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Martha
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| Posted: June 14 2006 at 5:21pm | IP Logged
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opinion?
experience?
ideas?
I do not want to debate vaccines. 
Just looking into the possiblitiy of doing this.
Thank you!
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Martha
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MacBeth
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| Posted: June 14 2006 at 6:06pm | IP Logged
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Do it. Get 'em over with. My s-i-l sent her son over to get them with us. Worked out well for all  .
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MacBeth in NY
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teachingmyown
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Martha,
don't do it now! Not that I am against it, we always seem to miss our chances to catch it, but you have a brand new baby and need a healthy summer to relax and enjoy your baby and kids without any scratching. 
Somehow, despite most of the world being vaccinated, it keeps coming around. You are sure to get it sometime.
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Molly
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Magnificat
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| Posted: June 14 2006 at 7:19pm | IP Logged
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I'm glad this has come up. My kids were not vaccinated and we have been waiting, and waiting and waiting for the chicken pox!! My kids are 9, 7 and 4...is there a time I should actually worry if they have not gotten it yet??
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Martha
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| Posted: June 14 2006 at 7:31pm | IP Logged
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Molly and Charlotte,
I'm not looking neccessarily to do it this week or anything, but looking to do it before I get preggo again and before my oldest ds gets much older.
I have zero desire to deal with it while preggo. I KNOW I could NOT handle it at all given my horrid 5 month long HMG sickness with each pregnancy. The longest I've ever gone without a pregnancy is 14 months, so ....
My oldest is 11. Almost all risk or cases of serious complication occur in immune supressed children or adults.
Plus, it'd be nice to expose them at the same time for roughly the same outbreak time. ARGH! Can you just imagine each of them getting it for a week?! That's 7 - 8 weeks of chicken pox in the house!! 
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I wish I could find someone with chicken pox too. I have a 12 year old that has not had them yet and my doctor advised me to try and get him exposed soon. He said the down side of the vaccine is they don't know how long the vaccination is good for so at some point as an adult he could find he is no longer immune! 
An actual case of chicken pox, of course, means a lifetime immunity.
I have been searching for three years now and have yet to find another family with them. 
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Rebecca
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| Posted: June 14 2006 at 9:45pm | IP Logged
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I have not gone to one but our hsing group sends out emails to notify people when a family gets Chicken pox so others can stop by and get them if they want to. I know of people who have done it with chicken pox as well as pertussis.
Seems easier to deal with all at once rather than here and there, especially when there are many kids involved.
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MaryM
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From your first message, the newborn thing was the only concern for me as well (it can be very dangerous for a newborn to be exposed), so since you weren't planning for it while you have a brand new little one - I say go for it if you get the chance. Chicken pox are supposedly most common in late winter, early spring so you've missed that time frame. But two of mine had them in fall so guess that must be common also.
teachingmyown wrote:
| Somehow, despite most of the world being vaccinated, it keeps coming around. You are sure to get it sometime. |
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Unfortuantely that hasn't been the case for us. I have one left who hasn't had them and we have tried on 4 occasions to expose him - no luck. The problems we've had were once the child with pox was probably not very contagious any longer - too late in the disease. Another time the child turned out not to have chicken pox after all but another a rash from a virus which looked very similar to mild chicken pox in early stages. Another time my son wouldn't go near the children because it was a family he didn't really know and he was not keen on the idea of "trying to get chicken pox" from these people - he is really an overly aware child. I think it really only works well if the family is someone the kids know and play with already - at least for mine that was significant. Two months ago we were at a baseball game with some friends whose kids were just at a "chicken pox party" and still had the water bottles they had been sharing with the sick kids. They let me give one to Joe - no luck it wasn't enough exposure. Turns out none of their kids who they were trying to expose ended up getting it either. We have had so few opportunites to get chicken pox compared to when my 18 year old was younger.
My pox stories are all really different since they have all had them one at a time before the next younger sibling was born. The oldest got them from being in a house where a child with chicken pox lived, but the child was not in the house at the time. The next one was exposed on purpose to a friend - but it was our second try as a different earlier exposure resulted in no pox. The third got it at a birthday party from a child who was feverish, but had no spots (so they didn't know she had chicken pox yet) and sat on her mother's lap the whole time. The fourth is the one we have been trying to get exposed for years now.
My sister has an interesting experience with a chicken pox party. She wanted all of hers to get it at the same time also, so when a neighbor had them, they had a chicken pox party. Her three oldest spent the same amount of time being exposed, but only the oldest boy caught them the first round. The next two got them from their brother and had them a few weeks after he did. And then the 9 month old baby who she figured wouldn't get them got them during the third round another couple weeks later. Because of the long incubation (10-21 days) you can be dealing with it for quite a while. So she was dealing with chicken pox off and on for 8-9 weeks.
