Has anyone had their child vaccinated for chickenpox?

[Tryingandhoping2020]

Pros and cons? If it works well I'd be happy to shell out to save my DD some suffering but I don't want to make it more likely she'll get it when she's older? Does it work for life?

Doesn't everybody ?

Yes, both done, very glad as niece had pox over Xmas and it was lovely and worry free for us.

Based on my 3 eldest children’s experience no I wouldn’t have but sadly my 4th was really ill and it was horrendous and I wish I had. The older 3 literally had a handful of spots maybe more no discomfort or itching you’d have hardly known if it wasn’t for the spots. My 4th gets everything 10 times worse so I’d absolutely vaccinate if i could.

Yes. We were living in America when ours were born and it's standard there. Now back in the UK and feel delighted when the email goes around about chicken pox and we don't have to worry. Not sure why it isn't given here

@BoudecaBains

Doesn't everybody ?

Not in the U.K., where it isn’t on the routine childhood vaccination schedule. It costs around £140 at private clinics - so no, not everybody does and most people aren’t even aware that it’s an option.

@BoudecaBains

Doesn't everybody ?

Not in the UK @BoudecaBains as it’s not part of the childhood immunisation schedule here, so you either get chickenpox or you pay privately for the vaccine.

BTW the NHS will do it if a nuclear family member living in the same house is seriously immunocompromised. Otherwise not.

Yes mine are - we were in Aus and it was routine there too - it was added to the regular vax schedule around 10 years ago now i think

We've vaccinated ours, 2x shots each at Boots.

To be honest we find the NHS rationale for why they don't vaccinate when other western countries do, to be absolutely ridiculous.... I have absolutely no truck with the idea of deliberately leaving children open to infection so that it will boost the immunity of adults who might come into contact with them.

From the NHS website:
"Being exposed to chickenpox as an adult (for example, through contact with infected children) boosts your immunity to shingles.
If you vaccinate children against chickenpox, you lose this natural boosting, so immunity in adults will drop and more shingles cases will occur."

@BoudecaBains

Doesn't everybody ?

No they don't in the UK as you have to pay to get it privately

(In our case our family member wasn’t considered close enough to get the vaccine on the NHS, but it would have meant DD not seeing her for over 2 years so that there was no risk of her unwittingly passing on chickenpox, which has a long incubation period.)

People having bone marrow transplants lose all their previous childhood disease immunity - and can’t be revaccinated again with most vaccinations for two years. Hence the caution as c pox can be very serious in immunosuppressed people.

Wasn't available when mine were small but I'd do it in a heartbeat. DS2 was so ill and distressed with it.

@PoshWatchShitShoes

Yes, both DC vaccinated at Boots. I think it was £120 each. Worth it in terms of avoiding them suffering with the illness in future.

Think it’s £140 now at Boots for both doses of the vaccine

@BoudecaBains

Doesn't everybody ?

No

We vaccinated both our kids about 4 years ago, they're now 6 and 8 and have never had it despite it going around nursery etc. I decided to do it as the kids have flare ups of eczema so thought even the mildest case of chickenpox could be uncomfortable for them. Only negative was the cost (about £140 each in the uk). The Doctor said the vaccine also only lasts around 15 years (need to check that) so would need to get them revaccinated at a later date so they are still covered - I need to remember that as well!

I had chicken pox as a teenager, along with most of my a level Class, its wasn't pleasant, but at least I knew not to itch as would scar.
There was a national vaccine shortage, but DD was vaccinated at 15 month, ie as soon we were able.
Con are that it isn't as well know what the longer term effects are, ie will it protect into old age, so may need another vaccine.

We did and like previous posters said, it's been so worth it. I think we're on about the 6th round of it going around DC1's nursery / primary school class and we've not had to worry any of the times. In addition, from what I've seen, it tends to hit each child successively in a family as one brings it home but then takes a week or so to infect the next child. That means it can add up to a lot of weeks off work. The evidence so far is also that it should significantly reduce the risk of shingles later in life as the weakened virus used in the vaccine is a lot less likely to reactivate as shingles than the real one.

This article is pretty helpful at summarising the evidence on effectiveness and reasons for / against in the UK www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/uk-chickenpox-vaccination/

It

Yes dd had her second vaccine just before Christmas
No ill effects at all and seeing so many of my friends kids be quite poorly with it it was worth the money to avoid unnecessary illness.

A few friends raised eyebrows but my daughter was a very poorly baby and I would do all i can to avoid being in a situation we were in back then

Yes, had both mine vaccinated. We gave DS1 the option when he was almost 4 after a friend of his had it really badly. He was scared of injections but preferred to have the jab. In the end each DS only got one jab so they caught it very mildly later on. Like one or two spots each.

I didn't even know there was a chicken pox jab. Off it up now DS4 has not had it.
Dd14 had chicken pox twice when she was younger.
I also need to find out where to get the BCG done privately can't have it on the NHS they only giving to people that meet a certain criteria.

I got my three ds done last Xmas as they had not had to at 10,8 and 7.
Honestly I had visions of being our of work for a month if they all got it consecutively plus as they get older it's meant to be more dangerous.

Expensive but worth it

Yep, non-uk so youngest had MMRV (eldest had already had chicken pox so no point getting him vaccinated).

I missed my BCG at school, and I've repeatedly asked about getting it done as an adult in various places, and always come up empty - no-one seems to want to vaccinate me!

The time off can be a lot. DC1 got it and two weeks later DC2 got it, we had about 4 weeks in total of illness (and so isolation) which tallied with experiences of other parents we know. DC2 also needed ABs and still has a noticeable scar on his eyelid from it.

Yes. But I live in the US. Also I believe there are some large scale studies that show that when a full generation has been vaccinated and then grow up to be adults then actually the shingles cases decrease overall. I think it was a German study. It would obviously take a few years for this to be the case- a generation and a bit but the logic is indeed a bit weird to not do it.

Yes both when they were about 18 months, my friend’s son suffered terribly and I wanted to avoid that for them, even though I’d only had mild symptoms, plus the inconvenience of all the isolation time.

The only cons were cost and having to have 2 doses. DC1 had a mild skin reaction around the injection site but no other side effects. Got it done at Superdrug.