[Closed] Chicken Pox Vaccine, worth it for young kids?

Just find a kid who already has Chickenpox and rub you kids on them.

Get it over with now. Problem solved.

Just find a kid who already has Chickenpox and rub you kids on them.
Get it over with now. Problem solved.

I have the opportunity to do just that right now which is why I'm thinking about it. It means ill kids. Time off work. Weekend of adventure with the kids trashed. Minor scars on the kids.

Seems a lot of bother to save £260.

Except £260 is almost as precious to me as life itself. 🙂

Take it out of their pocket money?

My reading of https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563790/ is that it's better for the vaccinated child but worse for everyone else. I had shingles 5 years ago and it was deeply unpleasant. I spent 5 nights in hospital and I still have a painful scalp. I'd have my kids vaccinated so they'd be less likely to get Shingles later (if they hadn't already had chicken pox). But £260 is a lot of money!

Thanks sl2000, that article is really interesting. We're making our Children ill, to stop ourselves getting ill. If I decide to save the £260 I'm going to take great delight in telling them that they are going to spend a week feeling like **** performing the role of human booster jabs for my benefit. 😀

It's prob not worth it on balance as chickenpox is trivial for most kids [although they do feel dreadful for a couple of days, poor mites] - a small minority will get a severe dose and the scarring is no joke, though.
I can appreciate that concern as my daughter got cpox quite badly and has some scarring, she was v young though - barely 1 IIRC, and has largely gotten away with it although we were worried at the time. But the chances of this are low.

It's a lot worse for adults! (about 30 deaths a year) Mrs TiRed caught it from son1 who also gave it to son2 (who was a couple of months old at the time and absolutely unprotected). She was laid up for a couple of weeks. I'd mandate vaccination for the relatively small (~5-10%) of adults that do not contract the pox as children.

For yound children, it would not be of great concern. It is of course, a respiratory infection, the sores are the obvious external sign, but the infectious period is much earlier.

Really interesting article that. I never knew that as a GP I was less likely to get shingles due to regular exposure to the chicken pox virus!
Anyway I would not recommend vaccination mainly because the point of vaccination is to provide “herd immunity” ie if you vaccinate 95% of children you protect everyone including those who can’t be vaccinated and who are most at risk of serious complications of the illness. Vaccinating a few kids here and there has no benefit for society as a whole and in the case of chicken pox just prevents what is thankfully generally a mild illness.
Regarding time off, our childminder was happy for the kids to come to her when they had it. It meant that all their charges got it over and done with in a short space of time and were protected from getting it again as young as possible. This was a few years ago though and I expect the practice may well be frowned upon. Our parents’ generation would have had pox parties to get all the kids infected at once in a community though
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox_party

Interesting point re non immune adults. My sister in law’s partner is from Austria and caught it from our youngest aged about 30 and was very poorly. Some communities will have lower prevalence than the uk so adults moving here from those areas would be advised to get vaccinated (had a patient from the canaries who got it in his late 20s. He told me it’s uncommon where he grew up)

£260 is probably less than the cost of a week off work so you'd be saving money really....

Sell one of the kids to cover the costs of vaccinations for the other. Who’s your favourite?

Had I known about it before my son got a really bad dose of chicken pox, it would have saved a few weeks of stress and worry as we were going on holiday 3 weeks later

Hmm. Having never had chicken pox. I wonder if I should see if I can have it. Our 5 year old has had it so managed to swerve it even though she's usually all over me. I didn't realize I've never had the pox until my mum told me at that time.😬

If you are sure you haven't had chicken pox and have kids then def get it.
can be really really unpleasant as an adult

We vaccinated our child because we had a period recently when due to both of us having unavoidable work commitments, any time off nursury would have been a total 'mare and my wife was convinced it was sensible to minimise any risk. Pretty sure it wasnt £260 though, I think £170. No noticable after effects for the child. I was under the impression that some areas in England routinely give it free anyway.

Thanks for all the comments. Still not sure...

Sell one of the kids to cover the costs of vaccinations for the other. Who’s your favourite?

This is the kind of practical solution I was looking for. (One of them is ginger.)

Got our two eldest done. We simply couldn’t afford the downtime otherwise. Iirc you need two lots some time apart. We’ll get the youngest done as soon as she’s a year old.

The nhs’ argument is essentially a cost thing as they’d have to do the entire population. Odd argument as you could say the same for any vaccination program. Many other European countries give the vaccine along with the regular vaccinations.

Chicken Pox isn't funny - had it myself. Our's weren't vaccinated as my son developed it on holiday (I got an extra week on Costa Del Sol with just me and my son), whilst my wife, daughter and in-laws flew home) - daughter developed it when home).

