OT: A pox on their house...

I'm really not supporting the anti-vac crowd but I'm old enough to remember when moms purposely exposed their kids at a young age to chickenpox. I might have never had it. Not through lack of trying on my mom's part. Or I might have had it but didn't develop the full blown breakout of blisters. I don't remember chickenpox ever being deadly to kids. It was mothers pre-chickenpox vac days doing what they thought was the safer alternative for their kids, especially their boys at a time of life when it was likely to have least impact long term. Now there is a alternative why risk exposure at all. Their choice I guess. I think of all the ways times have changed. I used to ride in the front seat before I was even 8 when alone in the car with my mom. It was a special treat to be a big boy. My seatbelt was moms hand across my chest if she had to brake hard. It's a wonder any of us kids survived the 60's without all that government intervention.
Edit: I wish this kid the best. Getting the pox at 18 is not good. Especially if mom might want grandkids later.
Edit: at least that was the old wives tale. Not sure medically proven.
I kinda trust the old wives to know things about kids though.

i think it was the mumps that i always heard could make a boy sterile.  you might be right about the pox too.

@"ThunderGod" said: i think it was the mumps that i always heard could make a boy sterile.  you might be right about the pox too.

My son almost died from chickenpox, he spent a week at Vanderbilt pediatric  ICU.  The doctor kept telling my wife it would pass in a couple of days, she finally just brought him into the office and he sent him straight to the hospital, the blisters were going to his lungs and other organs.  Tough lesson to learn as a parent of a four year old, hope you don't have to go through the exercise.

And about the mumps. I did have that as a young boy. It was no joke. I remember how sick I was. Couldn't eat for days. Weirdest fever dreams that I ever remember. Later in life it made Pink Floyd's Comfortable numb make sense to me. Without the needles. But those fever dreams...oh boy. Dead people literally visiting me. You don't forget them dreams. Only a few years later they did develop the 1st vaccine for that. I've made it a lifetime habit of just missing out it seems. Oh well I'm still here to bitch about it...lol.

@"BigAl99" said: My son almost died from chickenpox, he spent a week at Vanderbilt pediatric  ICU.  The doctor kept telling my wife it would pass in a couple of days, she finally just brought him into the office and he sent him straight to the hospital, the blisters were going to his lungs and other organs.  Tough lesson to learn as a parent of a four year old, hope you don't have to go through the exercise.

One more thing to add to my mom's back then thing. Mumps, rubella and measles were never something they tried exposing their kids to. It was something they prayed they wouldn't get. I'm pretty sure my mom wasn't the only one who stayed up several nights cooling their child with a damp cloth and praying. 

@"BigAl99" said: My son almost died from chickenpox, he spent a week at Vanderbilt pediatric  ICU.  The doctor kept telling my wife it would pass in a couple of days, she finally just brought him into the office and he sent him straight to the hospital, the blisters were going to his lungs and other organs.  Tough lesson to learn as a parent of a four year old, hope you don't have to go through the exercise.

@"suncoastvike" said:

@"BigAl99" said: My son almost died from chickenpox, he spent a week at Vanderbilt pediatric  ICU.  The doctor kept telling my wife it would pass in a couple of days, she finally just brought him into the office and he sent him straight to the hospital, the blisters were going to his lungs and other organs.  Tough lesson to learn as a parent of a four year old, hope you don't have to go through the exercise.

Just to be clear Bigguy I wasn't liking the fact your boy got sick. Just that he made it through. Yes not everyone who gets something has it equally.

@"Vikergirl" said:

@"BigAl99" said: My son almost died from chickenpox, he spent a week at Vanderbilt pediatric  ICU.  The doctor kept telling my wife it would pass in a couple of days, she finally just brought him into the office and he sent him straight to the hospital, the blisters were going to his lungs and other organs.  Tough lesson to learn as a parent of a four year old, hope you don't have to go through the exercise.

I am glad to hear he made it through and sorry he suffered so terribly. The like was for the fact that he came through it. That's scary stuff seeing your child suffer and feeling helpless.

As a kid, I suffered through it all...measles, german measles, mumps and chicken pox.  Back then it was the only way to become immune to it.  As a parent, I immunized both of my kids to spare them from going through what I had to. 

I was reading that people born between 1950-1989 might need another MMR shot. I double checked for my own piece of mind. The Centers for Disease Control changed the recommendations and not everyone is in compliance.

Yeah, and then you grow older and find out the chicken pox you had as a kid was just hiding in the closet and they need to give you another shot for shingles.  I had the shingles shot a couple years ago and now my doc is saying that the serum I had was only about 50% effective and they now have a new serum which is much better....
After the chickenpox runs its itchy course, the virus retreats to nerve tissues near your spinal cord and brain, where it hides out.
Doctors don’t know why, but sometimes the virus “wakes up” and travels along nerve fibers to your skin. That’s when it lands its second punch -- shingles, also called herpes zoster.

never had any childhood malady 3 brothers and sister got them all at the same time first chicken pox then mumps---I just got extra chores on the farm as they got bed rest.