Drs – fancy a discussion about chicken pox vaccine?

My sprogs got the pox this weekend after maybe foolish casual exposure to a friends kids.

Sprog one female 4 years old. 100 odd spots lots of high temps and a bit of moaning but not really the end of the world.

Sprog two female 1.5 years old – she has pretty bad excema – 1500-2000 spots v painful high temperatures which didn’t respond to paracetamol/ibuprofen, after 48 hrs we go to docs who sends her to casualty, they are worried about infection and eventual blood poisoning, at one stage they were very very worried, when her pulse rate was 185 whilst asleep, but after acticyline(I think, its an antibotic) her numbers started to tumble and we appear to be back on the mend, although a couple thousand bites like Hora was complaining about are causing mucho pain and distress. Apparently this si a known chicken pox/excema reaction and can be v dangerous.

So I have discovered that there is a chicken pox vaccine, only given in the uk to at risk children.

My question is given the known Chicken pox excema interaction and my Drs knowledge of my baby’s awful excema why didn’t they recommend the vaccine? If I’d known about the cp/ex combination and the vaccine I think would have asked for it..

I thought it was about to become MMRC, a four in one jab..

My two had it recently (3 and a bit and 1 and a bit less), both sailed through it tbh, in fact we had people we hadnt heard from in ages ringing up asking if their kids could pop round..!

I wish it was, too late for us now, but given how close my youngest was to kicking the bucket and the pain she is in right now I am a bit in the dark as to why it wasn’t flagged up as a potential at risk and she should have been vaccinated. TBH I’m even more effed off with myself for allowing the casual association with known chicken pox cases without doing a bit of research..

I’m glad to hear she’s recovering. It can be an awful time when kids are ill.

Loads of info Here but if I remember they only give to kids at risk of immune system problem are who may come into contact with those that do. I’m not aware eczema being one of the reasons but vaccines aren’t my field at all.

Well what I have discovered is the interaction between eczema and chicken pox can be a risk as eczema sufferers get many many more poxes than normal, and this increases the chance of infection, which for some reason can be quite bad in eczema sufferers and lead to blood poisoning and then organ failure. Peads docs were mega concerned on monday night..

If I were you I would be spending my time being relieved she is making a recovery than being angry at what could have happened.

Be happy, move on and enjoy your time with your kids.

It does makes sense but as I say not sure what the exact times they chose to vaccinate or not. It’s probably something you’d have to ask for too rather than routinely offered to all kids with eczema.

Septicaemia is a very serious condition though what ever the cause.

MF he’s just after answers, maybe not the place, but people do ask for answers when they loved ones have been ill.

Sorry I wasn’t trying to come across like an arse, just my thoughts.

(And yes I know people do such things – I have been there very recently with my own many questions about my mum and her unsuccessful fight against lung cancer).

Edit – perhaps I said what I did because I am currently sitting on the other side wondering what more could have been done to save mum 🙁

Yup it’s all part of the process MF but as you know sometimes advice like above isn’t always appropriate.

Sorry

Apology accepted.

I understand your pain, and think perhaps your advice is best directed back at yourself. I haven’t really lost anything important, just a few tears over the pain my baby is in, and fingers crossed she’ll recover.

It does makes sense but as I say not sure what the exact times they chose to vaccinate or not. It’s probably something you’d have to ask for too rather than routinely offered to all kids with eczema.

TBH we did have it (eczema) under control , so I wonder if it dropped off the docs list of worries.. Unfortunately wife got ill and I was away enjoying myself a week ago so her skin got worse, so when the Pox turned up it found an easy target.

This is the start of it, she now looks a lot worse.

Nasty, that is a very bad case I’d say poor little thing.

Yeah, most of those little pink spots have now exploded and become scabs, she cries every time she moves!

I prescribed lots and lots of love and copious amounts of ice cream.

Ice cream. good plan

wow that was as bad as my little girl got…

Ice cream is the answer though… 😀

Toys am I mistaken or are you in the NE?

mistaken SW.

Close then just the other side of the compass. 😯

Was going to recommended a ice cream parlour.

Ahh nice. We have some good ones here, my kids love Langage Farm[/url], which is available from a few of the spots in town.

Snap good ones too but current favourite for me is Spurreli’s in Amble. They have loads of flavours and crack is spent time in Italy learning how to make Ice Cream. They currently doing a Jammy Dodger flaour which is superb.

Poor little mite 🙁

I think you’d be best calmly talking the matter through with your GP. AFAIK severe reactions to chickenpox like this are rare, even in eczema sufferers. My sister and I both had eczema (sister still does) and chickenpox, and we were both typical reacters – mild disease for 1 week.

I think the use of the chickenpox vaccine not being routine in the UK is based on the vaccine being only ~70% effective (you can still get chickenpox, even if immunised), highest risk is present in very young infants (who are protected by their mother’s antibodies at birth, if these are found to be low during prenatal care, the child pops into the ‘at risk’ category – presumably Mrs toys’ levels were OK) and some worries about bumping up shingles incidence in adults, which I don’t quite follow.

Get well soon!

Jammy Dodger. That would hit the spot in our house.

I’m a tired old double choc man. The 4 year old goes for all the weird and wonderful ones but admits mint choc chip is her number 1.

Although we were considering dumping dairy for a while to see if it has any effect on the eczema, the scientific evidence says no, but in the absence of a cure we are up for anything, after that wheat..

I think you’d be best calmly talking the matter through with your GP.

Yeah I was gonna ask next time, I think, among other things, I started this thread to see what if any docs on here had any experience with it.

Poor wee soul. My daughter got it when she was 3 and we were camaping in France at the time.

She got it very bad but nothing compared to the danger your wee girl was in.

A good tip we got was to give them a lukewarm bath mixed with bicarbonate of soda which was meant to take the itching away. We tried it and it worked really well for our daughter. Don’t know if you’ve heard/tried that one yet?

Good to hear she’s on the mend though – that must have been terrible.

I think it would be good to pursue the issue – not for any retrospective finger-pointing reasons. As mf said, your daughter is out of the woods now – but it may prevent something similar or (god forbid) worse, happening to some other child in future.

Enjoy the ice cream 🙂

sorry, just a though – my girl doesn’t have eczema – don’t know if the bicarb thing could aggravate eczema?

(Tick) What vaccines have the nippers had soo far? Hora junior seems to have had alot.

Done ice cream big time last night. Happy days.
Hora my kids have had whatever vaccines they are offered, but defo not the Pox one..

There’s a good argument for vaccinating every child against chicken pox, I think it’s going to happen (I can hear the antivaxxers now). Chicken pox is a very common illness which is normally mild and self-limiting but can be very nasty, even deadly in a very small minority of cases.

As a GP I wouldn’t have considered vaccination for a child with eczema, no matter severity. Most chicken pox vaccinations happen in children who are immunocompromised (or are in close contact with someone who is immunocompromised) because of e.g. organ transplantation, leukaemia and this tends to be done either by the hospital or under their direction. I’ve never heard of it being offered to kids with severe eczema.

I’m glad your daughter is recovering. It really is terrifying when they’re unwell.

Kids get ill and it is often way more distressing for the parents than it is for the child. Just need to remember that she will have forgotten about it in a couple of weeks, whereas you will probably remember it for the rest of your life. My suggestion, put as much negative energy into it as the child does – none.

Ice cream is the way forwards.

I can take on almost anything but seeing hora junior suffering just takes me down the notches to 1 (helplessness) 🙁

Feel for you OP.

STW sympathy! Cheers lads, she is properly on the mend now, just lots of pain from zillions of pox’s, but no high temps any more and back to cackling naughtiness.