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Original poster

Chicken pox parties and trying to make you children catch it....PLEASE DON'T DO IT!!!

26 replies

ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 14:58

Ds4 has CP atm and is extremely ill.

we've had barely any sleep for 3 (or is it 4) nights and he is literally covered in them.

I had to take him to hospital this morning because he's so ill. I rang the emergency doc and explained how ill he is and she told me to take him straight up there....Its really bad!

Doctor saw us almost straight away, and luckily for us DS4 wasn't admitted because the docter said as he was reasonably happy and alert he could come home(he'd had the maximum calpol dose before we left, but still had a raging temp) and I should continue doing what I've been doing. He sadi he won't admit him because he's obviously contagious so would infect all the otehr children but also that because his immune system is so down he'd prob end up even more ill.
He siad that although his CP was very bad case its not the worst he's seen. The worst was ittle girl who was in ITU with kidney failure and needed skin grafts because the CP were so bad.

So please please please don't encourage teh CP virus onto your children, I really can't explain enough just how ill he is....

OP posts:
robinpud · 16/02/2008 15:00

Poor ds and poor you. Hope that he is soon on the mend and that things get easier.

Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:01

I was horribly, horribly ill with Chicken pox as a little one. That said in general the younger you are having it the better, Chicken Pox in adults can be very serious

Hope that ds4 is better asap, it is a vile thing when you have it badly. Hugs to you and him!

Original poster
ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 15:02

He caught it from ds3, who sailed though it. Didn't suffer one bit.

OP posts:
Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:04

dd had it badly, and was quite poorly, ds was only 3 months or so when he got it, only got about 10 spots and was fine. However the poor wee lamb later got shingles!

When I had it, I was plastered, in my ears, down my throat, between my fingers, everywhere. I was off school for a month and then promptly got measles!and was blood ill with that too!

Mercy · 16/02/2008 15:09

That's what I'm dreading too, MB (shingles, I mean)

Ds caught chicken pox when he was about 7 weeks old and only had a few spots. I've heard various opinions as to whether he is likely to get it 'properly' in the future.

Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:11

It is just (bad) luck of the draw really. Anyone who has had chicken pox (bad or good) can get it.

It just happens when you are otherwise run down, and the CP virus, 'comes back' along a nerve (it stays dormant in the nervous system once you've had it for the rest of your life)

Mercy · 16/02/2008 15:15

I didn't know that MB - I always wondered how it 'came back'.

Thank you

Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:19

The cold sore virus (cousin to the CP virus) does the same thing. That is why you get the sores in the same place each time they come back.

Nasty little feckers!

Original poster
ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 15:26

Ohh MB, its so FAB when you go all teacher-y on us.

OP posts:
Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:29

Gawd, its a bloody compulsion!

I was the same on holiday, sedimentary rocks, fossilisation (we found some nice ammonites), I see the family glaze over

Original poster
ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 15:35

I found a FAB fossil on the beach recently. Then a few weeks later saw one on display somewhere, its called something like an echinoid(sp???) and is 80 million yrs old.

How Coool!

Its now hidden from the dsses

OP posts:
WinkyWinkola · 16/02/2008 15:39

HOpe your DS gets better quickly, LadyTopham. You must be worried. Poor lad.

But I'd still rather my DCs had it as children not as adults. Complications are very rare like most childhood illnesses.

SueW · 16/02/2008 15:40

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

turtle23 · 16/02/2008 15:46

Just to say that I had CP when I was 6 months old. Then 21 (yrs), then 28. Each time was less spots, but much more ill. Doesn't always give you immunity, but I, personally, will be trying to give my kids CP as soon as they're over a year to avoid them (hopefully) going through what I went through having it as an adult.

RubberDuck · 16/02/2008 15:46

I'm interested in the immune thing too.

I get cold sores (and feel horribly guilty that ds2 gets them - he has this love of kissing his parents on the mouth in a big MWAH motion... was careful that I don't kiss him when I have a cold sore, but have since learned you can pass the virus on even without actually having a cold sore present at the time ).

However, I have never had chickenpox. Was given a vaccination against chickenpox which apparently didn't take and I have no immunity to. Have had both dses at separate times catch chickenpox (the first necessitating a VZIG injection for me because I was pregnant and non-immune) and STILL I haven't had it.

Yet I've definitely tested as having no immunity.

Most odd.

hippipotami · 16/02/2008 15:48

Oh LTH, I am so sorry gorgeous ds4 is so poorly.

But I still believe that they should get it sooner rather than later.
In my friend's antenatal group there was a father who died when his baby son passed chickenpox onto him
Perhaps if his mum had taken him to a chickenpox party????

Blandmum · 16/02/2008 15:50

I don't know the answer to the question. I'm not fully sure that anyone knows tbh.

I do know that there are a very, very, very small number of people who have the HIV virus (not the same family of viruses or related in any waym but still a virus) who don't seem to progress to having AIDs in the same way that most people do. I don't think that this is understood either, it could just be that some people have better immune systems at fighting viruses.

It could, in a small sample, just be down to luck.

a very interesting question though.

Original poster
ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 15:51

oh ys, I do agree that its best they get it earlier. The Gp said it can be much much worse in adulthood.

BUT, after all this with DS4 I wouldn't recommend anyone seek it out to catch it on purpose. Ds4 couldn't really avoid it but its been really crap.....

OP posts:
ElfOnTheTopShelf · 16/02/2008 15:52

My DD has been exposed several times, she just never catches the damn things!
I got it from my sister when I was a few weeks old, am keen for DD to get it younger as there are some horrible stories of adults catching it and dying

Mercy · 16/02/2008 15:53

That's an interesting (although very sad) point hippi. When I was expecting dd the midwife asked me if dh had had chicken pox and various other childhood infections and imms. She said it's doesn't make sense to only ask the mother.

(although that might have been because we were older first time parents and could have lost our immunity to certain things)

Oblomov · 16/02/2008 16:00

I am so sorry to hear this lthh. Ds had a very mild chickenpox and I did tell my post natal mums. And one did come round, because she did want her dd to have it. And she did catch it from ds. And hers was very mild aswell.
But are people really have parties ?

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 16/02/2008 16:02

parties used to be a big event!

Forgot to point out DD hasn't been exposed by me taking her to visit those I know with chicken pox, more that she has been in the same place of people who have then got it, but she never seems affected

hippipotami · 16/02/2008 16:06

I know lth. I hope your little man feels better soon. Have all your ds's had it now?

Fwiw I did expose ds to friend's children who had chickenpox. He drank out of their cups etc. But he never ever caught it!! And then out of the blue, on New Years Day, he came out in chickenpox. He had not been near anyone over the holidays. So heaven only knows where it comes from.

So these so called chickenpox parties don't work anyway. I think a child's immune system will let them have chickenpox when it is good and ready.

Original poster
ladytophamhatt · 16/02/2008 16:08

yes, they've all had it now.

OP posts:
kittywise · 16/02/2008 16:14

5 of mine have had it, no probs at all. complications are very rare. sorry for your ds, hope he feels alot better soon.

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