Will you get your kids the chicken pox vax?

Question

why / why not?

Wishmaster and Bugsy - i'd give you both a thumbs up .... but i cant yet (level 1).

i agree w/ the both of you!
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micropiemee (whatever) - just FIY, more people have died from the vax than from the pox.
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Answer 1

No Way!!

You get the vax, you can still get the pox. which means you'll get them when you're older .... dangerous.

also, chix pox are a MILD disease in which our bodies are SUPPOSED to go through!! It is believed that if we dont go through these mild viruses, it will fester and linger then turn into something much worse later on.

Chix pox also is a great way to build our immune systems. we keep pumping our kids full of drugs, and that is no way to teach our bodies how to fight. there is not a drug for everything, it is better if our bodies immune system grows and learns how to fight illnesses naturally

Answer 2

I never gave it to my kids because I think we shove enough vaccines into our kids (many a great necessity) but 99.9% of people deal with the chicken pox fine and it has always been a secondary infection that does the damage. My kids got it just before they turned 5. Each of them got one infected and straight to the doc for medicine and all went well, they were happy enough. Not a concern at all. Then when they were 6 it went through the whole prep classes. You know who got it? The ones who were vaccinated. They say they get it in a milder form....well many mums would argue that now. Many kids got it bad. The thing is, the ones that were vaccinated can continue to get it on and off for the rest of there lives. I know one child up to their 3 time after vaccination. The chances of a child who gets it naturally re getting it is around 3%. The only good thing about the vaccine is that it prevents Shingles. But in the mean time they can get the "pox" often and mild or not they are still isolated for 7-10 days so they don't spread it. So glad I never vaccinated.

Just read the person above. It cost me $10 for medication for reducing the itching which I only used at night. And about 80cents for a bag of porridge for the bath that takes out the itch. At the time it was about $100 for vaccination though soon after it became free. It would not have mattered free or not i would not have had it for my kids. They had a fairly bad dose of it but have no scars or marks from it (thanks to many porridge baths they were not that itchy and to top it off it was the height of the Australian summer)

Answer 3

Both of my boys got their shots at 12 months old. While chicken pox isn't always serious it can turn serious. My cousin got chicken pox at a young age and it got so bad it spread into his mouth and down his throat. It was horrible. With the shot it decreases the effects of the chicken pox so they don't have to suffer like that. Even if it doesn't cause any other complications it can still leave horrible scars.

Answer 4

My kids got the chicken pox vaccination. I waited for a while before my son received it, didn't have him get it til he was starting preschool. My daughter did get it at age 1. They both received the boosters. I do this because I don't want to send my kids to school and risk giving the non-vaccinated children the chicken pox, possibly causing the complications that can come with the chicken pox. My kids are protected. :)

Sadly, I have a friend who lost a child due to complications of the chicken pox. She does vaccinate her other child now.

It's a personal decision, naturally. For me, the decision is to have my children vaccinated. People think that the chicken pox is still an "innocent" childhood disease. To each his/her own.

Oh, and I should add... some kids can get cp after receiving the shot, yes. However, it's a less severe form. For those who are giving thumbs down to vaccinators, you make me laugh. Obviously non-vaccinators will disagree. It's okay, though. My kids are healthy, protected, that's all I care about. :)

Answer 5

Yup, most definitely. I didn't get the vac when I was a kid, and ended up getting chicken pox in 4th grade. The older you are, the worse it is usually, and I missed 2 weeks of school and still have scars on my skin. If I can avoid my kids going through that, why wouldn't I?

Where do you find the statistics showing that more people die from the vaccination than the disease? At least 90 cases of death from chicken pox are reported annually in the US alone - I can't find anything supporting death by the vaccine. It is exceedingly rare. Please provide your source so I can be more informed.

One more bit of info to add: vaccinations are not "drugs" that we are pumping into our children. They are a new opportunity to promote health and help flush out unnecessary death and disease. Vaccines are, in fact, a weakened strain of the disease, so our bodies are still doing their part to build natural antibodies and immunities, just without the potentially serious side effects. Also, yes you can still the pox (no vaccine is 100%, though 9 out of 10 children will not contract it if vaccinated), but the case will be MUCH more mild than without the vaccine (20-50 sores vs 250-500 sores). And it does not "fester" if vaccinated - that's simply medically incorrect.

Answer 6

Yes, because prevention is better than cure. The vaccine is just a fraction of the cost of both the oral and topical anti-viral medications given when you get the chicken pox. Also, once you have the chicken pox you run the risk of infecting others. And lastly, some pox marks/scars are permanent and unsightly.

Answer 7

My son got the vax at 18 months but still got it. But he had a very mild case...maybe 20 pox. Unfortunately he brought it home to his infant sister (2 months old) and I stopped counting the pox at 250 :-( I will get the baby I am carrying now the shot. It did lessen my son's case.

Answer 8

Yes, my youngest have all gotten the varicella immunisation as it's actually a very low risk vaccine and provides good coverage. I knew a girl who died from a brain disorder she contracted from a mild bout of chicken pox when she was younger. It lay dormant in her nervous system until she was about fifteen, and then became active and slowly killed her (it was incurable). She died a horrible, painful lingering death.

My oldest three have all had chicken pox and were pretty miserable. My second child had a really severe case, as he is immunocompromised anyway, and was nearly admitted to hospital for it.

I've also known two children who've contracted pneumonia from a chicken pox infection, and one child who now has permanently damaged sight from a severe bout of chicken pox. I don't know of anyone who has even had a serious reaction to the vaccine, let alone died from it.

Answer 9

I was about to and then all three of them caught chicken pox.

Answer 10

All of my kids have had the varicella vaccine. First of all, kids cn die form complications of chicken pox and if I can prevent it, I will at any cost.
I also chose to have them vaccinated because I've never had chicken pox and if they got it I could get it and it could be dangerous for me.