I have a friend who's child has chicken pox. I remember my mom and her friends purposely exposing us to it so we would get it as kids instead of adults. We have chosen to delay/selective vax until later childhood for both my kids (not looking for a debate or lecture on this.)
Did you purposely expose your child to the chicken pox? Why or why not?
I think one of the differences back when your mom would expose you to it was that the vaccine wasn't available. The later you get chicken pox, the worse it hits you. So since we were pretty much all going to get it, the earlier the better. Now with the vaccine available it isn't as prevalent. (We vaccinate, so I didn't have to answer this question. Just wanted to point out why an earlier generation may have done this more.)
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No, I would not purposely expose my child to chicken pox when there is a vaccine against it. There is a lot of evidence out there that vaccines are significantly safer than getting the illness itself (not only for your child but for others who may be exposed due to your child's exposure etc.). Not everyone can be vaccinated, nor does the vaccine work for everyone, and even though the large majority of people don't have a severe reaction to chicken pox, the virus can be extremely dangerous for some people. If your child has chicken pox they will be contagious before they get symptoms and therefore you run the risk of exposing others who are at high risk of contracting the disease and having a severe reaction to it... I'd just wait until you're ready to give your child the vaccine...
I don't have children yet, and I haven't done a lot of research about vaccines, but here are the things I would want to find out if I were you:
Does the vaccine give lifelong immunity?
Does having the disease give lifelong immunity?
When is it dangerous to get chicken pox? I know you don't want to get it when you're old, but what about very young children/babies?
Your children are so young, I wouldn't want them to get chicken pox at that age, because they wouldn't understand the concept of being sick, and not scratching. (At least, I think not. You'd know better than I would.) I think your whole family would be miserable!
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I have learned a lot about viruses in school. The Chicken Pox virus is very bad news if you get it as an adult. It can even be fatal. That said, I would get my children the vaccine over exposing them to it, but I'm not a mom (yet!) so I'm not in your shoes.
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I'm a mom who vaxes on schedule, but I was curious about the chicken pox vaccine a while ago and checked out what Dr. Sears has to say (since he's known to be pretty vax conservative). The chicken pox vax is one he recommends, and I've copied and pasted below what he says about exposing kids to the actual virus. Hope that helps!
Why not just let my child be naturally exposed to chickenpox? Some parents concerned about the safety of the chickenpox vaccine throw "chickenpox parties" to purposely expose their children to chickenpox as toddlers, since it is much less serious at a younger age than in older children and adults. There are two problems with this reasoning: As we have mentioned above, chickenpox can be serious in some children, even though it is usually a mild, weeklong nuisance. Some children can get severe complications, such as pneumonia, encephalitis, overwhelming bacterial infections, and there have been around a hundred deaths reported from chickenpox. It is a nuisance and risk that children no longer need to endure. Because so many children are now receiving the vaccine as part of their routine immunizations (in the year 2000 approximately sixty percent of children are receiving routine VV immunization), there are fewer children around to "naturally" expose unvaccinated children. So, as VV becomes more widely used, the chance of your child getting chickenpox naturally becomes less.
Why not just let my child be naturally exposed to chickenpox? Some parents concerned about the safety of the chickenpox vaccine throw "chickenpox parties" to purposely expose their children to chickenpox as toddlers, since it is much less serious at a younger age than in older children and adults. There are two problems with this reasoning:
If you are never going to vax for chicken pox, I suppose you could consider doing it. However, chicken pox was pretty bad for me when I was a child and I had an extremely high fever and scars are still on my body. I think I would be a bit scared to expose my young child to chicken pox.
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I agree with PPs here - I would not naturally expose my kids, but instead would get the vaccine - whether on schedule or delayed.
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I chose to vac DD against chicken pox. However did some research first. It is thought to not provide lifelong immunity so will need booster shot as adult. However, China started this vac way before us so they will know how long it lasts from them. I figure a booster shot was no big deal. What decided it for us was SIL DP had it as a child and lost the majority of his hearing and has to wear hearing aids and still has problems hearing people. I figure this was an easy fix to avoid complications such as those
sarah_honey:What decided it for us was SIL DP had it as a child and lost the majority of his hearing and has to wear hearing aids and still has problems hearing people. I figure this was an easy fix to avoid complications such as those
I would just like to say that, as an audiologist, I have never heard of chicken pox as causative for hearing loss. I did look it up and the only think that might happen is an ear infection which might cause a temporary hearing loss. Of the 8-million things we learn to ask parents about when testing children, a history of chicken pox is NOT one of them. I can't say it's impossible, but again it is something I have never heard of and can find no data to support.
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From what I understand, if you have had the chicken pox, the disease never really leaves your system and can come back when you're old as a painful case of shingles, or even recurring shingles that make your life miserable. The sad thing about shingles is that the older people who get it are usually immune-system compromised - they are already dealing with other painful conditions and THEN they get shingles on top of it. I would never wish that on my child.
If your child never gets the chicken pox and get vaccinated instead, shingles won't be an issue for her later. She just won't get them.
This seems like a really good reason to vax for chicken pox instead of exposing your child to the disease. There is a separate shingles vaccine that people can get when they're older, but it seems to me that not having the virus in your system in the first place would be better. I was miserable with the chicken pox. Ugh.
