What to Do if You Get Invited to a Chickenpox Party

My kid got chicken pox when he was 2.5 years old ( not from a party and not intentionally ) within next year he developed type 1 diabetes and diabetes started right after fifth disease. I often wonder as type 1 developes for awhile before it gets to the point pancreas is not producing insulin enough, our doctor said that type 1 can develope even a year before it gets diagnosed, maybe without these kids diseases my kid would be diabetes free.
Doctor said that fifth disease was the final nail and chicken pox also may been one culprit.

Next week kid is going to get his flu shot.. he needs that.

jhn7537
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

The reason why you want to purposely get your child sick with the chicken pox virus is because it gets extremely lethal if you get it for the first time later in life (as an adult) so the sooner you can get it out of your way, the better... I know of parents who will have their newborn interact with peanut butter and dirt or shell fish... The quicker it gets done, the better in most cases.

Agreed....my 1st two kids were exposed as children via their baby cousin,got it, and it was over with. my son still got shingles BADLY at the age of 13. My second 2 children, one got the vaccination, & indeed ended up WITH THE CHICKENPOX VIA VACCINATION., I thought it was just a rash, and sent him to school with a very pregnant teacher......there's a big age gap between the two sets, 13 years........IMO, the vacc. Does not help.....

snowspirit
I always thought it was most contagious just before the spots come on.

It is contagious while there is a fever. This can be both before, and after, the spots. Anytime, with almost any illness, it is contagious during the fever. With shingles, and other herpes infections, the cells shed in the ruptured blisters are also capable of infecting upon direct contact. Most medical facilities, such as the one I work in, prohibit employees working during an active herpes outbreak. Only once the blisters scab and begin to heal are you allowed to return, but while they are open and seeping, no way.

Only cold sores are not followed, and protections from that follow standard contact precautions, handwashing, gloves, mask.

If a patient has an active shingles infection, they are placed in isolation rooms with closed ventillation, placed on contact precautions, and pregnant women are prohibited from caring for that patient.

reply to post by Grimpachi

I know there are a lot of antivax people on this site but I just can’t imagine anyone purposely infecting their kid like they are. I am so glad my parents were not loons who purposely got me sick as a child.

Loons? LOONS? You steaming nutter. We did not have inoculations for chickenpox and other childhood diseases. Every child went to chickenpox parties, measles parties and mumps parties (neither of them ever caught mumps) because as pointed out in the next post it was better to get this as a child than as an adult in ALL cases as in adulthood it can be fatal.

How dare you call me and my generation loons. We did what was best for our children, and even this day I would agree with this course of action as the inoculations are NOT full protection against catching the diseases in adulthood.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Guess I'll weigh in since I lived during the time when there was few vaccines. Let me start off by saying that I feel it is up to each parent to research for themselves what is best for they're children.Either way you take a chance with your kids health.Nothing is full proof nor totally safe.

Very few vaccines existed as I was growing up,they had just come out with the polio vaccine thank goodness,and they had them for tetanus .Therefore I had to suffer through the usual childhood stuff.I've had mumps and both types of Measles,plus chicken pox.

Here are a few things to think of that I learned from handling animals.If they are vaccinated they may or may not get a disease.But they will not have a permanent immunity to that disease.If you have something happen that your dog was out in the woods and came across what might be a rabid animal.The vet will want to vaccinate them again to be on the safe side.Why? Because the vaccines don't always take.When they give you a flu shot,they will tell you that it may not prevent you from getting the flu,but you won't have such a bad case of it for the same reason.Also and here is food for thought,if your animal comes in contact with a rabid animal (perhaps dead) and you are not aware it has happened your animal being vaccinated could be a carrier for rabies and transfer it to you.I asked a vet about this and they said they get the rabies vaccine regularly due to not knowing where peoples animals have been.

When I was dealing with my mom's cats I found that anything they were exposed to and came down with,they would have a permanent immunity too,but if vaccinated then you had to keep up on the vaccines.Its the same with people.You have a choice with this,either get the disease and suffer for now,then have a permanent immunity to it,or take the vaccines for the rest of your days. Then take a chance of the vaccine not working or there being side effects from it.

This doesn't mean that vaccines don't work, in MOST cases they do.Its when they don't that you hear about it.I at sometime in my life,probably when I was around 3 was given the tetanus vaccine that was 'live'.The results are now that I can no longer have a tetanus shot at all.My arm swells up twice its normal size and turns black,least the last time I got one it did (1980).I've been told by my doctor to NOT get another one.Each time the reaction is worse for me.But for others getting the shot is by far better than ending up in the hospital with your muscles locking up till you can't breathe and die.

I think careful consideration needs to be taken when it comes to vaccinating kids, your immune system goes by the rules of use it or lose it.A healthy immune system must be able to stand up to daily assaults by all types of germs and virus' and keep on fighting. Its what its there for.History records what happened to the natives when exposed for the first time to childhood diseases brought by whites.

