Chicken pox vaccine

[OaxacaChihuahua]

Does anyone know at what age children should have the chicken pox vaccine? I’ve seen a recommended range of 9 months to 2 years depending on which pharmacy I’m looking at!

Other countries tend to give it around 12-15 months alongside MMR. It is sometimes combined with MMR and is MMRV (V is varicella). The booster is around age 4 I think

Or 2nd dose can be given 4-8 weeks after the 1st. Other countries do the 2nd at age 4 ish

Thank you, that’s helpful!

DD had it at 2 with the booster six weeks later - we did it to prepare for nursery.

DD had hers at 11 months. If you aren't getting it same day as the MMR then you need to make sure there's time between them if your child is due to get it. I think it was a month but can't quite recall now.

There are two different vaccines, so that's most likely responsible for the age range difference - one that's for 9mo+ and one that's for older. Most here only did the older one, but we found one pharmacy that had the other vaccine.

Oh and yes, she had second one 4 weeks after first.

Ds had his at 3 years, 2 doses 4 weeks apart.

We gave it at about 18 months I think with the booster 4 weeks later. We will be doing another booster when she is 18 years old as well.

I've found info about the MMR/chickenpox vaccine interaction:

Chickenpox and MMR vaccine Interactions

Chicken pox vaccine must be given either on the same day as the MMR vaccine or separated by interval of 4 weeks.

This is because the MMR vaccine causes an increased response to the Chickenpox vaccine, which means that breakthrough infection with Chickenpox is more likely if this interval is not respected. However, the data availableshows that the breakthrough infection with Chickenpox in these cases tends to mild and not full blown severe Chickenpox infection.Where both vaccines have been given within 4 weeks of each other, it is advisable to consider a further dose of the vaccine given second.

My pharmacy would do it from 12 months. I recommend approaching your local independent pharmacy to see if they offer it as mine did it for half the price Boots or Superdrug were charging.

Is it not better to have chickenpox as a child, so you avoid getting it as an adult (which is a lot worse)? Excuse my ignorance but genuinely interested.

DC had it at age 4 and actually contracted full blown chicken pox as a side effect, which I understand is so very rare (but typical for us unfortunately).
As a result they didn’t need the second jab.
A bit disappointing tbh.

@Valhalla17

Is it not better to have chickenpox as a child, so you avoid getting it as an adult (which is a lot worse)? Excuse my ignorance but genuinely interested.

Well the vaccine stops you getting it so you don't get it as an adult. Just like the other vaccines you get as a child stop you getting things as an adult too. It's given routinely in a lot of countries.

I think we got it at about 18 months, no side effects and have been in contact with a few children who have subsequently come out in chicken pox and he's not caught it. Really glad to have had it & would recommend. We looked into it quite a bit beforehand as was unsure why the NHS don't have it as part of their schedule here in the UK but found a lot to suggest it's advantages which made us decide to get it. Our older child had chicken pox fairly badly (although not needing medical treatment) which also persuaded us to get it for our subsequent children.

NHS don't offer it for two reasons:

1. Cost
2. Children having chickenpox acts as a booster for adults around them to reduce the risk of them developing shingles (which is also related to reason 1 - they don't want to treat more adults with shingles as that tends to be more costly than treating children with chickenpox).

This is quite interesting: www.ox.ac.uk/research/everything-you-need-know-about-chickenpox-and-why-more-countries-don%E2%80%99t-use-vaccine

My son was about 14 months. We had to wait until after his MMR.

Just had my 3 year old vaccinated, 2nd dose in 5 weeks. He has been at nursery for 2 years and didn't catch it so decided to get him done so the implications of him getting it now wouldn't be as bad

@Valhalla17

Is it not better to have chickenpox as a child, so you avoid getting it as an adult (which is a lot worse)? Excuse my ignorance but genuinely interested.

The vaccine stops them from getting it as an adult either. I had horrendous chicken pox as a child and still remember how unspeakably ill I was, so hoping to prevent against that!

I find it odd that the U.K. doesn’t routinely vaccinate against it - we’re very different to countries like the US etc in that respect.

Thanks @OaxacaChihuahua and @Starjammer
Makes sense now, appreciate the info. I was trying to remember if my ds had this vaccination but it seems not...agree it's strange we dont offer this as standard in the UK

Starjammer

Definitely cost comes into it, but more recent research has found that the shingles impact was previously overstated. There is also a shingles vaccine available for elderly people. In other countries this is given much younger in than in the UK (55 vs 70 I think).

It seems unethical to me to not vaccinate my child just for the possibility that it might have an impact on an elderly person, would could get a shingles vaccine anyway.

Agreed. We got DD vaccinated at 11 months. There seems to be this narrative that childhood diseases are this harmless rite of passage, but some of them are very nasty and unpleasant. I've so seen threads on here where people have had to cancel holidays to chicken pox and lost thousands or have to take a week off work unpaid, so if you can spare £100 it seems like a good investment!

It is odd about the mild childhood illness thing isn't it, totally agree even if not for the health reasons, does make financial sense to get it if you can afford it rather than have to take time off work or cancel holidays etc.
Will be interesting to see what more research comes out now there are so many countries routinely giving it. And also interesting to see when/if it gets into the UK schedule.

First dose 4 weeks after the first MMR as they are both live vaccines and MMR takes priority as it protects against more diseases and ones more likely to do lasting harm. Then second dose 4 weeks later. This worked fine for my daughter. She was at childcare by then but only a child minder's house. She didn't get exposed to chicken pox till there was an outbreak at her pre-school when she was 3. She didn't get it :)