Chicken Pox after vaccine?

[robinb]

My neighbor's kindergartner has chicken pox and she came down with the spots on Sunday. I thought that the varicella vaccine was required for her to start school but apparently her mom was able to opt out. It's not a bad case and the mom is hoping that her 2nd grader will catch it from her.

My DD had her second varicella vaccine in May of 2009 and I allowed her to play with the little chicken pox girl a little bit yesterday and most of the day today. Now I am thinking that I may have made a mistake. Does anyone know how often kids who have been vaccinated actually come down with the chicken pox? I am usually not a worrier about things I can't change and I am feeling a bit better that her booster was so recent.

Am I taking a risk by letting her play with the little girl? I don't want my DD to come down with the chicken pox. Not only is it painful she really can't afford to miss a week or more of school.

 

[livndisney]

My neighbor's kindergartner has chicken pox and she came down with the spots on Sunday. I thought that the varicella vaccine was required for her to start school but apparently her mom was able to opt out. It's not a bad case and the mom is hoping that her 2nd grader will catch it from her.

My DD had her second varicella vaccine in May of 2009 and I allowed her to play with the little chicken pox girl a little bit yesterday and most of the day today. Now I am thinking that I may have made a mistake. Does anyone know how often kids who have been vaccinated actually come down with the chicken pox? I am usually not a worrier about things I can't change and I am feeling a bit better that her booster was so recent.

Am I taking a risk by letting her play with the little girl? I don't want my DD to come down with the chicken pox. Not only is it painful she really can't afford to miss a week or more of school.

My dd had the shot and got the worst case of Chicken pox I have ever seen.

 

[deerhart]

yes she could get it, but if she had the second booster it is unlikely.

Even kids that have HAD the chicken pox can catch it again. It all depends on the level of immunity built up in the body.

My cousin has had chicken pox 4 times. The last time she exposed my oldest son (who was getting his 1st cp vaccine in 2 days) and that was 10 years ago and she was about 20.

The finally ran blood test on her after that and her immunity was finally high enough that she is probably immune now.

Also, exposure to the live virus, even if it does NOT result in getting chicken pox could put her at risk for shingles later on in life

 

[emmiesmom]

My daughter had it after the vaccine but her case was extremely mild and she just had a generally yucky feeling

 

[DisneyBrooke81]

My daughter also got the shot and came down with the chicken pox. It was a mild case, but she still had it. I think the odds of getting it are very small. My doctor said it was the first time he saw a case of chicken pox in four years.

 

[MommaB]

I feel like I read something recently that said there was this huge surprise on how often is DOES happen. Wonder if I can find it again... We don't do the CP Vax so I didn't put a lot of focus into my reading and might be off.
Edited- This isn't the newest article I was reading but the CDC says 8-9 out of 10 people who have been vax'ed will not get chicken pox. So it could be that it works for 80% of people. So a 10-20% failure rate?

 

[mousebymarriage]

Both of my kids had trhe vaccine and both still got chicken pox!

-DD was a year old when she got the vaccine and then when she was 4 (and in pre-K) she wound up with chicken pox. It was a full blown case but, surprisingly they didn't scab or scar and they were here and completely gone in 5 days (the doc said that happens with many cases that appear when they have gotten the shot).

-DS was also a year old when he got the vaccine but he was just under 2 years old when he got chicken pox. Again a full blown case with no scabbing or scars and here and gone in about 5 days.

 

[robinb]

Oh man! You guys are scaring me !

 

[ColleenG]

My kids have all gotten the shot, but last summer DD had the spots. We called the pediatrician and she said since she didn't have a fever and felt fine she would be fine and wasn't contagious. She had a birthday party to go to a day or 2 later and she went and I never heard anything about anyone else getting it. The spots cleared up in less than a week. They were only on her tourso.

 

[minniebeth]

My DS had a mild case after the first vaccine. My pediatrician said that it is probably more common than reported because some cases may be so mild that they are not even reported/diagnosed or recognized.

 

[robinb]

I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed she doesn't come down with it. Her big dance recital is in exactly two weeks .

 

[kristinw3girls]

all 3 of my girls got the vaccine, and only 1 ended up getting chicken pox. I really thought the other 2 would when the little one came down with it, but nope! She had 3 pox and just felt worse then she looked.

 

[Drewsmommybear]

My son ended up getting the pox after having the first vaccine. There were only three or four spots and they lasted for a few days. If you have a recital in a few weeks, you should be fine by then. Just don't take you child to the emergecny room like I did. DS doesn't seem to get one illness at a time so when he got his spots (in VERY visible places on his face) he also developed a limp. I was sure that something was majorly wrong only to find out $200.00 later that he had chicken pox AND something called toxic synovitis that causes a limp. I freaked out because I had no idea that he could get it after the vaccine. Go figure.

 

[jakenjess]

I may be dreaming this, but it seems like I've heard it's only contagious just before, and maybe very soon after, the spots appear? Your DD will most likely be fine. I can relate to the dance recital thing. My DD broke her arm last week and recital is four weeks away. She may be dancing with a cast on!!

 

[princessmom29]

Don't freak out about it. Statistics I have seen say that between 2 and 5% of kids get it after having a second shot, so odds are strongly in your favor. Most cases post vaccination are very mild and clear up on average twice as quickly as in someone not vaccinated.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Yes she can get it. BUT I thought it was supposed to more of a mild case.
I have a friend who has 7 kids they all got the chicken pox recently and the ones who had the vaccines did not have it nearly as bad as her kids who didn't have the vaccine.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

My DS had a single dose of vaccine at 15 mos. and he broke out with pox on Easter Sunday when he was in 2nd grade. Back then (he is 14 now) they only did one dose. The school nurse told me in a school with 900 kids he was the ONLY pox case they were aware of. Well, he caught them SOMEWHERE! I bet you anything other kids had them.

His case was fairly mild - less than 100 spots total. The pediatrician's office said he would have had around 500 if he wouldn't have had the vaccine.

I wouldn't worry about it. As far as we know DH has never had pox. I broke out with them when I was 21, DH didn't catch them from me. When DS broke out we called the Dr. to see if DH needed to do anything and they said no.

 

[jakoky]

HI there, since i had my kids in the "stone age" ...i dont know about the shots...(my kids are almost 19, 16 and 14) BUT was gonna say that the risk of getting them comes mostly BEFORE the spots, so if she has played with the little girl in the last few weeks she has been exposed already...my oldest dd got chicken pox when she was in kindergarten, and it was close to 17 days later that my other two kids got them...it is a 2-3 week incubation...Hoping that the vaccine works and your dd stays chicken pox free...

 

[momhmmx2]

I believe the incubation period for Chicken pox is about 14 days from exposure..Which unfortunately for you would put her at or around recital time SORRY to be the bearer of bad news

 

[Mathfailure]

My daughter had them twice, second time was mild but caused her to miss a week of school.

My son had the shot and then had them too, but very mild. I am sure he was before the understanding of the follow up shot.

I had their doctor note on their charts that they each had the pox, because in the future I did not want them to have to have another shot.