Chicken Pox Lolipop? Vaccination Paranoia Leads to Pox Parties

 

At some point in parenthood, Chicken Pox is always discussed between the Moms of a play group. I know we did in mine! And the discussion always surrounded whether or not to purposely arrange a playdate with other kids who had Chicken Pox {a firm belief that getting it an an early age is better than an outbreak when older}.

As of today, neither of my 3 girls have had chicken pox {Yet, they have all been vaccinated for it}. Many automatically think that getting the vaccine prevented Chicken Pox, but in reality, a vaccinated person can still get a very mild form. But, even a mild form is still better than full blown Chicken Pox, which can lead to serious hospitalization and even death.

other and ImageI recently read about some parents whom have gone to great extremes to make sure their kids get chickenpox, exactly when they want them to. Apparently, that route is by purchasing pox-infected lolipops! Forget selling used clothing and unwanted items on Kijiji and Facebook, people have been selling infected items covered in saliva from kids who have Chicken Pox! The most popular item? Lolipops! And, some have gone for a whopping $50 each! Seriously!?

One question remains when you spend that much on the lolipop: do you infect just your own kids or have a ‘pox-party‘ and charge admission to all the neighborhood parents? Many have seen parties such as these being advertised as well. Yet, I’m pretty sure that mailing viruses and possibly even giving virus-infected food on purpose to others, is against the law – at least I’d hope it would be!

What do you think of Chicken Pox Lolipops and Pox-Parties?
Have you actually seen these advertised in your area?

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23 Comments

  1. Pox party- yes.

    Pox lolly? No.

    I’d rather chance it. I haven’t seen these advertized, but have now heard about them a few times today. Odd.

  2. Pox party – I’m not completely opposed.

    Pox Lolly – totally think that’s just gross….more specifically from some kid you don’t know. blech…

    Neither of my kids have had chicken pox either – I’m curious to see how that all plays out as they aren’t immunized against them. Time will tell I suppose…

    1. Hailey – I didn’t think I’d ever had Chicken Pox. Then, when I was PG with the twins, I was tested by the doc, just to be sure. The tests came back that I did, in fact, have Chicken Pox at one time in my life – and I neither my Mother noticed….??
      I didn’t think it could go unnoticed like that. So, it makes me wonder if maybe my kids have had it…?
      Weird!

      1. funny…though considering your mom had 7 kids, i don’t think it is unreasonable that she may not have remembered each child’s bout with the pox…buut if you don’t remember…strange…is it possible to have a natural immunity?

        guess we will have to wait and see….shall i send you a lolly when the time comes? lol

  3. So we have parents buying a lollipop that was licked by a sick kid for $50… This makes logical sense? Not to me!

  4. I have never heard of either of these methods and i don’t agree with it…
    My 1 year old daughter just got chicken pox a few months ago, but my 6 year old never got it..

  5. Exactly Lena – who knows what could be all over it, it’s from a stranger after all! We teach our kids to not take candy from strangers, yet some parents would buy it from them! Crazy!

  6. That is so weird! I would think that by the time that you get them, the virus would be shot. My kids have been vaccinated for chicken pox to. With high temps, it can be dangerous. Oh and I have a scar on my face from them. 🙁

    I know some people are terrified of vaccines. I was. Maybe am. Then I think about how my mom had Polio. She just had to get her ankle fused a few years ago because it started attacking her body once again. Then Isaak had meningitis. He got that right after his first vaccine shot for it. There are more follow up shots. 🙁

  7. I homeschool and within my “group” LOL the pox party is all the rage – but it is with the kids we all know. When my girls got the pox they were not feeling up to company so we did not have others over ourselfs but we know plenty who do have close friends, or even openly invite others from our HS comunity over to share the love. To have her sister get the pox we had her drink the same juice boxes as her older sister the day that she got the pox. I would personally never mail order someone elses pox pops – but did need my kids to get them when they were young (for my own reasons that I will not get into here) Basically my mantra is lets all do what works for our families, and not spend energy judging each other for what works for theirs. This is what works for mine 🙂 I am glad you all have found what has worked for yours as well.

    1. Thanks for commenting Tracy. I think if I knew someonewho had pox, I might arrange a visit and see what happens from there. It’s not like I would make the kids lick each other or anything {lol}, but, if they catch it early, I guess it’s better off than later.
      My 3 kids haven’t had it merely for the point that I haven’t known anyone have it lately!
      You are totally right though, everyone has different opinions and parents differently! But, buying stranger saliva shocked me! lol

      1. LOL ya, that is a wee bit odd – and not completely sure legal, but who knows, not my cuppa. I do know that there is a church group here that does it with licorice, when a child has the pox they get the kiddo to such on the tips of all the tops of a bag of licorice then they hand them out to all the kids at that church that Sunday (with parental concent) same idea, and it seems to work – I know a number of moms that go to this church, they all homeschool, non of them vacinate. Works for them. The sick kiddo is not there to spread their own germs around I guess.

