has anyone's dc had the chicken pox vaccine?

[happynappies]

Was talking to my HV today about chicken pox - a couple of friends' dcs have had it recently, but touch wood my 18 month old dd has avoided it thus far. I was taking the approach that 'better to have it now than when she's older' and 'if she gets it she gets it' - and while not going out of my way to see that she gets chicken pox, I was also not being too avoidant of it either iykwim. She (HV) said that it is a horrendous illness, and I should not be so laidback about it, and should consider the chicken pox vaccine. I'd never heard of it - but she said it is avaiable at GP surgery - it is just not part of the vaccination schedule (yet) although it is in parts of Asia. I was surprised as I'd never heard of the vaccine, and wondered if other peoples dc have had it, and are there any disadvantages to be aware of. Sorry for needlessly long post!

thanks - will check out your links, glad you are nosey and bored on this thread tonight.

HV was describing how it can cause hallucinations and how it has a serious impact on the immune system, so if it can be avoided it should be - she advises all parents to get it if they ask for her advice.

hmm - just read one of the articles. It seems that shingles isn't a concern, because contact with children who have got chicken pox 'boosts' immunity to shingles. The problem is in the U.S. that all children are vaccinated, so there is no contact with chicken pox to boost immunity to shingles. That compares with Japan, where a small percentage of children are vaccinated - they come into contact with children with chicken pox, and this boosts their immunity. Doesn't seem so bad then.

I used to be relaxed under the misunderstanding that chicken pox was mild illness

However a child in my son's class had a stroke after having chicken pox (most cases of childhood stroke are within a short time of cp)

DS nearly gave to cp to a friend with leukhemia, she had to up to Great Ormand Street for a special vaccine, that was the 4th time she had had to do it.

A father from Dc's nursery died from cp.

Yes, I would definately get it if it was available. I have 2 ds and am at end of pg with third. I will definately be asking about it now I have read this.

My ds both got chicken pox at about the same time. Neither got very ill with it. Ds1 only got a few spots. Ds2 was covered in them. He was only 3 years old and it was impossible to stop him from picking the spots. He ended up with quite horrible scaring (for want of a better word) on his face and I am quite upset by it. As they are not scars in the true sense, but rather deep pitted indentations, there is actually nothing i can do about it. I have seen both a homeopath and a dermatologist. I have been told that they will be much less visible by the time he is an adult. But that is not much consolation. My dermatologist told me that it is for exactly these reasons that people in the US get their kids vaccinated.

If I had not experienced this with my own son, I would probably think it a vain reason to get a vaccination. But not now.

at how serious cp can be - HV could have a point.

IlanaK - I don't know how availability of the vaccine varies here - my HV suggested that I might have to get a prescription and pick up the vaccine myself, and bring it to the surgery - because they don't actually have it in the surgery... but she said that it could be administered once a child was over 12 months of age.

We live in Germany and here the CP jab is pretty much treated as standard. We opted for it for our daughter and (if I remember correctly!) it?s a once-only jab.

Our key reason for having it done was that both my husband and I, although having CP at very different ages (me at 2, him at 16), were very ill with it. I was hospitalised, initially in order to be respirated because spots in my throat causing breathing difficulties, and then because the CP brought on pneumonia. We were therefore concerned that our daughter may just be genetically predisposed to a bad bout of it!

DD had the chickenpox vacine in the UK, but we had to pay private for it. I just can't understand why people wouldn't want their children not to have it. CP CAN be deadly...it's very rare to have complications , but it's possible.

Yes, the vaccine could cause a very rare case but it would be milder, and it avoids the possibility of getting shingles.

It's mandatory in the US, and nobody hardly ever hears of kids getting it. I'm surprised the HV saying this because I think the reason the UK doesn't offer it is because the NHS doesn't want to pay for it.

I had DD vaccinated against chickenpox, I had to have it done privately.

The reason being that I have never had chickenpox myself, which was discovered when I was pregnant with DD. I was subsequently vaccinated, but no antibodies were found when the tested me, so I had DD vaccinated as a "fire break"

I am grateful that I did as chickenpox is very harmful both to mother and baby during pregnancy and I am currently pregnant!

