Advice, please, on chicken pox and me!

[laurelg]

I did not get chicken pox as a child. I don't think I was ever even exposed to it. I got the vaccine in my early teens - I don't know if I got a booster or not, I will have to track down my records. I am not sure about my current immunity; I don't recall if they titred for it when I had my OB panel or not. I will probably ask to be re-checked one of these days, regardless.

We are currently non-vaxing DD. DH and I agree on staying that way well into her childhood; we disagree on whether it might eventually be prudent to get her selective vax, like rubella. (I think he'll come around to my way of thinking, which is by the time we'd do it, we might as well wait until she is an adult and can make her own choices.)

Anyway, I want DD, who is now 7mos, to get CP as a child. I don't have a particular timeline in mind - I just know I don't want her to wind up in the position I am in.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do with regard to your own chicken pox immunity? It's my understanding even if a titre shows immunity, it may be weak... and since I KNOW I don't have natural immunity, I'm nervous. I am a healthy individual with a strong immune system, so I'm not sure if it would be a better choice for me to go ahead and get vaxed again or if I should risk getting adult CP.

To my knowledge, I never had a bad reaction to vax growing up. What would you be inclined to do?

(One way or another, I am not willing to risk the vax while BF - so it's not on my immediate radar.)

[Marnica]

I had CP as an adult....not fun...I was covered from head to toe. Lived in my tub of oatmeal bath for 1 week...rolled the TV in the bathroom .....I would do it all over again before getting that vaccine.

If I were in your choes, Id do nothing and take my chances. You most likely are immune anyway

[elmh23]

Dh never had CP. He was exposed to it. He has 4 siblings and all of them had it at some point.

We had his titres checked when dd was about 1.5 and we were just starting to look for it. His came back great. When she got them at 3, dh was a little nervous, but didn't get it.

[JMJ]

If you're healthy, chicken pox would be unpleasant but not life-threatening. I'm not sure I would try to get my child a disease that I wasn't willing to get myself.

[EVC]

Well, actually I am in your position (more or less: never had the vax at all). I guess I am just going to have to take my chances with it. I do plan on exposing dd if the right opportunity comes along, and I will just have to be prepared to get sick myself for a few weeks. Not a great option, but the only one that I feel OK about.

[laurelg]

Originally Posted by JMJ

I'm not sure I would try to get my child a disease that I wasn't willing to get myself.

Wow, ouch. Even if I don't die, everything I can find - even anecdotally - suggests that adult chicken pox is a more serious disease than childhood chicken pox. I'm not unwilling to get it myself - I'd just rather not get seriously ill and not be able to take care of DD because of it.

I'd like to keep her vax-free. That ship has already sailed for me, including the varicella vax. I am trying to determine what the best course of action would be to keep my daughter's mother healthy and capable of caretaking her. If that means offering myself up for a vax, I am willing to do it.

[PlayaMama]

i had chicken pox when i was 17 i think? i was older and in high school. it was pretty easy peasy. i was out of school for a few days and had a few pox, maybe 30 total? no scarring or anything.

i had tried to catch it several times, my mom always had me hug kids with chicken pox and i never caught it.

i would think that with the immunity offered by the vax, even if it wears off over time, you would still probably get a mild case rather than a full blown dangerous case. that's just my opinion though and i commend you for thinking about it.

also, if you haven't had any vax reactions then i wouldn't see the harm in bumping up your immunity with the vax. i probably wouldn't get it myself but it's your call for you.

quick question... do you know if you have been exposed to it previously?

[laurelg]

Also: To those of you who are saying you would not get it and would risk getting adult chicken pox, can you elaborate on why? Are there particular risks with the varicella vaccine, or are you just opposed to all vaccines for everybody in general?

I have no interest in debating it; I am information-seeking only. I oppose vax for my daughter because I don't think it's right for me to choose for her, and I have concerns about the effects of vax on her little body. As an adult, I believe it is a legitimate choice for me to make, and I am not as concerned about the effects of vax on me.

[laurelg]

Originally Posted by PlayaMama

quick question... do you know if you have been exposed to it previously?

As far as I know, I never was.

[kiwiva]

I never had chicken pox. I have had the vaccination twice in the last 12 years and my titers are still negative. I wouldn't be comfortable getting it now, but at the time I assumed that if a vax was available you should get it.

I did expose DD to chicken pox and she got it. I didn't and she is breastfeeding and we bed share (so we clearly had LOTS of opportunities for germ sharing!). I really expected I would get it.

So for me, I don't know if the vax actually did work but titers don't show it or what. I also went immune-boost crazy as soon as I exposed her. I guess if I were you I would check my titer, for whatever that is worth. If it shows immune, perhaps you can rely on that.

Another thing to consider is that even IF you did get chicken pox, you can take acyclovir at onset of spots to lessen the severity and length of illness. I had it on hand just in case (it really lessened my stress).

[harrietsmama]

It's definitely possible to get the virus with out the rash, so you may have and not known it. In the event you do get chicken pox, it's important to know that you should limit your contact with any one else with an active case because you can make each other sicker. I'm sorry I don't have a reference to offer off the top of my head, but when my mommy group was passing pox around, this is one thing we learned after a friend's doc appt. I guess some how it's like a re-infecting kind of process.
Obviously if you are still nursing you'll need to do that, but then perhaps daddy or some other familiar person should take care of the wee ones to protect your health and theirs. This sounds more doom-y than I mean it, mostly I think it is just uncomfortable unless you are unhealthy in general or are unable to control your itching and get an infection. But there are different levels of uncomfortable, right?

