Should I take my DD 8 to see her friend who has Chicken pox

[Ohheavens]

My DD 8 still hasn't had chicken pox.
Her friend has it at the moment and as much as I'd like my daughter to catch it so it's out the way, and I believe it's worse when you are older, it feels very wrong to be deliberately exposing her to this.
Any thoughts
Many thanks

I'm inclined to say don't. She is bound to catch it soon enough anyway.
Mine all caught it by accident aged 4, 4, and 6 so I never had to make a decision like that. Are you positive she hasn't had it?

I'd say avoid

Having had chicken pox in the middle of my final year project at university, I have to say 8 would have been better timing.

However, CP can, rarely have nasty side effects, and it's not nice. I think you'd feel really guilty if your DD was very ill.

No

You'd never forgive yourself if she had complications

It's probably too late - you're most contagious the day before the spots come out, although clearly you need to quarantine an infectious child if she is more than a day or so in much less likely to be contagious. Hopefully for you your dd was exposed before she came out in spots thus taking the decision out of your hands. I wouldn't personally expose my child, but all mine had it young so hard to say. She may also have had it mildly and be immune already. Dd1 had it v mildly with a-typical spots - definitely CP as at same time as dd2 and been exposed since -esp when ds had it, she cuddles him all the time. Hope whenever she has it it is relatively minor.

My son is 12 and has not yet had CP (despite his younger sister having had it). I wouldn't deliberately expose him to chickenpox for the same reason others have given - I would never forgive myself if there were serious side effects. Obviously, it was inevitable that he was exposed to CP when his sister had it, but for some reason he didn't catch it.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, I will leave nature to take its course and not interfere.

You could always vaccinate if you're worried about her getting it later. It's standard practice in many other developed countries, just not cost effective enough for the poor old nhs.