Does anyone have chicken pox?

I completely agree with Noname! How true!

I had chicken pox at age 29 when I was 6 weeks postpartum with my third child. My children (except the baby) got them with me. Horrible. They were coming out my eyeballs by day 5, really. How i WISHED someone would have taken ME to a chicken pox party when I had been little. What suffering could have been spared.

And as to adults getting shingles from having had chicken pox when a child--think about what your saying Rosegarden-Pretty much the whole world up till about 10 years ago has had chicken pox as a child (except a very few)-keeping a child from getting chicken pox so they can later avoid shingles? HUH?!! So they can suffer as an adult with chicken pox ten times worse? So unproven shots with forgotten boosters is a better idea?

New studies have come out suggesting that repeated exposure to active chicken pox in children, may actually DECREASE an adults chance of getting shingles.

Lots of good posts here with thoughts from all sides but no one here has mentioned the crucial role chicken pox plays as a prophylactic disease. There is a good reason it has been a "cultivated" disease in europe during the middle ages and beyond.

Those who have had chicken pox who are then exposed to small pox, at any time in their lives, are far less likely to die from it. Very similar to cowpox in terms of the reaction in the immune system to smallpox. It simply isn't as good as the cowpox live vaccination. However, it is a lifelong assist which the vaccination isn't.

Now, I'm not advocating anyone who needs the smallpox vaccination not get it and rely on chickenpox instead, but not everyone has that vaccination and the chances of complications from chickenpox are very very low in small children below the age of 10. That said, below the age of 3 isn't good for chickenpox either.

Shingles does have a genetic component. Shingles is simply the chicken pox virus lodging near the spine and unsheathing nerve ends at the parts of the spine that are affected. (nerve radiate outward and it is the ends that get affected that is why it is often found on the sides) Cold sores are a localized unsheathing near the mouth from virus from the same group. That is why they are so painful. They are usually limited to coming out in people with compromised immune systems. BUT if you, an otherwise healthy person, came down with shingles at an early age, the genetic component to "reveal" shingles is a 50/50 shot for your kids and those folks should think twice over exposing their kids to the virus.

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

From all I have read and know that would be a yes. It would be better to have a shot and try to avoid chicken pox altogether than to take your chances with shingles.

Good doctors review patient charts and should remind you of needed booster shots. As well I would expect them to suggest a shingles shot which are now available.

I am really having trouble believing the responses to this thread. I suppose some are saying the same about my posts though.

How would you avoid catching chicken pox? An infected person is the most contageous the day or 2 before showing any outward symptoms. My ds gave them to a cousin the day before he had any spots. My neighbor girl had the vaccine, got chicken pox a very short time later (within a couple years) anyway.

Again, you have to do what your comfortable with. For you, the risk of the disease outweighs the risk of the vaccination. That's ok. However, you have to appreciate that others don't have the same view of risk vs. benefits that you do, and that's ok too. There are probably many other areas where some of us do things you would consider wrong or risky, and we might say the same thing about you.

The biggest problem with doctors reminding their patients of needed boosters is that many young adults don't get routine checkups. They either don't have insurance and can't pay, or they just don't think about it. Whatever the case, they go to the doctor only when they're sick, and very often it's an urgent care or emergency room rather than their own physician. You're assuming that everyone gets regular medical care, and more often than not that's not the case.

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Get the vaccine... Also...if you are over 60 years old you can receive a vaccne for shingles..prevention of getting them as you get older. Both are dangerous and painful. Use your own judgement...but prevention is worth a cure..

The reason that people can get away with not vaccinating is that much of the population has had the vaccines. Simply, the exposure rate is greatly reduced. Hence the ill-conceived idea of chicken-pox parties. As less people choose to be vaccinated, the likelihood of widespread returns to having these diseases increases, along with the likelihood of the dangerous side-effects. There are clearly side-effects to vaccinating, but the scientific data shows less of and less virulent than widespread disease. There does not appear to be any quantified data that vaccines cause autism or autism-like diseases. Autism symptoms tend to become quite noticeable at about the age that various vaccines are recommended to be given; that is not enough to call it cause & effect. Sue

I never had them as a child. I was exposed numerous times but never came down with them. Now an adult I've asked several doctors if I should be vaccinated but believe it or not every single one of them has said "Gee I have no idea....I really don't know..." founts of knowledge they were.

