even though the statistics show that for most unvaccinated children it's only a mild illness, vaccinated children have far, far better odds of not catching it at all.

I prefer no illness to a mild illness, hence my decision to vaccinate.

Small child here had it done (privately) at one year, and is due a booster at 4 years old. Can't see why someone wouldn't get it done if they can afford to - as you say it prevents / reduces CP impact during childhood. Yes, it does open a risk of shingles in later life, but so does having chicken pox, so don't understand that as an argument in not having it done.

Was quite pleased we had as a month ago small child spent several days with cousins who came down with it the day after we left, but no illness for us thank goodness.

I didn't even know this (from NHS):

Chickenpox can be very serious for an unborn baby when a pregnant woman catches the infection. It can cause a range of serious birth defects as well as severe disease in the baby when it is born.

To think that when I caught it a few years ago I could have been pregnant (I had an unplanned pg a year or two after).

That's one of the reasons why you should keep your children in while they have CP LeBFG, to reduce the risk of infecting a non-immune pregnant woman. Although, as BBB said earlier, the majority of children have contracted it before puberty. If they catch it when they are very small (under 1 iirc) they may contract it again because maternal antibodies may have interfered with their own immune response. As someone else said earlier, it would make sense to check your immunity and vaccinate if you haven't had it by a certain age - because it is more unpleasant and has a higher risk of complications as an adult and/or if you are pregnant.