Vaccines

[SoonerTexan]

V girl...can you PM me his name? I have a few on my list but I'm not sure where to focus location-wise as we will be moving in the next year. Richardson isn't bad for work or either place we will be living.

[SoonerTexan]

PS...I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad about giving a Hep B shot to a newborn. I'm only trying to explain what my reasons for choosing not to are and why I feel they are valid. No judgement here!

[Michele]

Count me as one of the nutty delayed vax moms. After my research, I have a schedule that I feel comfortable with. I agree that the mass hysteria of autism and MMR was terrible.

As an aside, ST we used Dr Foster at Pediatric Associates of Dallas. There was one doc (not Dr Foster) there who clipped P's tongue for us. Not many peds do that anymore.

[scrub-jay]

PS...I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad about giving a Hep B shot to a newborn. I'm only trying to explain what my reasons for choosing not to are and why I feel they are valid. No judgement here!

ST- If that were addressed to me, no worries, I actually agree with you. We did it bc DH is a huge proponent for vaccines and our ped said he'd count it as the first in her hepb series (some peds don't think it counts and those babies get 4 total shots. I was very grateful at her last appt when age had shots and he said " you don't have to get the last HepB bc you got that first one!! Cut our shots down that day from 3 to 2. Might sound like a little thing, but shots aren't fun for anyone involved and our dd can tolerate 2 w/no tears, but the third starts the waterworks. Just tossing out a hidden benefit.

[scrub-jay]

I think varicella vax now requires a booster.

I've never had chicken pox and been exposed to it dozens of times. When DD1 came down with it at 6 months old, our family doc assumed that I had a sub-clinical case as a kid because I was her primary caregiver and still never caught it. They gave me the varicella vax as a precaution, though.

I think it always has, my brother was born in the late 80s and he got the vaccine as a child and had to get boosted as an adult.

[corn poffi]

It does need a booster.. I just got a hold of my immunization records before I went to China and I apparently missed my booster. Oops.

Wow I had no idea the varicella vaccine had been around for so long! I still have my suspicions about that one purely because in the UK where I'm from they do not give it routinely.
And I completely agree with Sooner Texan about the Hep B. DD has not had hers yet but will get it at some point in early childhood. I see nothing wrong with delayed vaccine schedules that catch you up by age 2 or so, as long as you have a pediatrician who will be happy for you to come in a few extra times. I probably would have split up more of DD's shots but hate taking her to the doctor exposing her to more germs! And every time I go it seems like they are combining more and more vaccines into one needle so that's tempting too.

[scarlett09]

I don't think the varicella vaccine has been around that long in the US, about 15 years? I'm in my late 20's (born in the early 80s) and I did not get a varicella vaccine. It came out when I was a teenager and I had already had the chicken pox, so it was a moot point. But my siblings who were born in the late 90s have had the varicella vaccine and neither one has had the chicken pox. I'm glad they did not have to endure the itching and oatmeal baths, lol.

[Pollyanna]

I will make a quick comment on the Sears book. It really is not a manifesto for alternative schedules or an anti-vax book but rather a book that is written to alleviate concerns about vaccines. It truly is more of an encouragement for parents to get their children vaccinated, even if it is an alternate schedule, than a vaccines are bad book. It's simple and commonsensical and will likely get people that were not going to vax at all to at least get the biggies (DPT, MMR, Polio, etc.). Those who refuse to see the truth will use it to say, "see even Dr. Sears says not to vax"(which he does not)

We didn't do Hep B at birth either. Our pediatrician let us separate the vaccines because he has known us for 14 years and we were able to have a logical and medical discussion about why we wanted to do it that way. It was not emotional in any way shape or form. That made a difference, even the nurses were like, "wow, how did you manage that, he never allows a different schedule." In terms of our insurance, the shots were all covered but we had to pay for a separate nurses visit since we did a different schedule. But I completely understand why peds won't accept patients who don't vax. They need to do CYA for themselves and their other patients, it makes sense and is reasonable to do so.

[diggitydot]

I think it became widely used in '95 or '96. DD1 was born in '95 and they had just started recommending it.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I agree with the comment that you never know when a child could be exposed. Technically, I was pregnant and exposed to hepatitis and tuberculosis in Kenya. While I certainly wasn't having sex with anyone but DH, I just think it's smart to get vaccinated on time.

[SoonerTexan]

Re: chickenpox. My siblings and I got the regular vacs in the '88-'97 period and they weren't standard then. 4 of us came down with it at once, but my mom was just happy to have it all done...except for my last sister. I think she got it a few years ago.

Technically, I was pregnant and exposed to hepatitis and tuberculosis in Kenya.

I'm going to have to check at my next appt., but I think my initial pregnancy bloodwork tested for Hep B.

[Ladybug]

I dunno, I think it's an extreme argument both ways. I feel completely comfortable encouraging families that lean toward multiple autoimmune tendencies (asthma, hay fever, eczema, food/environmental allergies, insulin-dependent diabetes, etc.) (ie: misfiring, trigger-happy immune systems) to delay certain vacs (NOT current outbreaks, like pertussis) but to still defintely get them in a timely manner because their chidlren, due to their immune deficiencies, will be the most effected by these diseases, and the most probable, small percentage of the population to suffer the worst outcomes. What kills me is when autoimmune families are the ones out there maligning vacs when they are the population that benefits the most from the general population vaccinating (herd effect). Ummmm....OK mothering.com.

As far as autism, I think it's such an emotional issue but after working with autistic children I think it's been around forever but never diagnosed and labeled to the varying degrees we use now. I think there were different labels and terms for it in the past, but maybe I'm wrong...or maybe it's a bit of both.

[HouseofWool]

My thoughts on this are thus: anyone who thinks vaxes are bad/dangerous/evil needs to go to the older section of the cemetery. Take a long walk around reading all the graves. It is heartbreaking to see all the children's graves, many families having lost multiple children. I can't even imagine living in such a world.

In our local church cemetary, there is an entire family of children that died in a single year during the polio outbreak. Five kids. Gone. I think about that.

The only vaccine that I would even consider not giving is chicken pox because of the severity of the illness later on life

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I don't know the source, so I don't even know if I should mention it. But here goes. DH said he read that
more peds are now turning patients away who are not vaccinating their children.

Our neighbors are not vaccinated and it makes me nervous for them to be around newborns. They are 10 and 11 years old.

There are letters posted on the back of every exam room door ( where u can read when the door is shut) at our peds office explaining just this. Basically. Don't want to vaccinate find someone who shares your view, but that isn't here.