Chicken Pox Parties: Considerations?

[Turquesa]

Warning: If you are opposed to chicken pox parties, please save your keystrokes; this is not the thread for you.  I’m just seeking answers from like-minded people, please.

Mods, I’m not sure where to post, so I’ll leave the forum placement up to you.

This issue has been on my mind a lot lately.  In the off-chance that I'm ever in the position to host or attend a chicken pox party….

1. I see posts in the FYT section about people looking for CP who are willing to drive great distances to expose their children.  Is there any obligation to host complete strangers in your house?  On the one hand, I’d be grateful if somebody extended that favor to me.  But I can also see where it would be overstimulating to sick kids (or even ones with CP who felt fine) to have a bunch of other strange kids come over.  It’s also a huge burden for a hostess.  Do you draw a line as to how many people you invite?  Maybe start with your friends, see how it goes, and open it up to everyone else?  Maybe I’m wrong, but since I romp in crunchy circles, I see this as turning into an immensely popular event.

1. That’s a good bridge into my next question: Does it have to be an actual party?  Could people just set up appointments to share lollipops?

1. Short of charging admission, what should a host ask guests to contribute?  Potluck dishes?  Lollipops?  Clean-up help?  My concern would be inviting over people who pretty much use you for the CP exposure and but don’t contribute anything to the effort. 

1. What is the “success rate” of these events?  I hear frequent anecdotes about how people have exposed their children without them ever catching CP. 

1. What disclaimers should people hear?  Minimum/maximum age?  No pregnant women?  Any other stipulations or CYA things to do?

   6. Have you ever been to or hosted one?  What was it like?

TIA for the answers.

[SuburbanHippie]

I've been to two pox parties (and didn't catch it either time for either child *sigh*).  I do know that some of the kids ended up with CP from these parties as the second party was an extension of the strain from the first party (if that makes sense).  Each hostess had a limit on the amount of people per day and per time slot to keep things under control.  They asked us to bring anything that we wanted to share like lollipops, juice boxes (for the straw aspect), etc.  Everyone also brought along a gift for the hostess or child.  I brought organic strawberries for everyone to snack on.  Others brought toys/books/cupcakes for the sick child as a thank you. 

For the first party, we came over while another family was already over with the older sick child who had multiple pox already and was feeling pretty bad at that point.  Her little sister was the really contagious one and we exchanged lollipops and juice boxes with her for awhile.  Then we went in with two small groups (2 moms and 2 kids plus me and my youngest 2 kids) to the older daughter's room and hung out with the door closed.  She blew raspberries in the kids faces to expose them.  The hostess also let us switch shirts with the younger daughter (DS looked hilarious in her ruffled shirt LOL) and we played with blankets and towels that the kids has used over the past few days. 

For the second party, we basically hung out and let the kids play together.  Her DS didn't have many pox yet and he was still in good spirits.  We did the swab swap where she would swab her DS's nose and then I would use it to swab my kids' noses.  We cuddled with his blankets and shared drinks I believe. 

I attribute us not catching it to my kids' strong immune systems.  I was still nursing my DS and we had really good vitamin D levels (in the 50-60s).  I know some exposure is better than nothing though so we did it anyway.  We've had a dry spell on our cp yahoo group since then. 

Personally, I would not put any stipulations on it.  It's up to the parents whether or not they want to exposure themselves and their children.  I considered going to pox party in my second trimester as I've already had cp myself and still have strong immunity against it.  I wanted to expose my kids before the baby comes.  Unfortunately, the kid never caught the pox from the friend so it was a moot point.