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Wondering why you don't just get him the vaccine instead?
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I am in Austin and was wondering if anyone has a kid who is coming down with or has chickenpox? My ped told me its going around right now. I would like to get it out the way for my 8 yr old. If your kid is sick and you don't mind having some company please let me know.
Thanks,
Liz
First off vaccines are not the answer to common childhood illnesses. In 30 yrs will the people vaccinated get shingles or full blown chicken pox? We don't know. Second I had chicken pox as a child, and have been around it multiple times through out my life, and haven't had problems. I have antibodies, so my unborn child has antibodies. My OBGYN said it is fine for my child to be ill while I am pregnant, she also suggested I try and get it out of the way soon, before I have a newborn which could become sick as well. For the past 100 years mothers have had pox parties with no issues. I refuse to buy into the fear based hype that we need shots and drugs to live our lives safely. I mean really it is a simple childhood illness. Please save the vaccine advice for someone else. If your child comes down with chicken pox and you wouldn't mind company, let me know.
Thanks
Wondering why you don't just get him the vaccine instead?
I pulled this off babycenter.com:
Is it safe to be around a child with the chicken pox when I'm pregnant?
Expert Answers
Deborah Ehrenthal, assistant residency program director of obstetrics and gynecology, Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, DE
Not if you've never had the chicken pox. If you get the chicken pox during pregnancy, you tend to get sicker and are at higher risk of developing pulmonary complications. If you get chicken pox in the first trimester there is also a small risk of birth defects. So if you've been exposed to someone with the chicken pox and know you've never had it, you should consider getting varicella immune globulin within a few days to try to prevent the infection from developing. If you actually come down with the chicken pox, you may be given an antiviral drug such as acyclovir to try to decrease the severity of the infection.
http://www.babycenter.com/400_is-it-safe-to-be-around-a-c...
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In regard to your 8yr old:
Isn't my child better off getting chicken pox and having permanent natural immunity than risking side effects and getting only partial immunity from the vaccine?
Expert Answers
Susan Coffin, pediatrician
Probably not. A few doctors may still advise you to wait and see whether your child gets chicken pox by age 10 before having her vaccinated, but there's not much logic behind this advice any longer.
The idea was that the vaccine was still pretty new (it came out in 1995) and we didn't know much about its effectiveness or side effects, whereas chicken pox itself was generally thought to be a mild disease that most kids got through with only a little itching. But a decade after its development, we know a lot more about the vaccine and its effectiveness. Today, most children receive the chicken pox vaccine with good result, and the disease itself is much less common.
It is also important to point out that chicken pox is not always a mild illness. Of the 3 to 4 million U.S. children who come down with it every year, one in 1,000 will develop complications such as severe pneumonia or a brain infection called encephalitis, and about 50 will die.
Children with chicken pox are also more susceptible to "flesh-eating" streptococcus infections, although those infections are quite rare. For these reasons, more and more states are requiring this vaccine as a prerequisite for admission to schools and daycare facilities, based on the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It's true that the vaccine won't guarantee that your child will never get chicken pox — about 15 percent of those vaccinated will still get a very mild case, with no fever and fewer than ten blisters. And experts can't be sure that the immunity it offers is permanent. But we do know that the chicken pox vaccine has been used in Japan for about 25 years with no evidence of fading immunity.
We also know that shingles (a painful and disfiguring rash caused by the same virus) is less common and less severe in people who have been vaccinated than in those who actually had chicken pox as children.
As with all vaccines, a certain number of children will experience mild side effects. Up to 20 percent of children will have pain where they received the shot, about 10 percent will have a low fever, and about 4 percent will have a mild rash, which is basically a mild version of the disease itself. A few cases of severe reactions have been reported with the chicken pox vaccine, including pneumonia, and seizures leading to coma and even death. But these reactions are so rare that experts are not sure they are connected to the vaccine.
If your child does get a mild case of chicken pox from the vaccine, there's a very slight possibility that she'll infect other family members. If you have an elderly family member or immune-compromised person living in your household, call your doctor to learn how to protect them from catching the vaccine strain of chicken pox.
http://www.babycenter.com/400_isnt-my-child-better-off-ge...
check with your obstetrician first!!!!!
That is very dangerous while you are prego.
best wishes
I'd be very careful in exposing yourself. If you are pregnant you really don't want to be exposed to them. Did you 8 year old not get the chicken pox vaccine?
