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September 16, 2008
A-pox-alypse
When I was a kid, I was worried about lots of things. Like the house burning down, or my cat Sam getting hit by a car, or a nuclear war destroying the world. I was a worrisome child.
One of my greatest fears, and the most realistic, was catching chicken pox. Anytime one of my classmates in school got the chicken pox, I'd keep far away, frightened that I might one day catch this horrific illness. It may as well have been the black plague. Or AIDS. I used to worry about catching HIV. I guess I still should, now that I think about it. But how's a 10-year old kid going to get HIV? (No suggestions, you pervs.)
So, eventually I did get chicken pox, in the fifth grade. It was one of the mildest cases of chicken pox you could ask for, so much so that my mom thought I'd probably get it again. I barely had any sores, it hardly itched, and I was only out of school for like a day. (Son of a bitch!)
Now, they have a chicken pox vaccine. Nevertheless, some parents are wary of vaccines - citing what I would consider a specious link to autism, for example. These parents aren't content to vaccinate their kids from chicken pox. But it's not enough to let children grow up without catching chicken pox, because it can turn into shingles when you're an adult, which I hear is kind of painful. And maybe deadly.
Instead, these parents have taken a page from swingers, dominatrixes, and anonymous sex enthusiasts: they're using the internet to arrange "chicken pox parties."
Keller did not trust the chickenpox vaccine, so she was arranging for her children to get immunity the old-fashioned way, by catching the disease from an infected child and muddling through weeks of itchiness. Such chickenpox parties were also held in the pre-vaccine era because some experts argued it was safest for kids to get the disease early in life, when the effects tend to be relatively mild.
Although most pediatricians today advise against chickenpox parties, some parents who avoid the vaccination for medical or religious reasons seek out such get-togethers on Internet message boards. Those who have tried it say the strategy takes commitment, persistence and a dose of good luck.
Keller, a stay-at-home mom from Burbank, said going to the party also required resisting some of her instincts as a parent.
"It was so ironic and strange to be driving out to this house, hoping that my kids would get sick," Keller said. "That's pretty much what you spend your entire life avoiding.
Really? It's against your nature to deliberately infect your child? I suppose it makes sense to see that it is better for your kid to get chicken pox as a child rather than risk a bad case of shingles as an adult. But, so help me God, I will never take a theoretical kid of mine to one of these. The methods some of the parents use is downright repulsive. It seems rather Goebbels-ish:
Most pox parties resemble an ordinary playdate, with extra measures to aid infection. Many parents encourage the children to share whistles, lollipops or Popsicles. One mom said her kids shared T-shirts with the infected kids, and another said they rubbed lollipops on the sores.
That, friends, is sick.
entry no. 1215
Posted at September 16, 2008 10:07 PM
Comments
My parents didn't send me to a chickenpox party, but just about everybody in my preschool got it at one time. And then my brother got it from me.
I'd rather make my kids hang out with chickenpox kids than to have shingles. That's nothing to mess with.
Posted by: Candi at September 20, 2008 04:16 PM