Search icon

Health

20th May 2023

Parents urged to avoid hosting ‘chicken pox parties’ for children

They could be very dangerous.

HerFamily

Seeing your child suffer from chicken pox is never easy, especially when they’re small.

Nobody wants to see their child in pain, but many of us know getting chicken pox is something that happens to most children.

However, doctors are now warning parents against throwing  ‘chicken pox parties’ at their homes.

Parents in the US are exposing their healthy children to kids who have the disease in a bid to have their children catch it as soon as possible.

The idea is that you can only have chicken pox once and so getting it over with in childhood saves the child from potentially catching it later on.

Some parents are now choosing to expose their kids to others with the disease instead of vaccinating them.

One doctor has warned that such parties could be seriously dangerous for kids.

Paediatrician Dr. Natasha Burgert said that chickenpox can cause severe side effects and can even be fatal.

“It’s impossible to predict,” she told Insider.

“Some kids will just get a few [chicken pox], some will die. You just don’t know, so we vaccinate everyone.

“People don’t realize that the reason we made vaccines is because they can’t kill kids.”

Earlier this week, parents in Ireland were warned over an increase in the number of cases of chickenpox being reported across the country.

The latest HPSC report on infectious diseases has shown a hike in the number of people being infected with the chickenpox.

READ MORE

Warning to parents as HPSC confirm rise in hospitalisations for chickenpox

Priest hits out at parents who refuse to pay for baptism

The newborn scrunch is going viral – but what is it?