The Canadian Paediatric Society is recommending parents vaccinate their children twice against chicken pox. The double dose of vaccine has been common practice in the United States for the last five years. Now Canadian pediatricians say there's evidence suggesting two shots offer better lifetime protection against the virus.

Julie Wawryk's children have already been vaccinated so she hasn't given chicken pox a second thought, until now.

"So far the vaccinations have worked for me, knock on wood, so yeah, I would be willing to do that again," she said.

The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) is now saying there's evidence to suggest that without a second dose, children begin to lose their immunity to the vaccine as they get older.

Dr. Grant MacDougall, a Winnipeg pediatrician, says chicken pox in childhood could mean shingles in adults. Shingles is a painful, blistering rash caused by the same virus.

"Normally if you've had chicken pox, the virus gets in your body. It stays there all your life and can come out again as shingles. So if you've prevented it as a child, two shots would certainly completely prevent it. Then you won't get shingles as an adult," explained Dr. MacDougall.

CPS recommends the first does be given to children 12-18 months-of-age. Then the second does when they're between four and six-years-old. It also says two shots should be given to teens who have never had chicken pox.

Jodie Chance is a mother of a nine-month-old child. She said that if two doses do work best, then that's what she'll get for her son.

"I wouldn't want him to suffer with chicken pox. Or even later in life with anything else. If it happens to bring on shingles or whatever, I wouldn't want him to suffer at all," the mother said.

One dose of the chicken pox vaccine is currently covered in Canada. Ontario is the only province that also covers a second dose of the drug.

Before there was a vaccine available, CPS says 5,000 Canadians were hospitalized with chicken pox every year. A second dose of the vaccine will cost about $85.

-With a report from CTV's Caroline Barghout