Chickenpox as an adult

[seedcorn]

Had them. When I was a kid, people would bring their kids by to infect them so that they wouldn't get them later. Fear was that if severe enough when older that you could become infertile. Got to have those g'babies....

 

[Smart Red]

Seedcorn, I believe the theory was that males getting mumps in their later (teen and up) years would cause infertility. I never heard that about chicken pox.

I do remember families hearing about someone in the neighborhood getting one of the "normal" childhood diseases and bringing their children over for a play date in hopes of getting the illnesses over with for all their children all at once.

One of my former students managed to contract every childhood disease her brothers and sisters had, but all in the summer so she graduated high school with zero sick days from K-12. Amazing!

 

[so lucky]

I remember my brother and I being intentionally exposed to those childhood diseases, too.
Something that was a natural part of childhood is now thought of as the plague for a kid.
(I know, I know, measles are bad for fetuses...and there can be complications from other diseases. But those are pretty rare, aren't they?)
When I was growing up, measles, mumps and chicken pox were considered a mild annoyance....our parents were worried about polio.

 

[Smart Red]

Yes, getting the measles in the first trimester of pregnancy was dangerous for the growing child. There was a serious risk of birth defects. Most girls were exposed to measles early on in life to prevent that from happening.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Two kinds of measles. It is rubella that is the dangerous one.