I'm just telling these stories to let you know chicken pox exposure is really funny - sometimes a very minimal expoure will result in getting the pox and sometimes a more prolonged exposure will result in nothing. Much depends on the child's immune system and the timing of the exposure (earlier in the disease the stronger it is) and the length of exposure (the reason why siblings who get it second round usually have much more intense cases). So it is really unpredictable and I would just warn you of that. Even if your intent is to get it over with all at one time it might not work out that way. But chances are even if all don't get it the first time, most or all of the rest will get it in the second round. It is just those breastfed babies that tend to hold out longer, get really mild cases, or not get it at all.
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Erin
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Well I've tried  Exposed my kids when the occasion arose, they still haven't caught them Dd is nearly 13 now and I really wanted her to get them before now.
Good Luck
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ElisabethGrace
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Could someone PM with some reliable websites or books about non-vaccination?
I don't wish to start a debate. 
Thank you!
Angela
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esperanza
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I, too, have been watchful for this opportunity for the last 10 yrs. My oldest two dds had chicken pox when my ds was 5 wks old. He started to break out with maybe 5 pox then they disappeared. Right before his 2nd birthday he developed shingles. My last five dc ages 12-2 have never contracted chicken pox yet. Now with another wee one soon to be joining the family...I will wait for another opportunity. The few chances I had to have a play date with some "chicken pox children" were right before the month of road trips.
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cathhomeschool
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My brothers and I didn't get chicken pox until we were in college. Younger brother brought them home at summer break. Though my blood shows that I had a strong case, I didn't think it was that bad.
When my oldest got a light case at age 2, we tried to expose second ds. Unfortunately, he didn't catch them.  (He was still nursing.)
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Martha
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Oh my goodness I'm so hurt, angry, horrified and I don't know what.
I was speaking to a fellow hs-er on the phone and asked if her support group ever did anything like this or if she had. Now I know she doesn't vaccinate, which is what made me think to ask her. Anyhow. She was rather harsh to me I think. She said she thought parent's who want their children to get chicken pox like this was "abusive" and should be illegal!
I was so hurt I didn't really respond other than a vague and quick "sorry to offend you and good-bye" of some sort.
Normally, I consider myself a pretty tough cookie, but that just really threw me. I don't think I'll ever be able to speak to this woman again. We weren't exactly buddies or anything and she's no stepford mom by any stretch either, I just feel sucker punched for some reason.
I guess I'm just being baby-blues hormonal or something.
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Martha
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Christine
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I am sorry this lady was so rude. Alicia's daughter currently has chicken pox. Reading this prompted me to e-mail the homeschoolers in our group and ask them to let me know if their children get the chicken pox, so that I can hopefully expose my children. Based on my last conversation with my children's pediatrician regarding chicken pox, I believe it is cruel not to expose your children when opportunities present themselves. My children's pediatrician told me to try my best to expose my children to the chicken pox, commenting that it is best to get it before adulthood.
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esperanza
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Sorry that happened...you know one of my dc once asked "Mom, why do you want us to get sick?" ..after hearing me talk of plans a few yrs ago
I am very hormonal lately so I can relate to that, except I am still pregnant and can't hold back the tears over the most pitiful things
God knows your heart 
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ALmom
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I have a slightly different take on things - just to express a contrary point of view. I am very, very relaxed about not vaccinating and very, very relaxed about childhood illnesses. I would very much like all my dc to get chicken pox when they are younger.
However, that being said, I do advise against intentionally exposing them. It is extremely rare that chicken pox would cause any problems and most cases are mild. However, what if the case becomes severe. There have been very rare cases of normal children dying of chicken pox. I could not live with myself if I had knowingly exposed my child and he ended up with one of these severe cases with lasting effects. If it just happened - well the grieving is still there of course, but it is something that was out of my control. Somehow I would be responsible if I intentionally exposed someone.
I do not go into isolation when an epidemic is announced, I don't avoid someone who is a tad uncertain, but I don't intentionally plan a playdate with someone who has them. Sometimes when you think a child has not had them, they have. Family history of mild chicken pox is some assurance but epidemics generally work by building severity over time so you never know. Also I'm not sure the newer strains of chicken pox are the same as the ones that used to go around. The chicken pox vaccine uses aborted fetuses and also involves changes to the DNA. I have had some children with cases so mild, we never would have noticed if I hadn't been scrutinizing for it and one child that confirmed that I would never expose a child intentionally.