I've heard of pox parties before but personally I don't think I'd expose my child deliberately. Yes it was done for years in the past but in the past they also bled people and used leeches and performed all other manner of quackery.

I wouldn't necessarily criticize anyone for doing it. It's their kid and they can do with it as they wish.

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Respect The Cactus!

One of my sister's got chicken pox in her early twenties. She was pregnant with her third child. She lost the baby because of the pox. It's better to get them when you are younger IMO. YOu may or may not get shingles later on.

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Raising grass-fed beef and lamb.

My kids were 5 & 3 when they got them, just before the vaccine came out. I was glad I did not have to make the decision on the vaccine, as it is not (in my opinion) a very good one, when many who had it still get the disease. I would have been more upset if they had gotten the shot & then had chicken pox. Never heard of the parties though.

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Cindy in PA

I got chicken pox at 27 adn was sick sick sick. If I hear of CP going round I will try to get my kids down with it. All of life is a risk but its better to risk having it young rather than older.

Thats an interesting conection to small pox resistance though, I will DEFF. be looking into that some more as I had never heard of it before.

around here they have started making your kids get the chicken pox vaccine before they can start 1st grade.

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Welcome to SE KANSAS -Tornado Alley
--sunny

That's what "they" like to make you think You don't have to do it.

if you don't get it, you have to get a medically exempt form....of course we already have to have a medically exemption, so it doesn't apply to us anyway.... yet.

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Welcome to SE KANSAS -Tornado Alley
--sunny

What a weird debate. Chalk me up to one of the parents who plans on intentionally exposing her children to chicken pox. IMO, the risk of complications from CP if contracted in childhood are FAR FAR less than the risk of contracting CP as an adult. And the vaccine isn't as effective as they thought, like other posters... requiring boosters and even then, people get it. I'm not going to go that route... but I also limit vaccinations generally anyway.

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Uncle Dutch Farms
Blogging from working city mom to homesteading housewife.
Rural Living Today
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Count me as one of those whose child was vaccinated and still got it. She had a very mild case, but everyone around here freaked. Two young pediatricians were stumped until a nice older nurse walked in and said, "You don't see a lot of chicken pox anymore." The school wouldn't let her back until the rash had healed. I was remembering having chicken pox (yes, my parents exposed me) when I was about 9 or 10 and it was really no big deal.

So I am not going to bother getting my daughter the booster, to the shock of some (Grrr-she already had it!!) and I wished I'd known how common it was to get the vaccine and still get the disease. If I had known I wouldn't have bothered with the vaccine and I probably would have found a "party". As it is I am very glad that she had it despite the vaccine when she was young because as has been stated, the older you get, the more likely to have some very serious complications. God forbid we just assumed she was protected and she ended up with CP in her twenties and pox on her eyes or internally or any of that!

By exposing them to chicken pox and contracting it you also have to be aware of and remember that you are basically exposing them to the risk of contracting shingles later in life. Shingles can be very painful. I knew one man whose brain was infected or affected with them and it about drove him insane.

Yes, I am well aware of that, and I still believe the risks of having CP at an earlier age are less than the risks of having it at a later age.

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Uncle Dutch Farms
Blogging from working city mom to homesteading housewife.
Rural Living Today
Encouragement for the Urban-to-Rural Transition
My review of the Piteba oil expeller

Even if you do get the vaccine and get all your boosters, you can still get chicken pox!

I wonder if the use of the vaccine will contribute to higher instances of shingles. The risk of developing shingles increases as you age so that question cannot be answered for a few decades yet.

The vaccine is now recommended for children between 12 and 18 months old. This site doesn't say it but a booster is to be given at around 4 years of age. IMO, that's a lot of shots.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdo...cines/193.html

I was not sure if I should chime in or not as my son is 25 now.
I exposed him 4 times before he started school for all the reasons stated here, but he never got it.
When he was 15 he had a physical and when the doctor found out he had never had the chicken pox he did a test (titer) to see if he had the antibodies and he did not. We then went to the health dept to get him the vaccine and at that age he required two shots.

When he turned 18 he started a job at the local hospital and again told them he had never had them so again they did a titer, still no antibodies. He called me upset because they told him he would have to have the shots again. I was able to send them proof that he had had the shots already.

Some people, like my son and mother just never make the antibodies but still do not get it.