Chickenpox Vaccine and Nursery

[MsTada]

I'm looking for some advice from those who've had a chickenpox vaccine for their child attending nursery, particularly in the UK. Did you tell the nursery before/after getting your child vaccinated? Did anyone's nursery ask them to keep their child off after receiving the vaccine?

The reason I'm asking is that we had our little one vaccinated on Friday. He attends nursery 2 days per week. After getting him home and reading through the leaflet the pharmacist gave us, I noticed a section that said as it was a live virus, there is a very small chance of transmitting the virus to others, and that you should therefore avoid pregnant women who aren't immune to chickenpox and those with a severely weakened immune system for 6 weeks after vaccination.

There is a pregnant member of staff at my child's nursery. I assume she's immune to chickenpox given that she works in a nursery, but I feel I should let nursery know just to be on the safe side. My partner very much disagrees and thinks they'll just tell us to keep him at home for 6 weeks (meaning he'd be off for 3 months given that it's a 2 dose vaccine).

Has anyone had any experience of this?

You are over thinking it.

I didn't tell nursery or do anything out of the ordinary. There will almost certainly be kids coming in in the pre-spot stage of chickenpox, who are far more of a transmission risk then pos vaccine.

The only thing I would be careful off would be if I have a relative receiving chemo or similar.

I spoke to our nursery before the vaccine for this reason, there were two pregnant ladies working in the baby room at that time. The manager was grateful for the heads up, spoke to them and confirmed they were both immune (as you'd expect in that job!). She didn't miss any time.

I mentioned it to them and they said to only keep her off if she has a fever (which she didn’t). I think everyone working in a nursery would be immune to chickenpox and I doubt anyone who is immuno compromised would be able to work in a nursery.

I told nursery which was good because DD got spots as a side effect, but they let her stay in as it was due to the vaccine. We just had to show proof in the red book.

Thank you all so much. I called nursery this morning just as a courtesy to let them know, and they said no problem. They're going to let the pregnant staff member know so she can call me if she has any concerns.

That's kind of you.

It's also a good thing to let them know because they can get a few spots as a reaction after about 10 days and the last thing you want is the nursery then sending them home!

Oh this is an interesting thread thank you OP

I am considering getting DS the vaccine just in case as I know it can impact some children badly. He is 4 in a few weeks.

Also would be helpful to avoid that much time off. So would be challenging if it meant they would have to miss nursery!

Can I ask where you got it from?
I asked my local pharmacist and they offer it but couldn’t tell me anything about side effects or key considerations so it put me off!

My dds both had the vacirella (sp?) vaccine in Oz when we lived there. We came back to the Uk and they both got chickenpox but it was really mild compared to other kids who had them everywhere and I mean everywhere 😔 my dds got off lightly.

We got it from Boots. You can book an appointment through their website, I think only the larger stores tend to offer it though. It costs £75 per dose.

I was on the fence about it for ages, but the JCVI has recently recommended that it becomes part of the NHS childhood immunisation schedule. That was the reassurance I needed to finally get it booked.