Chicken pox vaccine, would you do it?

[firsttimemama1994]

Just wanting to get general opinions on the chicken pox vaccine. If any children have had it, was there any side effects? We have no particular reasons to get it, but I worry about my daughter being poorly and having scars etc, potentially ruining holidays and flying and that sort of thing. Just normal concerns about chicken pox I suppose.

thank you x

At minimum I'd get her immunity checked. It is possible she's had it with no/mild symptoms, it does happen. But if she hasn't, def worth considering. I have a friend who got it at 17 and had a really awful time with it. Worse in adulthood.

I would say to get it. DD had it at 10 last year and god I wish I'd gotten the vaccine for her - she was so unwell and uncomfortable, way beyond people's usual descriptions of their younger children during chickenpox.

Please please get it! It’s offered routinely in my home country. I didn’t get it for my dd - she was hospitalised as it infected her appendix, which turned to be inoperable. Not very common but possible it can infect any tissues in the body - look it up. We were in and out of hospital for 6 months, she’s fine now but we almost lost her due to what most people consider to be harmless.

Mine had it, no side effects, so far working well, been exposed a lot and not caught it

I couldn't afford it for DD, but when she was 1 we got a cord through the door saying that if we signed her up for some other vaccine trial then they would give her the CP one for free. So we got it that way.

But I've often wondered whether that could have skewed the results of their trial - I imagine they'll have had a disproportionate number of low income people signing up just to get the free CP vaccine, so not a truly representative population sample.

(I include myself in the "low income people" category - it's not intended as a derogatory statement)

My daughter got her first vaccination two weeks ago. I did wait to see if she caught it but she's nearly 6 now so decided to go for the vaccination. Had no side effects apart from 2 little spots 10 days after which were gone by the next day...can't actually even say for sure if they were from the vaccine. Going for 2nd vaccination in a couple of weeks.

Yep, we had it as we didn’t fancy the hassle of CP, time off work, changed plans etc.

yes in Australia it is in our schedule, they get it at 1 year or 18 months or something.

I would get it. I had chicken pox as a child and it wasn’t too bad. But I was lucky, my sister had it worse. But the biggest risk is it coming back as shingles 😬 when you are older.

We did it for our two. No side effects

It's not a myth, more of a misunderstanding of why they didn't categorically say you didn't need a booster before

They couldn't say that it lasted 20/30 years until it had been given for that long. They could only say "we know it lasts 5/10/15 years" etc as the monitored people who'd had jt.

The new studies show that it doesn't need a booster, and nor does it increase the risk of shingles as previously thought. The JCVI have recommended it be added to the standard childhood vaccinations in the UK.

Yes have had both children done. £160 for 2 doses at a private GP. I am an (NHS) GP and every other doctor parent know bar 1 has vaccinated. I just can't be off work for that long looking after one child with it then their sibling, it's horrendously itchy for many, there are risks of superimposed bacterial skin infection and varicella pneumonia. No brainer for me, though I appreciate I'm fortunate to be able to afford it.

It’s a standard childhood vaccine in Germany (and possibly more countries). I wouldn’t feel guilty for getting it for your child.
All three of mine had it one after the other one summer for 3 weeks of housebound hell! One has scars. It’s not nice and if you can stop it with a vaccine then yes go for it!

Yes! I wish my DD (age 4) had had it. She’s usually
healthy and robust, but ended up with a secondary pneumonia infection. The GP said poor DD had one of the worst cases of chickenpox he had ever seen. She narrowly avoided going into hospital thankfully. She has two deep scars on her forehead that I think she will have into adulthood. I really wish I’d had her vaccinated. Her older sister, on the other hand, had it much more mildly when she was 18 months old.

I didn’t do it with my eldest and she got it at 18 months old. Wasn’t the worst bout I’ve seen but it wasn’t nice seeing her so uncomfortable - unfortunately we also had to reschedule a holiday as she just happened to get it five days before we were due to go away. The child she caught it off also developed cellulitis and was in hospital for a few days recovering so that wasn’t nice to see and showed the more serious side of it. Turns out my husband also hadn’t had chickenpox as a child and he caught if off ours and was really ill with it, much worse and much longer than our child was. So overall it wasn’t a pleasant experience whatsoever!

When I had my second child we did vaccinate them and I’m glad that we did and they had no side effects whatsoever.

Yes we have given both DC the CP vaccine

One child had a mild fever after the second dose and that was it

No regrets especially when hearing CP is blazing around certain years at their primary school, kids being off for a week or more, complications and needing to see GP/urgent care centre

For us it was a no brainer to get the DC vaccinated

My DD was hospitalised age 4 with chicken pox. I can’t stress enough how chicken pox isn’t always the mild ‘inconvenience’ illness people put it down to be. I regret not getting her vaccinated. She was very very ill and now scarred for life.

Thank you for posting this @firsttimemama1994 - it’s something I have meant to do but it had just completely slipped my mind. Have a reminder set to get it booked in for DS tomorrow 👍🏻

I’m so thankful for all of these comments, safe to say my mind was made up and I’ve booked her 1st vaccine for in just over a weeks time.
We are due to go on holiday early June and that had got me thinking about it more, but also something I’d worried about previously anyway. She is at nursery and she has managed to avoid so far, but I have worried about it a lot and would like another child in the future so another reason to have the vaccination!
Great to know there hasn’t been much in terms of side effects either - I’ve read that some spots can show up within a month but hopefully doesn’t impact our holiday 🤞🏻 if anything just wishing I had got this booked sooner!
thank you to all that have commented again 😊 x

Just a note that Chicken pox and shingles are different things. I had chicken pox at 3, shingles at 37 and chicken pox again at 38. They are linked as you said but it’s not the same disease with different names

i jabbed my kids and wish I’d thought to jab myself as an adult. Didn’t know you could catch it again if it was mild the first time and have rarely been that unwell. Off work for weeks and took months to feel normal again.

my daughter has eczema as well so didn’t need anything else going on with her skin.

Haven’t read the full thread so it may have been mentioned but the JCVI have recommended CP are added to the routine childhood schedule which could start as early as Jan 26. It was due to be added when the whole MMR rubbish was in the news so it was shelved at the time. I’ve had both mine vaccinated, no side effects and neither have caught it through a couple of rounds at school. Why would you willingly put your child through an illness that could be easily avoided and still makes a reasonable number of children very unwell.

It is the same virus, you catch and recover from chickenpox but the virus remains dormant in your body and can reactivate as shingles. You can still, though rarely, catch chicken pox again as you did, but its still all the same virus.

It wasn't an option with our oldest two.
Youngst had it then she started school. No regrets.

Done with 3 of my kids - yes yes yes without a shadow of doubt get it!

Are you in Scotland or England or wales?