Not much fun, on holiday, two weeks after new year, no-one about, not much cash, just you and a baby. Walked loads though...

I never knew that as a GP I was less likely to get shingles due to regular exposure to the chicken pox virus!

Regular repeat boosting of your immune memory B cells on exposure to zoster virus antigen will help keep dormant virus in check - hence the reduction in shingles incidence in the elderly. It’s been known for a long time that this is effective and the primary reason for the shingrix vaccine. It’s not about protecting kids from chickenpox.

Disclaimer: I work for GSK but not in vaccines, although I also spent five years researching the epidemiology of infectious diseases including zoster virus - the causative agent of chickenpox and shingles.

our childminder was happy for the kids to come to her when they had it.

Had it? Or were infectious. You’re more than aware that you are most infectious the week before the spots! Once they scab over, job done. Evolution is great isn’t it?

Its part of standard childhood vaccinations here in Australia.
My 2 year old had already had chicken pox in the UK before we came but still had to have the vaccine here so that she had a full vaccination record to start childcare.
True story.

I'm genuinely surprised that people would make an economic calculation to vaccinate to avoid time off work. How do you cope if they have really snotty colds or flu? God forbid they get anything serious, how inconvenient!

Our kids have been ****ing up our careers, our earning capacity and our social lives, plus burning through what we do earn, for 16 years now. Wouldn't change a thing though.

Had it? Or were infectious.

During the spotty phase. Nothing you can do about the time when they are infectious prior to the spots appearing. They are merrily infecting everyone else at that point, but still attending school/nursery

Currently got a mate with shingles, he's on his 3rd round of meds- the docs are concerned he'll loose his sight.
Spend the money.

I’m genuinely surprised that people would make an economic calculation to vaccinate to avoid time off work.

Why would you *not* factor that in?

(Doesn't apply to me, I'm Permy/PAYE, but if it did, I would.)

I’m genuinely surprised that people would make an economic calculation to vaccinate to avoid time off work. How do you cope if they have really snotty colds or flu? God forbid they get anything serious, how inconvenient!

Our kids have been **** up our careers, our earning capacity and our social lives, plus burning through what we do earn, for 16 years now. Wouldn’t change a thing though.

Santimonius **** of the week award goes to you. Unsurprisingly most people are just trying to do the best they can for their kids, it may not fit your best way, doesnt mean it sright or wrong.

I caught it off my daughter at 41 and was really ill, weirdly very few spots, but i had not an ounce of energy and every joint felt like i'd gone 10 rounds with Tyson, worried about shingles in my future.

Out kids have had it, was nice not to have to worry when the neighbourhood kids had a flash round of the infection (well, those that hadn't been vaccinated), and ours were unaffected.

The bout of shingles I had convinces me that it'd be a cracking idea for you to let the moths fly free, ignore the dust -(the Queen always blinks - it's the bright light) and cough the £260.

My wife's just come into my office, read this thread over my shoulder and said "It's a good job we had our two vaccinated as we wouldn't have been able to go to Austria last week" apparently their school have been ravaged by chicken pox over Easter. Seems like vaccination was a good investment.

If I had known about the vacination I would have got it done. We arrived in nz to visit family for three weeks over christmas a few years ago and had both kids one after the other having a really bad dose that severely affected what we could all do. The oldest now has quite a collection of scars all over his chest and back and few on his face. When we got back one of our neighbours told us she knew her kids had it but sent them round to play at our house anyway and didn't bother telling us the kids were infected.

My daughter's now 4..and hasn't yet had the pox..

I'm tempted to get her done simply because:
a) it'll be harder for her aged 4+ to deal with it; most kids get it younger
b) time off work/school/childcare at her age IS a challenge, both for her and I..

Our kids have been **** up our careers, our earning capacity and our social lives, plus burning through what we do earn, for 16 years now. Wouldn’t change a thing though.

I guess this comment WOULD apply if he was putting his offspring into a blender... but it's just talking about a private vaccine! (it's private because it really has little public benefit)

DrP

Our older one had it *just* after her twin siblings were born. She didn't have it too badly but it was a mega worry at the time as it could be very serious for babies, especially as ours were a bit early. Luckily, babies have a short period of immunity from the mother and they just got away with it. Worth considering the vaccine if there are plans for any more babies!

Wow, I'd like to thank the Academy for that award, cos the competition on here is really tough.

Two of my three have just had a dose, it was a bit rough with the 11 month old, what with me having a fractured shoulder.

the 4 year old was fine really, so with kids your age i'd imagine you'd be OK. We had a good few days in the garden as we couldn't go out anywhere. I got him to dig the vegetable patch for me and taught him how to use some power tools.

Good excuse for a couple of father son days if you ask me