Whether or not their children have been vaccinated really shouldn’t be up for discussion. If they chose not to vaccinate it was most likely a decision made after lots of research and thought, not just, “Oh I don’t want my baby to cry.” My husband and I have chose not to vaccinate our children, and it was definitely after many hours of research, talking about it together, and then with our pediatrician. This does not make us, or anyone else who choses not to vaccinate, irresponsible parents or a bad example.

The first time the virus is contracted it’s chickenpox the second time it’s shingles, which is worse.

I know you won’t print my contribution here, but chicken pox has very serious complications. Which is why there is a vaccine for it. I know a child who died from them. Pediatricians on the whole, do love children, and want to make the world a healthy one for all.

Carol S. – I totally agree with you. I did not want to vaccinate my son against a disease with so few complications, but did so at the school systems behest. I am concerned with the booster’s he’ll need later in life b/c it is so much more serious as an adult.

PS – Your implication that celebrities not having their child vaccinated sets a bad example is a little unfair. MANY of us believe in delaying, if not exempting, some or all of the vaccines suggested by medical professionals. In addition, the personal choices in the lives of celebrities should not be examples of behavior other adults should follow – good or bad. We should all do our own research and not judge other people’s decisions unless they’re proven dangerous.

Might as well jump on the bandwagon and share my chickenpox story!

My brother was the lucky one—he contracted chickenpox at the age of 3. My sister didn’t get it and I got only one spot. Our parents thought that was the end of it. Fast-forward six years and my sister caught it at the age of 19. She was not happy at all. Another 6–7 years passed and it was my turn. I was 16 and had just finished my Junior year of high school. What a way to start my summer vacation. I had gone to Open Houses for friends that had graduated and I ended up calling them to see if anyone in their families had it or had not had it. I’m still not sure how I caught it.

All I could think about in those miserable two weeks was trying not to scratch myself and resisting the urge to fill my bathtub with calamine lotion and just soak in it.

The moral of the story: having chickenpox in the teen years sucks!

My mom was the same way, taking us to houses where the kids had the pox, only none of us were ever lucky enough to catch them. I ended up with the chicken pox when I was 17, when my 13 year old sister ended up with them. She had like 5 on her back, I was covered head to toe. I was miserable from the itching, but fine. The thing I hated most was it was the same week the shuttle blew up and we didn’t have cable. So that’s all there was to watch.

I’m not one of those parents who are against immunizations, my kids have all of them and they both get flu shots, but I did not have my 2 kids vaccinated for chicken pox until it was made mandatory by the school system. My kids are healthy kids, their immune systems aren’t compromised by anything, and I would rather them have had the chicken pox and gotten over them and built their immunity naturally rather than giving them a shot that they don’t know if down the line it will still help them.

I personally hope they set a good example by simply doing what’s best for each individual child. Some kids do great with vaccines, some don’t.

I had the chicken pox three full times.. it was brutal. I kept having doctors tell me I couldn’t get them again. ugh. Now I just hope I never get them again as an adult.

I was a kid in one of those families where one got it and all the relatives brought their kids round to infect them as well. It was actually hilarious, like Christmas-time with everyone together but spotty and itchy. Because we were all there together it wasn’t a miserable experience. We had calamine lotion fights in the backyard and played dot-to-dot on each other with textas (markers?). We were too busy laughing and playing to notice how itchy we were.

A friend of mine had it when we were in highschool (16) and she was really sick. I’m glad it happened when I was little.

PS: We have the vaccine available in the US, but I don’t know if it’s approved in Britain or not. Different countries have different medications and vaccines approved, and different recommendations for things.

It’s much better to get the chicken pox between the ages of 2-6 years old. I purposely exposed my child when she was 2.5yo and she only ended up with about 10 spots (as she was still breastfeeding). Her second outbreak came in Grade 1 and it was bad enough to last her a lifetime.

A friend of mine’s son had the vaccine, and chicken pox two times on top of that! Most adults I know do not keep up with the vaccine schedules so I can see a huge outbreak of chicken pox 20 years down the road. It’s a lot more serious when you contract it as an adult compared to a kid.