Some personal history to illustrate what I mentioned above. I supposedly never had chicken pox as a child - exposed many, many times. As an adult, I have never caught them from my dc even though I did what was necessary to nurse them through their own versions. We now presume I had a very, very mild case as an infant that went undetected.
One daughter had a case so mild, we would have missed it except we were trying to be alert to the possibility out of respect for a mom in dd class that was petrified of chicken pox (from India where it is not common - she could care less about Measles as that is a rite of passage there like chicken pox used to be here) and knew there was a major epidemic. The next child got a little bit bigger case - but these oldest were over it in 3 days. I was inclined to presume that our family just did well with chicken pox and the next epidemic we did think about the possibility of just trying to get it over and done with with the rest of the crew who had been born after the first 2 went through it. We decided against it on the principal that we could not place our children in harms way - even if the risks were very slight. We weren't going to be paranoid about epidemics and we would be relieved if everyone got chicken pox and got it over with but somehow it seemed best to leave this in God's able hands.
My next child to get chicken pox scared the living daylight out of me. We have no idea where he got chicken pox but at the time, a bunch of schools were closing down because the immunized kids were getting chicken pox. He had hardly any itching, not very many bumps - looked at first like it would be mild. Then I noticed he couldn't eat, etc. It looked like most of his chicken pox went internal. He began to carry on normal conversations with me and then in mid-conversation he would begin talking out of his head. I called the pediatrician who thought maybe his chicken-pox was going to his brain, but since he always came out fine, it probably wasn't something to worry about. He seemed pretty normal when the pediatrician saw him 8 days after the onset of chicken pox. However, he had another bout of talking out of his head right before our visit to the pediatrician and also to another doctor in alternative medicine. Our son had managed to get a tetanus type wound on the foot (typical boy - didn't even tell me, stuck his wounded foot in a smelly tennis shoe). He was basically normal playing while he had chicken pox once he got over not eating much but those high protein shakes except for the on and off talking out of his head which started when everything else was doing better but before his tetanus wound. Well anyways, we had gone to the pediatrician for this and asked about the talking out of his head at the same time. The pediatrician told us it was probably chicken pox on the brain but since he recovered fine and looked normal, it probably wasn't anything to worry about. We were also told we had 24 hours of soaking in epson salts and if that didn't bring about almost 100% improvement then we would talk tetanus. We didn't want to do a Tetanus shot at the time because chicken pox was so recent and just that morning ds had been talking out of his head again. To make a long story short - the alternative medicine guy was surprised at the chicken pox toxins still in his nervous system and gave us a homeopathic remedy for that and the foot wound. He had almost 100% recovery overnight - not sure what it was that worked and don't really care. I do know that his exposure to chicken pox had to have been very fleeting - maybe in the grocery store or at church but nothing of any duration. I don't know what would have happened if the exposure had been more prolonged as in arranging playdate situations.
Also by the time the chicken pox is really known, the worst contagion is over. Children are most contagious about 24 hours before breaking out. According to our pediatrician, children are no longer contagious if they are 7 days past onset (not sure I'd really trust that) but pass it on for what its worth.
Anyways, I really would not intentionally expose a child!
Janet
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Angie Mc
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cathhomeschool wrote:
Though my blood shows that I had a strong case, I didn't think it was that bad.
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Just wondering...is there a way to be tested for immunity to CPox? My oldest has been exposed numerous times but has not had them. What about testing for other immunity levels? This is way out of my area of expertise.
Love,
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ALmom
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You can have blood titres done - but they are very, very expensive. We recently looked into it as dd was faced with a decision about measles immunization(colleges require 2nd immunization here). We were told that it costs about $300 for the testing for each disease immunity. This does not include lab fees, doctor fees, etc. You can find out about costs in your area by calling the local labs and asking. Also, since it is not medically necessary, insurance probably won't cover any of it. I know my sis had a chicken pox titre run on one of hers to see if she was immune and it was hardly worth the money, but it can be done.
Janet
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kingvozzo
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I don't know if it would be different for children, but I had a cpox titre done a couple of years ago. Apparently the case I had as a child was so mild, it was missed completely! My titre came back + and I did not have to get the vaccine. I haven't had my littlest given the cpox vaccine, but I would have rec'd it myself, because it's so much more serious in adults. My insurance did cover the titre.
Also, I agree w/ Janet. I don't think I would intentionally expose my kids, but I wouldn't go out of my way to quarentine them.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: chicken pox parties
