A chickenpox party? Doctors say it's a bad idea

Mpls (red)Star Tribune /AP ^ | 4/802

[RnMomof7]

As usual your timing is perfect as my 7 year old granddaughter just got over a mega large case of Chickenpox...hundreds of pox on her back alone..in her mouth and ears and hair..ALL over the place..Benadryl, lotion and oatmeal baths ..now all gone and no scars..a perfect way to spend Easter vacation:>)

The shots are now State mandated (Big brother) for kids in day care or entering school..Hannah had just missed the LAW

Her baby sister Emma age 3 had the shot a few weeks before for a pre kindergarden class she will be going to next year. My daughter in now sorry she jumped the gun as two of them may have had the benefit of a life long immunity (in fact we are wondering if Emma may have in some way infected Hannah??)

I have nothing against the vaccines for deadly diseases..but we have gone to far IMHO. Personally my preference would be not to "mandate" them till 16..most of these diseases are only a problem the older you get..

I keep wondering what will happen when we have a population with no natural immunity ..that has not "kept up" it's boosters (when was the last polio or DPT boosted you had? I am a nurse and my last boosted was in my late 20's ..and that only because work demanded it..I never would have thought about it) I wonder about the girls that may get pregnant with no immunity..What happens if men get the mumps? One thing I do know ....it is not nice to fool mother nature :>))

[jude24]

Shingles can develop from childhood chicken pox. The virus goes dormant in the spinal column for years until it breaks out. Happened to my mom.

[chriservative]

No Dan, I don't have any children, but I did have childhood chicken pox. It was pretty terrible. Keeping that in mind then, why would I want to knowingly subject my child to it under the guise of a playdate. That is sick! Facts? What facts are we disputing here? If you show me a reliable source somewhere that says taking your kid, exposing him to some horrible illness that could cause encephilitis, pneumonia, and/or other serious side effects on top of the horrible nature of CP is good parenting, then we can talk about facts.

[chriservative]

Okay. Let me get this straight. I am ignorant because I don't want to knowingly subject my child to a disease. You have some pretty twisted logic lady.

[BibChr]

Do you even read the thread before you jump in and start swinging a baseball bat around? The rationale is set out above. Usually CP is mild for kids; frequently it is severe and potentially fatal for adults. Odds are pretty good of catching it. Which is better: as a child, when serious risks are far rarer and milder, or as an adult, when they are more frequent and more severe?

This isn't rocket science.

You should think a minute before you accuse caring, experienced, knowledgeable parents you don't know from Adam of being "sick" because they proceed differently than you imagine you might if you had kids.

Dan

[RnMomof7]

About the only thing I keep up on is tetanus, and only then because I'm a complete disaster and keep puncturing shoes and cutting myself on stuff that's been laying around outside.

I am faithful on the tetanus too..my guess you and I are the norm..I would encourage any posters that have adult kids with no natural immunity to remind the kids to go get boosters..(keep the drug companies profitable:))

[RnMomof7]

This isn't rocket science.

Dan some years ago I was working a Peds floor..and this one kid was a whinny crybaby..His "problem" was a minor one..but he had NO pain tolerance

A very wise nurse made the following observation...we are a culture that refuses to allow our kids to get sick , be uncomfortable or feel pain..so when they are confronted with it they have no coping skills...( and that was 15 years ago..it has only gotten worse)

We are raising a pathetic generation that will whine over things their grandparents never noticed..and I wonder how developed their immune system will be with no exercise ?

[BibChr]

So I gather that, though an RN, you don't share chriservative's pronouncement that all parents who expose their children to CP are necessarily "sick"?

Dan

[ArrogantBustard]

According to This Page, about one in a thousand children infected with actual chicken-pox "ends up in the hospital with complications such as pneumonia or encephalitis (a brain infection)". It also claims that of those children who receive the varicella vaccine "About 4 percent will have a mild rash (around 10 chicken pox-like blisters). One in a thousand may have a febrile seizure." It goes on to claim that the seizure isn't normally dangerous but "but you should call your doctor right away if your child has one. " I find the symetry of 1/1000 rate of serious complications either way interesting.

The site also claims "The vaccine can protect your child from a related disease called shingles. About 20 percent of adults who had chicken pox earlier in life get this rash..." I find this figure a bit hard to believe. Anyone (like maybe an RN) care to comment on it?

AB

[redhead]

Amen. When we were kids, this was how we were vaccinated. Repeated exposures simply reinforced the immunity.

[redhead]

Just let them get exposed often. Frequent exposures will "exercise" the antibodies.

[RnMomof7]

The site also claims "The vaccine can protect your child from a related disease called shingles. About 20 percent of adults who had chicken pox earlier in life get this rash..." I find this figure a bit hard to believe. Anyone (like maybe an RN) care to comment on it?

Talk to me about this in 25 years..when no longer immune adults contract the disease and it will be more deadly..as I pointed out most adults do not have boosters..

And we will look at the shingles then too..as I am not convinced we will not see them as a side effect of the vaccine..we do not have a two generation (20 year)experience as of yet..

As for the side effects of childhood chickenpox (I would like to see the "age" they have as the cutoff)..I think that is a scare tactic put out by big brother and the makers of better living with chemistry. The complications of vaccines is all over the internet ..including autism. I would guess that the rate of complications is no greater now than it has been for generations..and I have to tell you I have never personally or professionally seen a child hospitalized because of the complications of chickenpox.

I stand by my observation that I would prefer natural immunity till they are teens and then immunize

PS I wish all these folks were as worried about vaginal herpes..and taught some abstinence...similar bug there ya know:>))

[RnMomof7]

sorry #54

[redhead]

Here's a link (and a link) about chickenpox exposure

[Diddle E. Squat]

Anybody read the series of books entitled "The Great Brain"? Funny books about a kid growing up in a large family in frontier Utah. Whenever any kid got any kind of illness, the mom would put ALL the kids into one bed so they would all get sick at once and get it out of the way, instead of dragging on for weeks from one kid to the next. Interesting household management technique!

These days some militant lesbian busybody would turn the mom in for child abuse.

[Bella_Bru]

I got chicken pox when I was in 7th grade. Got to miss 2 whole weeks of school (sweet deal when you are in 7th grade.). My little sister was only 2 at the time (she was a "surprise") she came down with them a week later. The doctor said it was good she had them so early. I did not find the experience that wonderful, and I wish I had had them as a really little kid, so I wouldn't have noticed it as much. ;-)

[ArrogantBustard]

Poorly worded question, on my part. Is the claim that 20% of adults who had chickenpox as a child develop shingles at some time later in life correct? I know only one, and he was extremely ill at the time (dying of cancer). Maybe I'm just missing something. I'm an agnostic regarding the vaccine, and have not children who might be candidates for vaccination. I'm trying to sort out whether my gut-reaction suspicion of the vaccine is reasonable, or am I just a Luddite?

AB

[SauronOfMordor]

How rare? What was the rate of serious complications per 100,000 vaccinated? Why can't the 'reporter' deterime this fact? Why can't reporters report? This article is almost useless, except as an example of reportorial incompetence.

Real reporting involves time, effort, and money. It's easier and cheaper to take the "information flyer" from the vaccine company's PR dept and cut/paste it into an article