There has just been a very bad outbreak of CP at DD's school and so far the vaccine has worked. It was a very bad strain of CP and at least one child was hospitalised with complications.

I know of two children permanently disabled due to chickenpox, so why take the risk?

I wish my Ds had had the vaccine as last year she spent several nights in hospital with a severe case of chicken pox.
I always considered cp to be a mild illness that certainly didn't justify a vaccine but now I have definately changed my opinion.

FWIW....DD had it at Bristol Children's hospital. You can get it in the UK if you pay for it. We did. It was cheaper than flying back to the US to get it.

In the US, they are now suggesting a booster just before primary school.

Yes, the vaccine DOES prevent you from getting shingles later on...no chicken pox....no shingles.

It's horrible about the little boy with the stroke and the other father...so sad because this could have been prevented with a vaccine, but the NHS doesn't want to pay for it, and it doesn't seem like most people in the UK feels that it's necessary. This is sad.

All my friends here thought I was crazy (at least I thought they did) when DH and I researched where to get the vaccine. Most also didn't want to be near DD for about 2 weeks after she got the jab (wrongfully thinking their kid would get it, but then eager to attend pox parties...??? at the same time????) Never made sense to me.

Please understand as an expat I mean no disrespect and I hope I'm not rude...it's that the UK os so far behind many other countries and the only reason I can think of is that the few deaths/complications are of no consideration for the NHS...cost is the only consideration.

I understand there are also rare risks associated with the vaccine, but I encourage everybody to research this and demand that the jab be offered.

I posted my initial thoughts earlier. I just want to point out that everyone experiences CP differently. I had it at about 8yrs quite mildly. I got it again at 21 when at Uni and I was really ill. I only had spots in my hair and on my palms and soles of my feet but the fever that came with it was awful. I have been told that I may be able to get it again and as DD has had it I am dreading it

Last week I almost called 999 because of her halucinations, I was convinced she would fit at any moment. Personally if we could routinely vaccinate I would have done it. She is still upset and off her food nearly 10 days later. Why put a 21m old though that if you can avoid it?

Sorry a personal rant but I have seen how even a bad even a mild case can be.

Slightly different view here....if a child does not have cp in childhood - whether a mild illness or in my dd case, a 2 day stay in hospital - then if cp is caught as an adult, the illness can be deadly.

So I'm pleased my dc had cp in childhood.

And I would rather them have cp than a vaccination, that is never 100% effective anyway, and sometimes for some vaccines as low as 30% effective.

IlanaK - I am really sorry to hear that about your son's scarring. I, too, picked my spots and was left with scars on my face and it really upset my mother. If it's any consolation though, it never bothered me because I was too young to have "known" my face beforehand and think "ooh, yes, that's left its mark". As far as I was concerned, the marks were just always there and I don't think my mother even told me where they had come from until I was about 10 and asked. By then though, time had already started to play its part and by the time I was though puberty there was only one mark which was really noticeable anymore, and then only really when I had a suntan as it tended (and tends) to remain a slightly paler colour than the surrounding skin.

I hope your son is as lucky. xxx TRQ

twoisplenty...I respect your views. If you're fine with your kids having the CP, that's up to you and I'm glad DD is fine now. However, CP can be deadly (even in kids....not just adults) and very serious. I just think people should have the complete facts available and be able to make their own decisions accordingly.

Also, what happens to kids that don't get it as young children? So it's ok if adults die from it? BTW, adults can get the vaccine to, but I don't think even that's offered on the NHS. Is it?

I disagree with you as I want DD to be spared the CP and when a vaccine is available for so long, had to take advantage of it.

DH and I both had CP as adults and it was truly horrible. (The vaccine has only been around in the US since 1995.)

I do take issue with your comment about the effectiveness of vaccines. Of course they're not all 100%...nothing is....but with the "30%" comment, you are spreading an untruth. If that's true, why are kids in the US not getting CP anymore? If they do, it's a mild case. Also, when kids get the vaccine it helps protect against those who can't take the vaccine (cancer patients, etc.) when the vaccine isn't given, it puts so many more people in jeopardy.