[PlayaMama]

i personally don't think the chicken pox vaccine is all that bad, except that i don't think chicken pox is all that bad either. so it's one of the vaxes my ds had that i regret.

i do think that in your case it might actually be advisable since you already had the vax, you know you didn't have a reaction, and you're pretty certain that you don't have any natural immunity to it. really it's that sort of situation i think we're creating by vaxing our kids for it. they face worse cases when they are older and their immunity wears off.

i do think the reason i had such a mild case when i was older was probably because i was exposed to it often as a child maybe i had a really mild case the first time and no one noticed

[oceanbaby]

Well, my first thought was that if your dd gets exposed then there's a good chance you will also get exposed - not through your dd, but through the person who has it, you know? You might also be at the playgroup or the classroom or the birthday party. Getting it from her is not your only risk of exposure. My 8yo just recovered from the pox, and we have no earthly idea where he got it. I can't think of many places he went without me in the last few weeks.

So no, I would not vaccinate just for that reason.

[EviesMom]

That's a tough one! I would probably check my titer levels just to know them. They're not super reliable, but it's something. I might also look into a globulin rather than the vax again. Could you use that only if you come down with pox instead of vaxing ahead of time?

I know the vax strain is a different strain than what circulates as a wild strain. It was chosen for the vax partly bc it's a weak strain and a live vax, if I recall correctly. I think it ties into unvaxed people not tending to catch the shedding virus from the recently vaxed, and I suspect the vax strain is worse at preventing the wild strain than vice versa.I have no proof or evidence whatsoever on that though.

And for anyone, who like a PP, doesn't know this... chicken pox is a common childhood disease, mild for children and dangerous for adults, as are many illnesses. The parallel is not "if you wouldn't want it as an adult, don't let your kid get it as a kid." I had CP as a child. DD had CP as a child. I might have gotten the vax if I were an adult with no CP exposure. I might also have gotten the vax for DD if she were a teen with no CP exposure. That's the parallel construction that fits here, not "no adult CP=no child CP"

[laurelg]

Originally Posted by oceanbaby

So no, I would not vaccinate just for that reason.

I think you might be talking about vaxing DD, to protect myself from exposure - which is definitely not an option. I'm asking about re-vaxing myself, since I've been vaxed in the past and, as far as I know, do not have any natural immunity.

Just wanted to clarify what I meant... am I correct in how I read what you wrote?

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by laurelg

Also: To those of you who are saying you would not get it and would risk getting adult chicken pox, can you elaborate on why? Are there particular risks with the varicella vaccine, or are you just opposed to all vaccines for everybody in general?

I have no interest in debating it; I am information-seeking only. I oppose vax for my daughter because I don't think it's right for me to choose for her, and I have concerns about the effects of vax on her little body. As an adult, I believe it is a legitimate choice for me to make, and I am not as concerned about the effects of vax on me.

My issue is that I believe vaccines weaken/skew the immune system. So why would I inject myself with something that would do that?? I am less concerned with visible immediate reactions than I am about the long term, unseen effects that occur. I also don't hink just because someone is an adult, that means no harm is done by vaccines. This is my feeling about all vaccines I do object to the ingredients of the chicken pox vaccine specifically however. Embryonic lung cells, embryonic guinea pig cells and WI-38 (derived from aborted fetal cell line). I do not think directly injecting animal DNA into our bloodstreams can be done without consequence. The bottom line is that scientists know very little about how this practice effects the body. They admitted as much back in the late 90's during their meetings about the polio vaccine.

[Pirogi]

In your shoes I would probably not get the vax. My reasoning is this: at this point in your life, you are a healthy adult who has never shown symptoms of being exposed to the wild virus. You can get the vax now and greatly decrease your chances of getting CP, but this will only continue to transfer the risk to your future self. You will continue to need to get boosters to limit your risk of contracting the disease, and an older person is less likely to tolerate the CP virus or a vaccine well (assuming you subscribe to the notion that vaccines negatively impact your immune system). Granted, as an older person, you may not be around children as much as now, thereby limiting the chances of being around CP but not eliminating it entirely. Still, you may have grandchildren, or else pick it up somewhere else. Anyway, that is what I would do and why.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by laurelg

Wow, ouch. Even if I don't die, everything I can find - even anecdotally - suggests that adult chicken pox is a more serious disease than childhood chicken pox. I'm not unwilling to get it myself - I'd just rather not get seriously ill and not be able to take care of DD because of it.

The virus is more likely to be more serious in an adult, but it is not inevitable. Anecdotally, the adult cases I know have mostly been "normal;" not serious.

My MIL has never had a clinical case, but had three children with chicken pox.

[laurelg]

Thank you all very much for your info and opinions. I was flipping through my baby book last night and noticed my mom had written in an exposure to CP when I was 3, after all! It's very vague, though, and she mentioned "eruption 11/13" or something like that, so I have no idea if that is referencing pox on *me* or on another kid or what. I haven't been able to get her on the phone yet to see if she remembers anything.

I am sure I wasn't titred before I got the vax, so she must have just presumed since I didn't have a full-blown case of pox I had never developed an immunity. And, I'm sure the doctor didn't suggest it, because then they couldn't put me down as a +1 on their stupid vax accomplishment list so they could win a trophy or something. (No, really, our doctors office has trophies for "achieving" a certain vax rate.) :

Anyway, I was asking about this because I was thinking about getting titred at my next annual, but realized it would be irrelevant because I definitely will not get a vax while BF. I will hold off until at least after we wean to get titred and make a decision about vax.

Thanks again.