Have any of you let your kids have the chicken pox jab?

[Maza]

I'm considering arranging this for my almost three year old DD and wondered if any of you had any experience of it. She's so prone to tonsillitis and ear infections and seems to be ill every month with something or another so if I can possibly prevent her from getting one more illness then I will. I think it's routine in the States. Any thoughts? x

[Helen79]

I wouldn't let my children have the chicken pox vaccine as it's a unnecessary vaccination.
My dd (6) is prone to tonsillitis and ds (3) to chest infections, they've both been in contact with chicken pox loads of times but have never caught it.

[Tealady]

I don't know too much about it so can't say. However I would only consider it If my child had a condition that was likely to have complications if they caught Chickenpox.

Both mine have had Chickenpox and whilst they felt ill for a day they were otherwise fine. Your DD still might get side affects from the jab so you might only be saving them from the spots.

But only you know your daughter and what to do for the best.

[Donkey]

for me this is a tough one...........

my 4 year old dd has not had it, neither has my 3 year old mindee

or the 2 year old mindee who is currently having chemo....

I know I could not live with myself if my dd exposed mindee to chicken pox and she became gravely ill!!!!!!!!!!!

[cs01]

My daughter (now 5) had the vaccination a few months ago with my GP (1 injection). She was born in America and it is part of their routine vaccination programme to offer all children this vaccine (x 2 vaccines). The reason I declined at the time was because we were due to move back to the UK, so she would not have been able to have the 2nd vaccine. Plus I was wary that it was not a vaccine that was routinely given in the UK so wasn't sure about it.

The reason I decided to have her vacinnated when she was 5, was after one of my ex mindees mum said to me, if there is anything you can do to prevent her having chicken pox then do it. My mindee had spots everywhere, inside his eyelids, mouth, bottom etc. :( Now that my daughter is in yr 1, I was also concerned about her missing too much school if she caught it and also the risk of side effects being more serious because she was older. I have heard that the older you are the worse the symptoms can be.

I never make rash decisions about my children's health and I had my concerns about the vaccine but actually I'm really glad she had it done. She had no side effects and hopefully she won't now catch chicken pox, but if she does, it won't be so bad.

[caz3007]

I wasnt aware that there was a vaccination.

All three of mine have had chicken pox and whilst my DD was the worst, she had them everywhere and I mean everywhere, even inside her, but after a few days she was fine. I would consider it carefully if I had a small child now, especially as my other children werent too bad and would be concerned about the unknown long term side affects of the vaccinations.

Having said that, my older two were in the first wave of children to have one of the meningitis jabs some 17 years ago

[Maza]

Thanks guys. Still haven't decided what to do. Donkey - sending your mindee and his family luck and strength at what must be such a challenging time for them. x

[Dragonfly]

I have a little mindee who is half turkish, he had the chickpox vaccination when younger in Turkey. this year he got chickenpox! normal dose.

[Narnia34]

Immunisations don't prevent illnesses, they just tend to stop the worst of the symptoms.


I wouldn't give my child the chickenpox jab, I'm not a huge fan of unnecessary immunisations.