Chicken Pox Vaccine

[nurse_chai]

I need some advice. I firmly believe in most vaccinations. I think it is important to protect my children from preventable diseases. All except for chicken pox. Part of me thinks chicken pox is a right of passage during childhood. Getting to stay home from school being covered in pink dots and showing off scars later in life. The problems is it's hard to find a good case of chicken pox nowdays. My 5 year old will start school next fall and it's highly unlikely she'll contract it between now and then. I live in TX and she'll go to public school so it's a required vaccine. I don't think it works though. I've heard of too many people who have had the vaccine coming down with it as adults which is much worse than a childhood case. What do I do? Do I compromise and get her the vaccine and hope she doesn't come down with it as an adult or do I hold out and hope she doesn't come down with it as an adult?

[baileyandmikey]

You should post this in health forum.... you would get better responses.

[velochic]

There's actually a Vaccinations forum here. There's even a Chicken Pox sub-forum. Try asking there.

[mountainsun]

Go with your gut and start researching. The vax forum here is AWESOME.

FWIW, measles used to be a "rite of passage" as well.

Good luck!

[Dar]

Moved from Frugality and Finances to Vaccinations.

dar

[PassionateWriter]

Originally Posted by nurse_chai

I need some advice. I firmly believe in most vaccinations. I think it is important to protect my children from preventable diseases. All except for chicken pox. ......Do I compromise and get her the vaccine and hope she doesn't come down with it as an adult or do I hold out and hope she doesn't come down with it as an adult?

just one question: what makes you firmly believe in most vaccines? and why do you firmly believe in some but not others?

and just for clarification, i beleive in protecting my children from preventable diseases also, but that doesnt limit my protection to the diseases that have a vaccine...b/c 1. the are not 100% effective and 2. there are many more diseases than there are vaccines.

but to answer your question...either way, your dd may get CP later in life (from your question...vax and hope she doesnt come down w/ it or not vax and hope she doesnt come down with it)...so the real Q is simply do you vax or not...the adult CP risk is a crap shoot i guess. why would you NOT vax? for me, and for this particular vaccine, its b/c i dont believe its effective, its injecting toxins into my children's body unnecessarily, and there are risk associated with the vaccine (as all vaccines).

Also, how is getting her the vax a "compromise"...w/ who?

[Ophelia]

Here is an excellent discussion of the CP vaccine:

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/...-sure-why-not/

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/...ork/varicella/

I encourage you to check out what the website has to say about some of the other vaccines too (all with scientific references).

Ways you can find to expose your child to CP:

-Your local tribe here on the discussion boards
-A local API group, if you have one
-Yahoo groups (there are groups just for finding CP in your area)

Yes, you are correct it is better for a child to get CP than an adult, adults generally have a harder time with it. I got it twice apparently, once as a toddler mildly and once at 14yo. I wouldnt' say the second one was a terribly bad case, but my Mom seemed to think it was. I had quite a bit of pox and they itched terribly.

[mamakah]

I don't want to sound confrontational here, so please don't take this the wrong way, but if you question the CP vaccine, doesn't that make you wonder about the others? For my mothers generation measles was like chicken pox. as well as mumps. They all got it, they all got to miss school, got over it, moved on.
If I were you, I would get in the "find your tribe" forum, and see if there are any CP 'parties' going on so you can expose your child. Otherwise, you should be able to get an exemption from the state.
I'm with you on the CP. When I saw that was on the vax list I was confused. I was always led to believe that vaxs were for horrid deadly diseases. I had CP, as did everyone else I know. No complications, hospitalizations, or deaths in all the people I have known in my life. This is what sparked my interest in looking at the other "vaccine preventable diseases". after researching, I realized that there are a few that are questionable.
Good luck on attaining natural immunity for your LO!

[Mom2Mason]

If you decide not to do it, it's very easy to get a philosophical exemption in TX, so your child doesn't HAVE to have it for school. You can just go to the TX Dept of Health website http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/immunize...htm#exclusions and request an exemption form online, have it notarized, and take it to the school. Easy peasy.