Chicken pox 'party'

LavenderLily_2

My son is 2 years old and I have a friend whose daughter is the same age. We usually meet up on Fridays but my friend rang me last night to say that her daughter has been in contact with another child who now has chickenpox. She wanted to know if I still wanted to meet up.
I'm not sure what to do. I know that the younger you are when you get chickenpox the milder it usually is so I'm inclined to say yes, bring her over. At least I will know to look out for symptoms then and my son will hopefully get over it quite quickly. However, I feel bad knowingly exposing him to an unpleasant disease.
What do you guys think? Is the chickenpox party a good thing or a bad thing? What would you do in my position?

divadee

i did it with little miss divadee when she was 3.

i wanted it out the way before she started school.

She did get it very badly though, so dont listain to people who say the younger they are the milder it is!!

Rachie_B

on the whole it would appear that yes,the "younger the better"

all the littlies i know who have had it, inc my sons @ age 3 and 4 ,only had the spots but were fine in themselves

i had it @ age 21 OMG :eek: it was awful,was off work for 4 weeks and felt like !!!!!! !!

i say go for it,stock up on calpol ,and bicarb for the bath to ease any itchiness

HTH

Sallys_Savings

It sounds pretty awful but I would go for it too...and I did with my children.


I know of someone who died through complications of chicken pox when they were expecting their baby...so I'd definitely say get it over and done with.

cobbingstones

Hi

My two decided to have chickenpox just has we arrived in Sweden! My daughter(3) was bad for a few days then ok, however my son (15 months) was very bad a little longer. Although its horrible seeing them ill, I'm pleased its over and done with now rather than when their older.

Good luck!

MM

wendym

I know it can't always be avoided, but two is little, and if you can put it off until he has better use of language, it will be easier for both of you.

And my 4 year old granddaughter has been exposed to it countless times (including her little sister getting it) but has never succumbed, so I guess has some sort of natural immunity.

If you decide to expose him and he gets it, remember he could trigger shingles in someone else, before he shows spots. It has a particularly long incubation period.

fesdufun

If it were me I would still meet up. I wouldn't go out of my way to try and expose my children to chickenpox but I wouldn't change my plans either to try and avoid it. Both my children had chickenpox around 2 years old and were very mildly affected. Quite a few spots but not particularly ill with it and they didn't scratch at all. Your son has probably been exposed to the virus before but just not caught it yet. I would just get on with life as normal and not worry not much about the chickenpox. Hopefully he will get it whilst he is still relatively young and will not be too poorly with it.

rio

I would meet up too, I had chicken pox as an adult and was very, very ill. I'm so glad my LO has had it - he caught it off me!

floyd

Do it, my brother in law had chickenpox as an adult and was very very ill and it took months to get over it. It is not a nice thing to have at any time but as an adult it can be very painful as well as itchy

Outnumberedbysmallpeople

I just wanted to add in here that even if your kids do get it it's not necessarily "out of the way" as my DH and all his siblings have had chicken pox at least twice each (and they've had it badly each time too- alot of people assume it must have been a really mild dose the first time to get it a second but not so) My eldest had it at age 2- she was fine with it- in fact she caught it from DH and bounced back alot quicker than he did!!!! (i'm waiting to see if she gets it again in later life)however my middle 2 have been exposed to it several times and neither of them have had it- both my boys have had german measles though (littlest is only 7 months and already had it poor little so and so)

However it's rare for people to get it twice and it would be "out of the way" at a time when you can deal easily (otherwise chances are it'll be a few days before you're due to go on holiday or to a wedding he gets it!)

Alikay

When my friend's children had chicken pox I was perfectly OK with them continuing to come round and play on a daily basis, so ours would contract it while they were little, rather than in the middle of GCSE's etc.

DS1 caught it moderately, was v spotty and poorly for 2-3 days, then got better. DD didn't catch it at all, despite sharing baths & cuddles with her brothers. And DS2 was very very poorly. He got a secondary chest infection (not that unusual in chicken pox I was told) and needed 2 types of antibiotic to clear it up, and a couple of the spots became infected too. He was prone to various chesty colds etc for a year or more, and I definately think it had a bad effect on his health for some time - he was 2.

In hindsight I should have treated my friends kids the same as if they'd got a bad cold i.e. not particularly encouraged visits whilst poorly, but not behaved like they'd got Bubonic Plague either. You can never tell whether your child will catch it, and if so, how badly and what any other effects could be.