Chicken pox vaccine pros/cons

[Daffodil0407]

I have just found out about the chicken pox vaccine and need to do my own research on it first. What's everyone's thoughts on it please?

Pros - your child doesn’t have to go through chicken pox which at best means they (and you) are stuck inside for a couple of weeks with very itchy spots and potential scarring, at worst they are hospitalised / die with it. Also, they are much less likely to get shingles

Cons - you currently have to pay for it privately in this country (about £150)

Yeah, its an expense. That said, might work out cheaper than having to take time off work to look after them.

Does it mean if they were to catch it they would get it mildly? A bit like the covid jab in that sense?

It’s 98% effective after 2 doses. Which means they only have 2% chance of catching it and even then it will be a mild case

Both mine have had the jab and haven’t ever had any chickenpox symptoms

Same here, and they’ve been exposed many times between them

Yes, usually, although it's more likely they won't catch it if vaccinated. I had my almost 2 year old vaccinated earlier this year. No significant side effects other than a few very mild chicken pox spots after both jabs which cleared up by themselves within days.

There is chatter about adding it to the routine vaccine schedule in Scotland but no timeline - HV told us this. DD got it as we’ve got an immunocompromised family member who helps us out a lot. We were willing to pay the £300 privately for it (£150 a dose) but met the criteria for NHS to provide it.

Pro - much much less likely to get CP as a child

Con - immunity wanes over time so potentially she could get CP as a teen / young adult

Yep, mine too. Double vaccinated, been exposed at nursery and school multiple times but not caught it. I think it's now a standard vaccine in many countries and I have a feeling the UK is looking to introduce it, but not 100% sure on that
In our case, we also had an older family member on immunosuppressants and so to protect them as well as our child the vaccine made sense.

They give you all the info when you sign up, but the pros are that you dint have to look after an ill child, the cons are if you have 3 kids you're looking at 450 pounds.
It does seem effective though, we got it because one of our kids has terrible itchy eczema that we struggle to keep under control, and heaven help us if he gets anything else on top of that. And once you do one kid why not do them all.
If they were both typical kids we probably wouldn't have bothered.

An important con is it's a live vaccine so you can't have your kids around old or pregnant people for a month after the jab, and there are 2 jabs 6 weeks apart.

Totally worth the cost for us, it’s done as standard elsewhere in the world. Most other vaccines are free for children on the NHS, so I was more than happy to pay privately for this one for our DC.

@ArtfulPinkBird Is that a common side effect from the vaccine? Did she get a temp or did she feel unwell after?

It's going to be added to the NHS vaccine schedule likely in Jan 2026. How old is your child?

pros - not catching chicken pox, not suffering possible severe complications from chickenpox, not suffering shingles, not suffering possible severe side effects from shingles

cons -

Con - immunity wanes over time so potentially she could get CP as a teen / young adult

This is now known not to be the case.

The reason the JCVI have recommended it be added to the childhood immunisation schedule is in large part because of the previous beliefs that it would wane and put adults at increased risk of CP, and that it would increase the risk of shingles when older, have been shown (in studies in countries where it has now been given as standard for many years) to not be the case.

£75 per dose here, so £150 for the full course.
not sure if it’s just more where you are, but good to hear you were able to get it funded in any case

Sorry jumping in on this as hoping to get my 1 year old vaccinated soon. Is the part about being around pregnant women only true if the woman isn't immune to chickenpox? Will discuss with my GP nurse but just something that had not crossed my mind until I saw your comment. Im in the early stages of pregnancy. Had hoped for DS to be vaccinated before starting nursery in September.

I also have 2 with the vaccine. So far so good!
My eldest suffered badly with chicken pox. I couldn’t see another one of my children go through the same. It was not the ‘mild childhood illness’ it as described on the NHS website. That said some children breeze through it.
Im not too sure about the chances of shingles later on in life?..

It's not no, in fact the pharmacist was very surprised when I told her that my daughter had had some chickenpox spots about 10 days after the vaccine. She got a fleeting temperature just before the spots but really she was absolutely fine in every other aspect, if it wasn't for the spots I'd have said she had no reaction at all.

My baby had a temp and was just under the weather sad for a few days with the routine nhs jabs, but completely unfazed by the chickenpox ones.

I have a 9 year old (vaccinated at 2 ish) and a nearly 2 year old (vaccinated 9 months ago) and both have so far dodged nursery and school cp cases.

if im honest with myself, and I ashamed to admit this, my main motivation was not worry about my children, but to avoid taking yet more time off work for ill children. We don’t have flexible jobs or family support so it is one less thing to worry about.

I have friends who go on holiday a lot who were in constant fear of their holiday being affected when it was going round the school.

Agree. And also I think people read that we only have proof of immunity for about 30 years after the vaccine, which is because it wasn't given before then, and confuse that with it wearing off after that time.

It's only an issue if you've not had chicken pox yourself. If you've had it, you'll be fine.

DC1 had chicken pox when I was first trimester with DC2.

DS had it because older DN ended up in hospital with chicken pox , she had them in her mouth and throat and was incredibly unwell she was in for nearly a week and still has awful scars, I didn't want DS to go through that. He's been through an outbreak at nursery and two at school and hasn't caught it.

We were fortunate we could afford it, I think it's about £150 at Boots. There are plenty of countries who have had it as part of the main vaccination schedule for decades now.
The only con for me is the price, the myths about waning protection have all been proven to be incorrect.

My DD had chickenpox related pneumonia earlier this year and nearly ended up in hospital with it. I hugely regretted not getting her vaccinated. On the flip side, her sister had chickenpox at 18 months and although her spots were quite nasty, she wasn’t poorly with it at all. If I could go back in time though, I’d definitely vaccinate!

Thank you all. My mum who looks after my son weekly hasn't had chicken pox. Does this mean if he was to have the vaccine he couldn't be around her for 6 weeks?