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empygirl: From what I understand, if you have had the chicken pox, the disease never really leaves your system and can come back when you're old as a painful case of shingles, or even recurring shingles that make your life miserable.
From what I understand, if you have had the chicken pox, the disease never really leaves your system and can come back when you're old as a painful case of shingles, or even recurring shingles that make your life miserable.
This! When I was 20 weeks preggo, I got a bad case of the shingles. It was terrible. It was painful and itchy. I had to go on antivirals and pain medication for it. It made me nervous to have it and to take the medications, too, because I was preggo. I never want my child to have to experience shingles, therefore, I would vaccinate against chicken pox.
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I wouldn't do it. Especially how young your kids are... I didn't get the chicken pox until I was 5 and it was aweful. I had a friend who got it at 7 and the pox went to the brain. She had to relearn how to talk, feed themselves, walk... IT was terrible. So I am naturally terrified to expose my children to anything that I can vaccinate for.
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I would expose them and know a few other parents who feel the same way or who have exposed their kids. Why add one more shot with formaldehyde and other ingredients when your healthy 3-5 year old can fight it off? Of course there are those stories of chicken pox going to the brain etc. but then there is also autism from vaccines (if you believe that). Unfortunately you can't win either way, you just have to choose the lesser of two evils. If you aren't opposed to vaccines then you could vax after 5ish if they haven't gotten it by then. GL!
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I don't have children but this topic is close to my heart.
My nephew got chickenpox as a toddler and it caused a major attack(?) of his immune system. He had apparently been a very healthy child with no family history of medical problems. His immune system never recovered, he became gravely ill and passed after months of specialist care to help him try recover. Obviously this is an extreme case and we don't know if the chicken pox caused this or triggered what was already an immune problem (and therefore if it hadn't been pox it could've just as easily been another illness that would have caused problems). However, as it affected my family directly it's impossible for me not to be influenced by it.
I myself had chicken pox as a child and went on to have very painful shingles as a teenager.
I would vacc tbh, as that isn't something you choose then I would take advantage of the fact other children after vaccinated and as a result your child is at lower risk (than if no-one vacc'd) . I'd try not to expose a child to the full virus personally.
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I delay vaccines a bit and pretty much go with Dr. Sears, who I would consider a moderate in the vaccine debate.
Philosophically, I would prefer my kids to get the chicken pox rather than the vaccine. Mostly because the illness results in a much higher chance of lifelong immunity than the vaccine, and I don't believe the vaccine has been around long enough to have longitudinal data on its long term efficacy (then again, that was five years ago -- maybe that data exists now?) Also, I have a friend who vaccinated her 1-year old and he got the chicken pox anyway, just a few months later. So my faith in vaccines is not too strong. I am primarily worred about my daughters contracting chicken pox when they are pregnant with their own children. I had the chicken pox as an infant, at the same time as my 4 year old brother and 28 year-old father. My father fared far worse than the kids (an argument could be made than my mother had the worst deal of all )
Well my oldest was vaccinated for CP before I had thought through my feelings about vaccinations. But when my second was just shy of two an opportunity arose to expose her to chicken pox. I was tempted. But there were two issues: first, CP can keep you locked in the house for 2-3 weeks. My older daughter's birthday party was in two weeks and I simply could not have a child with chicken pox during that time. Second, I was pregnant, and while I had the chicken pox, had my titers tested, etc., it just seemed unnecessarily risky to expose myself to the chicken pox by choice. So we didn't do it and she has subsequently been vaccinated. With my son, I was less concerned about vaccinating, mostly because my real fears had to do with having daughters not fully protected when they are pregnant with their own children. So this is all to say that while philosophically my answer would be to expose my children to CP, I actually never did it and went ahead and vaccinated.
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Now that our youngest is over 2, I would expose them if I had the opportunity. If they have not had CP before they reach puberty, we'll vaccinate for it then.
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I would not expose on purpose. I am so happy there is a vaccine now for the chicken pox. Even if the childhood version isn’t very bad, the shingles are still possible as an adult. Shingles is the chicken pox virus that was dormant in your spine and can come out as an adult. It can be extremely painful, nerve pain and damage, and can cause other health problems. This is something people forget about or may not know. I have had it twice and was on several pain and nerve meds for years.
Autumnroseqt: I would not expose on purpose. I am so happy there is a vaccine now for the chicken pox. Even if the childhood version isn’t very bad, the shingles are still possible as an adult. Shingles is the chicken pox virus that was dormant in your spine and can come out as an adult. It can be extremely painful, nerve pain and damage, and can cause other health problems. This is something people forget about or may not know. I have had it twice and was on several pain and nerve meds for years. If you don’t get chicken pox, you won’t get shingles later in life.
If you don’t get chicken pox, you won’t get shingles later in life.
My uncle has shingles right now, I feel so bad for him :(
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I purposely skip the chickenpox vax with the intent of eventually exposing my kids to the virus. But... I wouldn't do it with a baby in the house. If I knew it was going around right now, I might go ahead and do it - maybe. Even now I would worry that my littlest is just too little. My personal plan is to have the kids' titers checked at about 12 years old and if they haven't been exposed by then, go ahead and get the vax. That way they do avoid getting it as a teen/adult (much scarier then), but I've given them more chance of a natural immunity. I do believe the natural immunity is safer, but I understand that I'm in the minority on that. Good luck deciding!
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