Pregnant and thinking about vaccinating my toddler against chicken pox

[TheBeesKnee]

He's 16 months old, the nursery constantly have signs up that this that and the other disease has broken out, I'm worried about him catching chicken pox when the new baby arrives so thought I'd get him vaccinated while I'm still pregnant.

Has anyone done this and have any advice?

If you can afford it, why wouldn't you? I'd just book it and get it done.
My youngest was really miserable with chicken pox. She recovered just fine, but it hit her badly. She was too young to be vaccinated.

I had the same fear as you so we had my son vaccinated when he was about 2. It was absolutely fine, no side effects that I can remember. We will probably have my daughter vaccinated too, I can't think of a compelling reason not to.

I did. very sensible thing to do.

Definitely.

The nhs recommends it- why are you doubting yourself?

Why wouldn't you?

I got my DDs vaccinated at 9m, so in general I think it's a good idea to get the vaccine. However I'd check the medical advice whether it's a good idea to get it when you're pg, as it's a live vaccine. When dcs had the vaccine, I was told that they could become infectious with the virus after the vaccine and pass it on, so to stay away from vulnerable people (inc pg women) for 6 weeks afterwards.

When I was growing up in the UK, I had chicken pox twice. I was utterly miserable both times, it was horrendous and I still have scars. I now live in a country where the chicken pox vaccination is on the standard schedule, and we barely see any outbreaks. My DC are all vaccinated.

I'd do it pregnant or not!

IMO it’s bad parenting not to do it if the child can safely have the vaccine.

We got it done, no issues (think DD had a slightly high temp and was a little “off”/ tired for about a day after the first dose but that was it).

DD had hers at just over 1.
We could afford it and it avoids her being unwell, the potential (all be it rare) side effects, the hassle of trying to sort work etc if she gets it and the risk of passing it to someone vulnerable.

However I'm now remembering something about avoiding anyone who is pregnant for the first 6 (?) weeks due to the very small risk of passing chicken pox because it's a live vaccine

It is not bad parenting when it cam cost £150-200 all in for the 2 doses! That is a lot for people to find.

I have no skin in the game as my child was vaccinating bit do not spout this bullshit about bad parenting when it is a pricey jab to have.

The only point I'd add is that make sure to give him both doses. A number of the parents at nursery claimed that their child had got chicken pox despite being vaccinated but it turned out that they'd never bothered to get the second dose 🙄

And I’d trim wherever I need to in my budget to find £150-200, or save up monthly over thr course of pregnancy and newborn months. Nothing is more important to me than DC’s health.

Yeah I would. We kept saying we would, didn't and both my children caught it with a 2 week gap between them. They were 2 and 4. It wasn't horrendous but it was unnecessary if we'd got our acts together!

People don't always have ways of "trimming" in their budget. Do you not understand how skint a lot of people are? This could be a choice of vaccine or their kids and themselves not eating for 4-6 weeks. What good would the chicken pox vaccine do to an ill or dead child from lack of food.

I’d look up the risk of vaccine shedding from your son if you don’t have immunity to chickenpox. After I had my chickenpox vaccine I was advised to avoid contact with pregnant and other vulnerable people. The risk is really low and (or at least it seemed the case when I read it) only a risk if he develops a rash after the vaccine. But then balancing that with the risk of getting chickenpox naturally through nursery, I’d still get him the vaccine.

It's part of the standard vaccine schedule in the US, so both of my kids had it. I'm glad they did.

We did for both DC. Well worth the peace of mind if you can afford it. I think the guidelines on contact with pregnant women was no contact if the pregnant woman hasn't had chickenpox, so if you've had chickenpox you should be ok but check with the pharmacy beforehand

My daughter had her vaccine just a few weeks ago and I was asked several times if there was any chance I was pregnant as they wouldn't vaccinate her i was. That might have just been their policy but worth checking the risks to yourself.

I've done this with both kids, two doses at around 14 months old (had to be a certain amount of time after MMR).

The oldest one was almost the only kid not to get chicken pox and miss a week of preschool when they had an outbreak there. She also didn't catch it when our in-laws stupidly exposed her to it by babysitting her cousin who had a bad case when we were visiting.

My youngest hasn't been exposed to it yet as far as I know know.

I just saw you are pregnant. It is a live vaccine and chicken pox is dangerous to unborn babies. Have you definitely had chicken pox before? I'm not sure a doctor would want to risk it.

I think the advice is to avoid pregnant women who haven't had chicken pox themselves. If you have, then you should be OK. I'd recommend it - had both my DC done and everytime the dreaded chicken pox emails went out from nursery or school I felt very relieved to know we weren't on a knife's edge waiting for it to strike. Financially it made more sense to pay for the vaccine than pay for 5+ days of missed nursery and not be working.

I was tested for antibodies with my previous pregnancy and they were present, so I must have had chickenpox as a child.