chicken pox

[LeBFG]

OK - need a quick reply and I cba to look it all up online (not with you experts here ). I have a 5mo and 2yo and a friend's toddler has chicken pox. Do I go round and spend tomorrow afternoon with them hoping my two will get it - or do I wait and vaccinate some other time (bearing in mind I'm a lazy organiser)?

don't go.

When my 6 months old got chicken pox, his diaper area was FULL of them and he pooped up to 6 times a day (he was a frequent pooper anyway, but chicken pox made it worse). They were a nightmare to keep clean, a couple got badly infected (although the scar will only been seen by a select few, I would think, given the intimate area). I was stuck inside with him for 10 days and nearly lost my mind with boredom, having actually just gone back to work (this is indeed when I started hanging out on vaccine boards). And then he got chicken pox again (mildly) 2 years later with the next wave in daycare. Booo. DD had had the varicella vaccine (once) a year earlier and it held beautifully and I was SO glad only to have to care for one sick child. Image they don't get chicken pox together, but one after the other...

All of that before the first complication (I'll spare you those)

Go organise the vaccine, really.

Thannks Catherina. How early can they have the vaccine? Is immunity better from vaccine or natural route?

LeBFG - 12 months and a booster for school. That'll bring them up to the same level as going through the poxes

I wouldn't go round tomorrow but I wouldn't vaccinate against either. They'll probably catch it when they're a bit older. My two had it at 5 and 2. Wasn't too bad at all and I don't have to worry about boosters for the rest of their lives!

actually, about 10% of people who have doctor-diagnosed chicken pox had doctor-diagnosed chicken pox before, my son had them twice (and I know a fair number of people whose kids did), so disease-acquired immunity for chicken pox is not really "rest of their lives" stuff for all.

Lots were saying the same at the creche actually Catherina now I think about it (contracting it 2/3 times).

Chicken pox is the one I'm a bit on the fence about. Here in France it's available for vulerable groups but I think I can buy it privately. DH perfers this option. Experts are a bit divided about it but are they just divided over the economic factors or are they divided over the immunology/health factors?

Time's ticking - my friend's child is probably not infectious by now!

I wonder how many of those first cases were genuinely chicken pox or were they misdiagnosed/mild cases that did not confer long term immunity/infections at an early age.

my son's certainly were strong classical chicken pox, over 500 spots (what can I say, I was bored...), but he was young. But then, if chicken pox at a young age generally gives crappy immunity, you have all the more reason not to expose your 5 month old.

I know of at least one case where the child was 3 at first (hefty) infection and the second was bad as well. The 10% come from an article in Pediatrics and all cases were doctor-diagnosed.

Paediatrics is the American journal isn't it?

Presumably, if a child has a very mild dose and is exposed to the virus again, within say a year or so, that would be a sort of booster dose, would it? To aid their immunity?