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Chicken Pox Parties?

Chicken Pox Parties? (Yay or Nay)

  • I like the idea of them

  • I do not like the idea of them

  • I've never heard about this and I'm curious

  • I've never heard about this and I'm not curious


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heart of peace

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What are your thoughts on "chicken pox parties?"

These are group get togethers where parents deliberately expose their children to the chicken pox virus so as to create a natural, life long immunity to chicken pox without having to adminster yet another vaccine, which does not offer life long immunity the way the actual virus does.
 

futuredoc

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i have never heard of them but kids will get them anyway right? I think I have seen parents have all their children together when one gets them so that they dont have to have them at different times...
Now that the vaccine is becoming the norm, fewer children will be exposed naturally and so some moms go out of their way to make sure their kids get exposed in the early years.
 
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£amb

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To have a party seems to be stretching it alittle too far. My son had it before Christmas, and he was too sick, itchy and looked "gross" (as he called himself) to want anyone around him. My youngest son did not get it. I even had him hug on his brother just so they would have it at the same time and be done with it, but it didn't work out.

I work with a lady who wants her younger children exposed so anytime she hears about someone having it, she trys to get them in contact with each other.
 
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TexasSky

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I understand that getting chicken pox young, verses when you are an adult, is better, but I just cannot imagine ever, ever, ever doing anything that would intentionally cause my child to become ill, especially when it can become a serious illness.
 
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Diane_Windsor

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I understand that getting chicken pox young, verses when you are an adult, is better, but I just cannot imagine ever, ever, ever doing anything that would intentionally cause my child to become ill, especially when it can become a serious illness.

Same here.
 
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GolfingMom

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I understand that getting chicken pox young, verses when you are an adult, is better, but I just cannot imagine ever, ever, ever doing anything that would intentionally cause my child to become ill, especially when it can become a serious illness.


:thumbsup: I agree.

I had the chicken pox at 9 and had a major reaction to them. It took a few years of follow up visits for the doctors to clear me of my problems. I wouldn't want to put my child through that.:sigh:
 
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quitespirit

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What are your thoughts on "chicken pox parties?"

These are group get togethers where parents deliberately expose their children to the chicken pox virus so as to create a natural, life long immunity to chicken pox without having to adminster yet another vaccine, which does not offer life long immunity the way the actual virus does.

I think my view of parents doing that would depend on their reason. Sometimes chicken pox can be serious and very painful and 4,000-9,000m ppl a yr are hospitalized from it. 100 a year die. I think I would rather do the vaccine and any needed booster shots. In 1997, three young adults died from complications of chickenpox. All three were infected by unvaccinated pre-schoolers. http://www.dhpe.org/infect/Chicken.html 10-20% of ppl who contract chicken pox will develop shingles later in life.

I know there are other reasons ppl don't like to vaccinate, and I won't weigh in on those.

My choices are: vaccine to prevent chicken pox or expose to cause. The vaccine is 80-90% effective against mild cases it is 95% effective against severe chicken pox. So why go with 0% and expose him? http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/chicken_pox.html
 
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mina

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Not a parent, but i have heard of this. I had chicken pox at 21 and it was very horrible. It HURT so bad along with the itching. So i definitely think it's worse as an adult. I don't know what i think about this or if i would do it if i had a child. I know i was exposed to chicken pox several times as a child but i never got it then. It's contagious, but i don't think being exposed as a kid will automatically guarentee that a child will get the disease.
 
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ShannonMcCatholic

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In 1997, three young adults died from complications of chickenpox. All three were infected by unvaccinated pre-schoolers. http://www.dhpe.org/infect/Chicken.html
FWIW- most states do not require the vaccine until kindergarten...and I would question whether or not these young adults had been vaccinated. If they had- it seems to me that the issue is with the vaccine failing to confer lifetime immunity more than pre schoolers not being vaccinated for something for which they are not yet required to be vaccinated.
 
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quitespirit

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FWIW- most states do not require the vaccine until kindergarten...and I would question whether or not these young adults had been vaccinated. If they had- it seems to me that the issue is with the vaccine failing to confer lifetime immunity more than pre schoolers not being vaccinated for something for which they are not yet required to be vaccinated.
That's a valid point. My thoughts were leading toward the idea that by preventing kids from contracting chicken pox it also helps protect adults who have never been infected, when it is much more dangerous.

If we got to a point where chicken pox was a required vaccine maybe it would become rare like the others. It's currently 80-90% effective in apopulation that is regularly exposed to chicken pox. I'd imagine it would happen a lot less if it was less common to hacve infected people.
 
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CarrieAg93

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No way!! I know it's supposed be a fairly "safe" (for lack of a better word) illness to get, but what if something went terribly wrong and my child ended up with one of those rare, deadly cases of it. To do that on purpose is insane.
 
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