Chickenpox Nostalgia Is Real—And Really Dangerous

[laundry_queen]

35. I mentioned downthread

before the vaccine, exposing your young child made sense because they were less likely to have complications if they got it when they were very young. So, the options were: expose my toddler NOW and they will likely get a mild case, or don't expose and wait, and then when they are teens and catch it then, they will have a really horrible case. Or worse, what happened to my friend...never catch it at all until you are an adult and pregnant (let's just say she was extremely ill and had to be monitored very closely and everyone was very, very freaked out). Back in the day, those were the options, so I can see why people exposed their kids. I did it with my oldest (the kids I babysat, I knew they were sick...daycare wouldn't take them so I did thinking, "why not?&quot I wanted her to get it young and not deal with what my pregnant friend had to deal with.

Thankfully now, you can avoid all that.