It’s official, my nephew has chickenpox.
Matthew and Anya have both had it but obviously Zach hasn’t. But I want him to get it sooner rather than later. Matthew was 3 when he had it and he has scars from scratching, he also missed out on a week of preschool. Anya had it straight afterwards aged only 9 months. She couldn’t scratch but her spots were worse and more uncomfortable due to nappy wearing.
Zach is almost 10 months and I’m weighing up the pros and cons of taking him to visit and catch chickenpox deliberately.
Pros: gets it over and one with, no missed school or preschool, reduced scratching.
Cons: ill baby, fears about side effects, he might never get it so it is unnecessary (like my sister who has now been vaccinated as an adult).
Part of me feels like a monster for considering deliberately making my child ill and the worry of complications puts me off. But then the worry of him catching it when he is a teenager or adult is also preying on my mind.
For now, I will keep him away and visit my sister in a fortnight during half term. Perhaps my niece will have caught it by then and he’ll catch it from her. If so I will consider it destiny 🙂