Just a different opinion I know.

I'm considering it for 5.5 yr old dd. Only as she suffers very badly with minor complaints and cp would wipe her out. She has some minor sn reasons as well. Would not do ds2 15mths though...

If your Child is fit and healthy and get a normal bout of CP then they will be fine. If however it comes on top of teething, another infection or in DDs case along side eczema it is a nightmare.

I was blase about it 2 weeks ago. DD is 21m and still BF. I have had it twice and thought she would still carry my immunity. I was so wrong.

I sent out a text when DD first wnet down with it to all our baby friends. The only one who wanted to come and play was someone whos DS has already been vaccinated in the USA. It is apparently good to let them be exposed to it even if vaccinated as it helps build the immune system. I really hop he does not get it. I would not wish it on anyone.

Chickenpox is generally a mild virus in children (which is not the same as saying it won't make them feel very ill and extremely itchy, albeit that in some children it doesn't even do that, or that it is over and done with in just a few days, just that it is very rare that it causes complications). Something like 90% of people in this country get chickenpox as children - most commonly between the ages of 2 and 8.

I would say it might be worth getting the vaccine if:

your child gets bad eczema or asthma, as blisters mixed with itchy painful eczema probably would increase the risk of getting infected spots (and therefore make scarring more likely - something that is in fact very rare with chickenpox, albeit some of the scabs may leave a very faint mark on the skin for up to a year afterwards), and one of the extremely rare complications of chickenpox in children (much more common in adults who get chickenpox) is pneumonia, which would obviously not be good combined with asthma;

you are planning a once-in-a-lifetime holiday that you wouldn't want ruined by a case of chickenpox and are willing to pay the over-inflated price for the vaccine to avoid the risk (when I looked into the vaccine for this reason, I decided to take the risk of my children getting chickenpox, because I thought the price per vaccine charged at the nearest place to us that would provide it was excessive - about double the cost of any of the other vaccines on offer);

if you or your husband had chickenpox with complications as children (you are quite likely to have had complications if you got it as a teenager or adult) and are worried this increases the chances of this happening to your child;

you have never had chickenpox and don't want to take the risk of getting it as an adult, as it is NOT a mild illness in most adults.

The main disadvantage is the cost (particularly since it is so very unlikely to be anything other than a mild illness if caught in childhood). However, it is currently under consideration to add the chickenpox vaccination to the list of routine vaccinations in this country, so the main disadvantage of it may soon no longer be a disadvantage.

This is very strange, as my DP asked about getting the CP vaccine for him, he has not had cp, and our doctor told him it is not legal in the UK and that you cannot get it here, because they do not know how long it lasts. We know we would have to pay for it, so that was not the issue from our point of view.

He was obvioulsy wrong - how do I get more info on it and how do we go about getting the vaccine for DP?

why on earth would you want to vaccinate against chicken pox?!?

That's just ludicrious!

Yes 'alternative' to 'pharma marketing'

Well i'd hazzard a guess that it's so drug companies make more money out of Governments and Governments can say our children's health is at the top of their agenda and win votes. But then I take the cynical view.

Yes Rebelmum, it's the old "please let us poison help your children"

We clearly know better than you

I personally would want to read more research on it's effectiveness and potential side effects and weigh this up against the likelihood of death and complications from the illness before rushing to get it. But then I prefer to make these decisions myself rather than take what a HV says as read, I've been misinformed no end by NHS staff and wouldn't trust them to make this decision for me.

Minniethemoocher's case illustrates a point. You can be vaccinated against chickenpox and still not be immune [rather like with rubella which is even more dangerous in pregnancy] Also vaccine immunization can wear off, unlike if you contract a disease.
IMO rubella vaccination should be mandatory for girls at puberty, not for all babies, increasing the chance that the vulnerable group will be protected. You could argue for the same case with chickenpox, though at present because we don't have routine vaccination for chickenpox in this country the vast majority of people get it in childhood [as an uncomfortable but not serious illness] and are therefore immune by the time they get pregnant.