There are things that our elders knew about these diseases and how to fight them that has been lost to us.That is where MOST of the complications from these diseases come from. When I got chicken pox it was summer time and I had broke out with the rash,my mother told me ( I didn't remember the why,just how miserable I was) that the rash had 'gone back in'. In other words the rash went away.She called her mother and her mother told her that she had to get the rash to come back out or I would be in danger.That is when you can end up with complications from the disease.She told my mother to bundle me up and let me sweat it out. IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER.Lol. All I can remember is sitting on the couch in my winter suit crying.But it worked.The rash came back out and from there on it was a matter of letting it run its course.In this day and age doctors do everything in they're power to fight fevers,that is not always the best idea,your body uses that fever to fight off invaders.If you stop the fever you hamper the bodies ability to fight.

Now for what its worth,I'm neither against or for vaccines.I tend to straddle the fence.I think they have saved alot of lives. I also think that there are things being put in them that make them unsafe.Therefore if pressed to answer I would have to say, that I think it should be a careful decision made with your childs safety in mind,and I would definitely vaccinate for small pox, polio etc. Anything that has the ability to damage your child for the rest of they're days.But for childhood diseases that can be managed with careful treatment, I would have to say I would let they're immune system do its job.As far as shingles goes,if you are having that much pain with them,a doctor can help you.I have them myself every couple of years.In my days as a child I had no choice on it. So now I deal with shingles out breaks once a in while.

All this being said, we need to demand SAFE vaccines for kids.Cut all the extra chemicals out.Weigh if you want your child to have a permanent immunity to something or vaccinate for life.If you child ends up with something yes a fever is the bodies way of defending itself,but be very careful how long that child runs that fever.THAT is the danger of fevers, run long enough they can and will cause permanent damage or death.It takes common sense to know when to let a fever run for how long and how high.I would consult with a doctor on that for safety sake. Sometimes you only get one chance with your child,use it wisely. I wouldn't want to explain to my kids years later that I made a wrong decision that cost them dearly.

If I had kids I would go to one of these. Best to get chickenpox as a kid so you don't get it later and it be far worse. The same goes for most colds and allergens, keeping kids in a bubble only harms them later in life.

Kids that live with dogs and cats have fewer illnesses than children who do not, according to a study anyway.

pediatrics.aappublications.org...

I grew up out in the country, played in dirt all day, helped clean out chicken pens and redid the salt licks for cows. I'm sure my life was infested with bacteria and yet now as an adult I have never had any serious health problems. I have very few colds, no allergies.

I have fond memories of getting chicken pox because my mom let whoever had it play Nintendo instead of doing home school. So basically was able to sit and play Megaman 2 for two weeks with socks on my hands(my mom duct taped them so we couldn't scratch well, thanks mom).

WE got the vaccination for our daughter ....

- If she didn't catch it naturally as a child and caught it later in life ... she could easily die. Our neighbors husband caught it when he was about 40. HE DIED from it.

- Shingles. I"m pretty sure that you get shingles later in life if you had chickenpox, but if you had the shot you most likely won't get shingles. (not sure of that)

Grimpachi
I am so glad my parents were not loons who purposely got me sick as a child.

Hey ... 45 years ago it was the smart thing to do. Parents would purposely give it to the child so that they would have it young which was safer. Nowadays things are different ... but back then, it wasn't 'looney'.

I wish I had gotten it when I was younger. I didn't get it until I was 13. I still have scars.

And, ironically, after being ill the past couple of weeks and suffering from physical stress of illness, I get a bad outbreak of shingles on the side of my head, a cold sore on my lip, and a new thing, 3 blisters on my chin. Such a wonderful thing! Please, do go infect your child. Post herpetic pain is awesome! Not to mention the horrid headaches and nausea I have had for over a week.

Wouldn't wish anyone to miss out on THIS party!

FlyersFan

Grimpachi
I am so glad my parents were not loons who purposely got me sick as a child.

Hey ... 45 years ago it was the smart thing to do. Parents would purposely give it to the child so that they would have it young which was safer. Nowadays things are different ... but back then, it wasn't 'looney'.

Well 45 years ago was as you said 45Years ago this is not about what was acceptable then. The term loon applies to those who have a choice and choose what should be considered an archaic practice now.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Its probably been said, but the reason you want to go through it is because the vaccines sometimes don't take (and its not a rare thing, its pretty common) and if the child gets chicken pox later in life its very dangerous.

Natural is actually better in the instance of chicken pox.

reply to post by OrphanApology


I live out in the country, got chicken pox and also played the # out of megaman 2 during. Weird. Megaman 2 imo has t hr best video game music. On youtube scope out the minibosses megaman 2.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

Maybe you missed Libertygals posts but I will say you are completely wrong on asserting contracting the virus is better than never having to contract it.

Get the vax then MAYBE expose the child a year later to see if the vax worked but I say it’s just cruel parenting to intentional chose to infect a child without trying to create immunity through a safe vax.