Some of you may have read the prequel posts to this, but for those who haven’t a quick summary … I decided that rather than my son experience chicken pox and my household experience him with chicken pox I would have H vaccinated against it. First clinic couldn’t do it due to wierd coincidence that the private doctor happened to also work at our GP Practice and there are rules about that, second, the Childrens Immunisation clinic www.childrensimmunisation.com in Manchester were brilliant and cheaper than the first!
The vaccination against Chicken Pox is routinely done along with the MMR, the MMRV vaccine, in the USA and Canada. It is also done in the UK on the NHS if you haven’t contracted Chicken Pox by the age 12. Being brutally honest my reasons are mostly very practical reasons behind the decision – at the end of the day I don’t feel there is any benefit to my son to experience the illness and the financial cost of avoiding this to give him the same immunity level as having the illness is just £95 so to me it was a no brainer. The cost of the jab is less than the nursery fees I would still have to pay even though he wouldn’t be able to attend nursery with the pox for around a week. Chicken Pox can be a serious illness for some, I know two children who have been hospitalised with the pox, but generally for most just uncomfortable but it does tend to leave scars and for parents a series of sleepness nights and an upset child.
So anyway we had the jab – in, out and done in 2 minutes – my two year old cried for less than 10 seconds and was immediately distracted and appeased with a packet of chocolate buttons. Following the jab two weeks ago my son has experienced no fever or high temperatures, no blisters or issues around the injection site (which we did with the MMR), there have been no reactions at all and he has no scars and we’ve had no sleepless nights. Compare that to the tale of a parent with a child with Chicken Pox – all camomile lotion, scratching, tears, scars and Disney channel in the middle of the night and I feel it was money well spent!
So, would I do it again? Absolutely, categorically, without question, YES!
