There is CP in the neighborhood and I’m thinking of trying to get my kids infected. Is there anything wrong with my reasoning?
My daughters (8) friend has CP. She was immunized and has a mild case with 30-40 pox. She contracted it from playing with some other kids on her street.
who had/have it.
My kids are also immunized.
I understand the immunization may not offer lifetime immunity, but that naturally occuring CP does. I also understand that having CP as an adult is worse with more severe reactions and a longer recovery time than having it as a child.
I’m thinking that if I expose them now to CP, they won’t be at risk of their immunity wearing off and contracting a worse case CP as an adult. I think they would, if infected, also have a mild case. I also think having a double immunity would be a good thing.
Am I missing anything?
I tried to get the kids infected before school age, but never met anyone that had CP then. I got them immunizations prior to school on the Doctor’s recommendation, assuming that they would be exposed for sure sometime now and as a consequence would miss alot of school. The /doc recommended immunization earlier but I held off hoping for a natural case.
Also, has anyone ever heard of Chicken Pox Parties where parents tried to get the kids infected at a ‘convenient’ for the parent time? I have a vague memory of this but don’t know where I heard it.
I would question the ethics of deliberately infecting your children, but I can vouch for the fact that it’s better to catch chicken pox as a child. I caught it when I was 22 years old (got it from my then-girlfriend’s kid). My case was pretty mild, but I lost two weeks of work (working sales at the time and had direct, close contact with the public), and so was unable to pay my rent the next month and had to move back in with the parents. Ugh.
Yeah, the Doc referred to it as an “economic disease” because someone has to take a couple of weeks off work while the kids are ill (and cases like yours, I guess).
I saw an adult case when I working at a doctor’s office and it was really bad. The woman was around 35 and was covered with pox- so much so that she had to breough in in a wheelchair. It was in her mouth and genitals, and on the soles of her feet, which I understand is pretty rare. She wanted treatment for the CP (which is a virus, so only symptomatic treatment is available) and for the secondary skin infections she had developed.
I was thinking it would be better to have a mild naturally occuring case (if possible) case now than a bad case later, when, presumably, the immunization would wear off leaving the kids at risk as adults.
This isnt weird at all. Ive heard of tons of parents who do this. And I have also heard of the Chicken Pox parties.
It does sound like such an odd thing to do but I dont see anything wrong with it. I dont think that you need to question your ethics… It’s not as if you are trying to cause your children harm. Children deal with CP very well, all five of my younger siblings barely batted an eye thru it.
My mother tried to get me and my sister infected for months. She’d bring us to visit kids with chicken pox and have us play together and drink from the same glass. Nothing. Didn’t work. Then, at an end of the year pizza party, the teacher who had served all the pizza broke out in chicken pox that evening. The day I broke out, we’d spent the day with a friend of my little sister… who was going through chemotherapy. :smack:
The child that has it now has been immunized. I think that is why she’s having such a mild case. My two kids were immunized two and four years ago. I understood from the Doc that the immunization offers a 95% protection the first year and that the protection declines as the years go by, but that the rate of decline is not known.
Our school district requires immunization for CP for all kids prior to enrollment (unless you have a medical or religious waiver). I don’t know if that is my area, state or a national requirement.
My son and my roommate’s sons all had it at about the same time. Her kids are half Hispanic, and they got it much worse than my kid did (my kid was a few years older). Does anyone know if race has anything to do with it?
I got it in my mid thiirties about 10 years ago. It kicked my ass up and down the block. I have never, ever been so sick in my life. I was covered in those damn pox blisters and I still have some scars from them on my forehead. If you can infect the kids now do so by all means. You DO NOT want it as an adult. Trust me on this.
I have never had chicken pox, so when I was 20, I got the vaccine. Since science doesn’t yet know how long it’s effective, I guess I just gotta wait. Still, hopefully it’ll lessen the blow should I ever get it.
There are two main reasons they came up with the chicken pox vaccine in the first place: (A) it is occasionally life-threatening, and (B) there’s a significant chance that the virus will integrate itself into the genome and reexpress years later as shingles, which is a quite painful condition. Neither of these risks apply to the vaccine, but they do apply in even a mild case of naturally-occuring chicken pox. Whether the risk is worth taking is up to you.
If you’re worried about continuing immunity, I would say the safest thing to do would be to have your doctor test the kids’ antibody titer and get a booster if it’s low.
The more ancient of us recall not only chicken-pox parties, but especially German Measles parties for little girls, in the days before a vaccine was available. The latter because people knew that if you contracted GM while pregnant, it could cause birth defects.
I’ve heard of parents trying to expose their kids to CP.
It makes me cringe but I can understand their reasoning. Best to get it over with if having it as an adult guarantees a much worse case of it.
As far as race and intensity, that’s a good question. I doubt it, though. I’m white and I was out of school for almost 2 months when I had it in 2nd grade.
I wish we’d had the vaccine when I was little I’m thankful my daughter has been vaccinated; maybe she won’t be as bad off as I was.
This is a no-brainer. Chicken Pox can be a very serious disease. All sorts of complications including death and getting shingles in later years. So it is unimaginable that any parent would actually want that for their children.
Stick to the shots. Get a 2nd shot if you’re worried about later years.
Well, I know that I wish I had gotten it when I was younger. As it turned out, I didn’t get it until I was 14, and it was absolutely horrible. I was out of school for over a week, and if the itching were the big thing, I’d have been good to go. I was seriously sick though. With my 3 kids, I got the immunization for each of them, so I don’t think I’d intentionally expose them at this point. The chance that the chicken pox could hit one of them seriously, as unlikely as it may be, and knowing that I’ve taken precautions against it anyway seem like a good enough reason (for me) not to. Regardless, even people who catch chicken pox “naturally” can indeed become infected again, so even THAT isn’t a guarantee against adult onset.
I understand the reasoning, but it still seems a little on the strabge side to deliberately infect your children with a disease.
Also, like mentioned above, if they are naturally infected, they’ll be at risk for shingles from then on, which is much worse than chicken pox, just going on the pain factor alone.
I’m thankful my daughter has been vaccinated; maybe she won’t be as bad off as I was.