  8. Pox lollipop? Disgusting.

    I remember my mom participating in and hosting pox parties when we were younger. There were 11 of us, and so there were several rounds of pox through the house. My mom preferred for us to have them while we were younger. When my sister was about 2, she came down with them, and my mom made my brother, who was 13, spend every waking minute with her in the hopes that he would get the pox. She was very concerned about him getting them as an adult and thought getting them at 13 would be a little easier. He is 25 now and still hasn’t had them. I think he must have some sort of natural immunity.

    My daughter had her vaccinations but still got the chicken pox (I do not know where she got them from). She has eczema, and her case of pox was light – maybe 15-20 pox on her entire body – but they were huge and terrible looking and ended up becoming infected. I found out after taking her to the doctor that kids with eczema get worse cases of chicken pox than normal kids and had she not had the vaccine, her entire body would probably have been covered in sores.

  9. That has to be just about the strangest thing I have ever heard. All 3 of my children had chick pox under the age of 10 and made out okay. Me, well, I ended up getting them when I was 14 and it was pure misery that I remember well. However, I simply can not imagine infecting my children on purpose from some unknown person. Yuk!

  10. I would not do a pox party nor would I do a pox lolli. For me, the summer of 2001 was the summer from… well… you know.

    I was pregnant with DD#4. DD#3 was barely 1yo, DD#2 was barely 4 and DD#1 was barely 6.

    One night DD#3 was nursing, and I noticed that she had a high fever, and an odd rash that seemed to be painted under her skin. The husband rushed her to the hospital because we had issues with temperature control, lived very far from the hospital, and we needed to identify the rash… I was pregnant after all.

    The doctors didn’t figure what it was that she had, other than to say that it was some type of viral infection.

    Ten days later, the 29yo husband came home from work with the chicken pox. Two weeks later, DD#2 got it. Two weeks after that DD#1 got it. Just when we thought we were done (DD#3 likely had given it to dad a couple of months ago right?), DD#3 got it… again?

    All the while, I was in my first trimester with DD#4. I’d had chicken pox when I was 6. The kids handled it well. The husband? Not so much. He was down 2-3 weeks.

    Did my antibodies go through the placenta and immunize the baby? Don’t know. She’s never gotten the chicken pox though. So, now that she will soon be 10, we will be getting her immunized.

    Why? When I got them at 6, my 2yo sister nearly died from the chicken pox. To this day, she has large scars on her stomach because of the chicken pox. She was hospitalized for weeks.

    We got the chicken pox at the same time, from the same strain of the virus. I was inconvenienced for about 5-7 days. My sister was nearly killed. We both had the same level of care from my mom who was a nurse. You can never tell how the virus will affect a child. It might not do much to one child other than make them uncomfortable and itchy for a few days. It could kill the next child.

    Take my word for it, get the kids vaccinated – especially if they are older.

    1. Wow Johane!!
      Yes, it’s better to safe, Chicken Pox can can many MANY consequences! Thanks for sharing your story!

  11. I not against Pox parties but I have to draw the line on the Pox Lolipops. I have 3 children and it’s funny only 1 got the Chicken pox. A neighbor asked my daughter who was 5 at the time if she ever had the Chicken Pox, to which my daughter replied “No Mommy never buys that at the grocery store”..lol.

  12. I’m not completely against Pox parties either however the Lolipops are disgusting! I won’t suck my own son’s pacifier…why would he want a stranger’s germs?

    I’ve never seen them advertised here but I would hope they’re well marked so a parent does not purchase it by mistake if they are just selling them in the grocery store…

  13. When my oldest son (who will be 12 in less than two weeks) was a baby I was very leary of the vaccine. In general I am not vaccine-phobic, but I had my doubts about the pox vaccine since it was fairly new and not a guaranteed immunity. I had Chicken Pox and aside from a scar in between my eyes, I had no ill effects. I would have chosen a pox party in a heartbeat back then, but opted for the vaccine since I figured most other kids were getting it so his catching it at a young age was slim. I used the same rationale with my 12 month old a few weeks ago when he had his first vaccine.

    But a lollipop? No. That’s just too disgusting for me to comprehend

  14. Now that my kids have been vaccinated for it, I toy with the idea of exposing them during the summer, like we used to do way back in the stone age/70s. I remember my mom taking me to a pox party.

    But the lollipops? And SELLING them? I heard about it a few weeks ago (and no, they aren’t in grocery stores. It would be illegal. And, well, this is, if they are shipping it through the mail, plus I don’t believe that “selling” exposure is all that legal, either.) Definitely not from strangers across the country. Ew.

  15. I have been not-so-patiently waiting for a pox party to arrive in St. Louis. 🙂 I really really hope one gets here soon. I would no pay to get into one though, nor would I give my kids a pox sucker.

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