Chicken Pox @ almost 6 months....

[rlandnl]

one of ds good friends has a sibling with cp right now... neither ds (almost 8) nor dd (almost 6m) have had it... would u expose a baby this young or wait for a while and hope it comes around again...

[tzs]

i waited when i had the chance at like 9 months. it wasn't based on any real advice though and i didn't have an older kid to think about either. i just figured we had time.

[Asiago]

The immune system is still very immature at 6 months of age. Maternal antibodies may block a reponse (as intended), but if not the infant's own immune system is not as competent as an older child's. The immune system develops greatly the first six years of life. Even a two year old's immune system is leaps and bounds ahead of a six month old's in it's ability to mount a successful defense.

[nextcommercial]

I wouldn't.  I did it accidentally to a daycare baby, and everybody else had a nice case of CP, for her it was a living nightmare, with secondary infections.   She didn't need to be hospitalized, but it's not anything I would go through again.  

She's 15 years old now, and has some serious scarring still.  Not typical chicken pox scars, really deep dark scars.  

[rlandnl]

Thanks guys! that was my first instinct too (to wait till she was older) but I wanted to be sure. I just wish that DS had had it a long time ago... it's just very rare around here it seems. This is the first case I have heard of as long as we have lived here (5 years)

[LittleBirdy]

I read the CDC pink book cover to cover when decided whether or not to vax DS, and if I recall correctly CP is worst for infants and adults?  So I personally wouldn't.