Hi, Pockett! Thank you for reading - and commenting! What fun for your mum to have had had a bunch of itchy scratchy kids all at once! My three youngest got it - Eric - 5 - brought it home from school and my two babies got it- one 10 months old, and one 3 months old. The littlest one got it sooo bad - he was absolutely covered in blisters.

As a homeopath, the vaccine disturbs me (as they do in general!). Childhood illnesses are essential for kids' immune systems to develop properly. We often see a growth spurt - certainly mentally - in kids after childhood illnesses. They're supposed to get them. Suppression of them can actually cause more harm than good.

Hah! I just had a fun memory. Waking up when I was about 5 or 6?? Not sure - noticed in my mirror that I had a few spots on my face. I thought it was interesting and called out to my mom that I had them.

She came tearing into my bedroom in a panic, freaking out and acting like it was a big deal. I didn't know what the fuss was all about.

My only other memory of having it was sitting in my dad's big armchair watching kids' morning shows one day (Mr Dressup, Friendly Giant, Chez Helene...the usual Canadian goodies!) and trying really hard not to scratch. I remember sneaking a few scratches in and trying not to get caught :)