Chicken Pox vaccine in Europe?

[woodenshoes]

Has anyone had their child get the chicken pox vaccine in a country that does not typically administer it? We live in the Netherlands and while it is not a part of the routine vaccines here, I would like my son to have it with his 14-month shots.

I'm American and children back home regularly get this vaccination. Here the attitude seems to be that chicken pox is just one of those things every kid has to go through. A government website even says that a survey showed only 20% or so of Dutch parents would want their children to have this vaccine. I remember having them myself and don't want my son to have to go through them if he doesn't have to. Right?? (huh)

I plan on asking our pedi at his 11-month check-up but was wondering if a) it's even available in the Netherlands and b) if so, how hard I will have to push to get it. (I understand that I might have to pay out of pocket.)

Anyone want to share their overseas chicken pox vaccine story? (Bonus points if you are in the Netherlands!)

[Deleted]

Yes, as jamaicam said you can get it as a "travel" immunization in the UK.

My oldest is vaccinated because he was born in Canada and lived there until 19 months. My youngest was born in the UK and we haven't had him vaccinated.

Chicken pox went around our area several times this year. Many children in DS1s nursery got it but he never did. DS2 comes into the nursery for drop off/pick up often and he never got it. I'm not too stressed about our second (and the third I am due with) not being vaccinated against chicken pox.

I also haven't had DS2 vaccinated for Hep B and DS1 was.

[Shreddingbetty]

Personally I would've preferred natural immunity to chicken pox and pass on the vaccine...if I lived somewhere where that would be likely to happen to my child while still young (the younger they are when they get it the "easier" the disease is). However since I'm in the US and the chance of getting it here is very low I did go ahead and get the vaccine for my kiddo.
I also remember one of the ladies on here (Cheesecake but not sure she is still here since I can't find her when trying to tag her) mentioned that the chances of getting it in the NL vs USA regardless of Immunization status is much better (this was even before kids were immunized routinely). Natural immunity is lifelong and would be much better than immunity from vaccines. 
I will see if I can find cheesecake and have her chime in since she is in NL. 

[Cheesecake]

I have been found
Ues, the natural occurrence differs by area, not just because of immunization, but mostly because of climate. This is a reason why it's much more important in the Us since there are more people moving arpund through different climates.

In NL 95% of children will have had it before age 12 80% or so even before age 6)
I do indeed prefer when people don't vaccinate, because once more people start vaccinating it'll become harder to keep such awesome herd immunity without vaccinating.

Also, there are different types/strains of chicken pox, and the strains going around in NL are pretty mild, but do give natural immunity to all strains.

(I'm 100% pro vaccination BTW, not a weird no-Vax-hippie).

Sent from my Xperia Z, please don't mind typos!

[woodenshoes]

Thanks for the info, ladies! My H did read online that we could likely buy the vaccine from the pharmacy but we will definitely discuss it with the pedi first. Special thanks to Shreddingbetty and Cheesecake for giving me more to think about. I hadn't considered climate, location, or different strains playing a factor.

[jenn]

I am really late to the party and of absolutely no help with where to get the chicken pox vaccination in Amsterdam.
My little guy actually got chicken pox when we were there and lived to tell the tale They don't actually take chicken pox lightly. He wasn't allowed at school, we had to re-arrange flights back to the US for my husband's sister's wedding, and the huisarts visited us at home twice just to check and make sure it was a regular old boring case of the chicken pox and not something worse.

But whenever I had random questions like this, I would either call the expat help center www.expatcenter.nl/ or ask someone in the American Women's Club. Without those ladies, I would have been deprived of many things American for our time there (like girl scout cookies, how to bootleg my american tv shows, when poptarts were in stock at kingsall mart).