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?

Our pharmacy wouldn't vaccinate DD1 when I was pregnant with my second. They said it was in case I wasn't immune (although I know I had chickenpox when I was 8).

I decided there was more risk from DD1 bringing chickenpox back from nursery when I had a newborn at home and sent DH to get DD1 vaccinated anyway

I'm glad I did as half DD1s nursery class got chickenpox the week DC2 was born 😮

I did and it’s the best £150 I’ve ever spent. Friends children have been really poorly with it, so it’s not always mild.

We did it. For those saying it's pricey, it is of course and some families might not have £200 spare. But if you have a child at nursery so you can work, having to take 2 weeks off if they get it would also be expensive.

By the time I'd saved up this amount my kids would be past the age of needing the vaccine. There's nothing I can "trim" from my budget, I have to lend money each month just to eat sometimes.

But in answer to ops question, yes go for it with the vaccine it's a great idea!

Makes perfect sense. All my 3 have had the vax.

I was also going to say check with a doctor/midwife as you’re pregnant, but as you have antibodies I’d go for it.

I’ve paid for mine to have it. Yes not cheap and we’re lucky to have been able to afford to just do it. If you can afford it I think it’s a sensible thing to do.

I've vaccinated both mine. My son was 5 and my daughter was just over 15 months when she had her first jab. Definitely get it done when they're younger!

We have. It's not cheap and like any vaccine it is not a guarantee but would recommend.

If you opt for Boots you'll earn advantage card points

Despite 2 doses a child can get chicken pox.

My eldest (now 7) unfortunately caught chicken pox when he was a baby about 4/5 months old. He was really ill with it, covered his entire body with huge sores and had to be hospitalised but did recover fine after about 2 weeks. Was such a stress though. They said because he was so young they couldn't be certain that he would get full immunity and may get it again. I had him vaccinated at around 1 year old. My youngest (now 2) has also been vaccinated. They both were fine after the vaccine, no side effects.

I'd get it if you can. We didn't vaccinate DC1 til she was about 4 but I was glad we did. DC2 was a bit too young at the time to get it and then life got in the way and he ended up catching it. Well we think so - it was so mild we aren't 100 per cent sure, but he had a couple of mild symptoms and it was during an outbreak at nursery, so it probably was. He was about 20 months old at the time iirc and luckily it was super mild but the isolation period was still really annoying for us to sort around work. And most of it he was well in himself for which whilst I'm glad he didn't get so ill it was almost more difficult keeping him at home so long because he was so bored and annoyed himself! I'm pregnant with DC3 and I'm definitely going to try and make it more of a priority for this LO once they're old enough to get it.

I would, for the sake of your baby. My older DC had it at 3, just shy of their 4th bday. They passed it to DC2, who was 10 months old and had it REALLY badly. It was awful - all in their hair and eyes and inside their mouth and their nappy area was like a sea of blisters. DC1 only had about 25 spots in total. Horrible, and I wish I'd got them jabbed for it.