Selectivly Vax'ing and Daycare

Have you read Dr. Sears book on vaccinations? (It's called "the vaccine book", I think) He gives a good breakdown of why particular vaccines are more important than others, and which ones you could skip, if you were so inclined.
Good luck.
K.

If I had it to do over again I would handle the vaccination issue very differently.

That being said, if I had it to do over again I would not have my toddlers/babies in group-oriented child care either.

Good luck to you guys.

You may want to check with your daycare - lots require a standard set of vaccines. And, unlike public school that has an obligation to work with you around personal beliefs, daycares can simply not accept you. Good luck.

You should probably check w/ the daycare you are planning to send your son to. They may have certain ones that are a must. It is a good place to start.

Regardless of your decision to not fully vaccinate your child (which is your decision), you should be aware that your decision can and does affect other people's children as well.

Have you talked to the daycare, made them aware of your plans, and found out what their requirements are? There have been measles outbreaks in areas too and they usually get their first MMR vacc at 1 year. Personally, I am not sure I would take the chance with ANY disease. Some people I know who choose not to vaccinate believe that enough of the population is vaccinated so that their child will be fine (so-called "herd immunity") but what happens when more and more people opt out of vaccines? Have you discussed this with your pediatrician as well as the daycare provider?

Where we live you can sign a waiver not to vaccinate and that is acceptable per licensing in a large or small family daycare. I think that it is the same in a center, but am not sure.

In my daycare I see run of the mill colds and flus mostly although whooping cough and a few cases of H1N1 came through last year. But I also have several children who travel internationally and my own kids in public school, so just about anything could come through and be transmitted to a child who isn't vaccinated against it.

My good friend runs a fairly large daycare and preschool in Seattle. She does not vaccinate her daughter and has many families enrolled that selectively or don't vaccinate. She has never had any problems with her 6 year old or other children contracting any "vaccine-preventable" illness or disease. The only disease I'm really concerned with is tetanus. There's more good information at www.thedoctorwithin.com on which shots have what, likelihood of getting each disease/illness, etc. HTH!

I love that the pro-vaccine parents are still trying to tread here, their decision to vaccinate also affects their child and others around them as well. My pertussis-immunized nephews contracted whooping cough anyway and exposed my children to it. My kids got a fever for one day and nothing else btw, now they should be immune naturally for 30 years instead of the 10 my nephews will be after they finish the series!

I would consider vaccinating against Measles and Polio, both have seen a major resurgence in this country, and can easily cause disfigurement and death. Other than that, you will have to talk to the day care. They are not obligated to work with you and there concern is the safety of the kids as a whole, so they may require other certain ones. In fact, my sons school this year required a flu shot. They of course could not force us too, our option was get the shot (which we usually do not), or take him out of the school.

Just keep vaccine requirements as one of your first screening questions. Many daycares require or strongly prefer that their kids follow AMA vaccine guidelines. Not because the provider has a strong belief about vaccines but because they do not want their other parents scared off.

Beyond that, because you say you don't want any advice about vaccination, I am not sure what more support I can offer. Keep your child as healthy as possible with exercise, nutrition, and hand-washing and hope for the best. But be prepared for the natural and surprisingly positive thing that comes out of daycare...And that is an onslaught of colds, ear infections, etc. It is natural and good for your child to get sick, recover, and come out of it with a naturally stronger immune system.

Day cares are not dirty, that is what I find offensive about your post. I have over 13 years in child care and the daily washing of toys with bleach and water alone is time consuming but it is done for the safety of the kids.

I spent hours in classes to learn about food sanitation and safety, how to effectively reteach kids how to properly wash their hands because most parents don't teach them to make bubbles before just letting the soap fall off their hands not even getting them wet.

Any where you take a child that is new is going to expose them to new germs that they have to build up an immunity too. It strengthen's their immune system. At school, at church, at the neighbors house, grandparents, your best friends, they will be exposed to many more germs than at child care.

I don't care if you vaccinate of not just don't go around saying things that are not true about child care centers. They are probably the cleanest place your child will be.

Hi M.,

We, too, are selective. Along with a conservative variety of innoculations (flu, DTAP, meningitis--- we are waiting for a split-up MMR, but may change our minds and do the whole enchilada, and polio), we've also opted to get our son vaxed for Hep-B. I've worked in daycares, and while most of the adults I worked with were very careful regarding diapers/handwashing, kids aren't so meticulous. In fact, the preschoolers who wipe themselves after toileting are less-than-tidy sometimes-- it's really common for them to wipe front, back, then front, and hold onto that toilet paper.... and I can vouch for the fact that every handwashing session is not heavily supervised, so it's just too easy for kids to get each other sick, even in separate rooms. Sometimes, too, toys or play equipment is shared from room to room, so there's another opportunity for exposure, as are older siblings or adult "floaters" who relieve each other for breaks. Ideally, they should wash hands upon entering each age-group's environment, but it doesn't always happen. Yes, Ick!, that's why this one is really important to me.

If you are on Facebook, check out http://www.facebook.com/#!/vaccineinfo I'd post your question there as well.

My son was selectively vaxed til 1 year and hasn't been since and has never gotten any "vaccine preventable" disease. He's been in public preschool albeit not daycare but pretty much the exact same situation a for 2 years now. I don't see any reason you should vax your child if you've already made the decision not to. You stated that you've done tons of research so I'm hopeful that you would know the signs that something could be amiss with your child if he does catch anything. Best wishes and health to yours!

We vax most recommended vaccines on a delayed schedule and are not doing Prevnar at all. It has never been an issue. Washington state has a philosophical exemption to vaccinations. All you need to do is list the vaccines your child has NOT had on the exemption form and sign it.
If there is an outbreak of a disease that your child is not vaccinated against, he may be excluded from daycare until the outbreak is over.
Good luck!

Hi
I had a not-so-great pediatrician in the beginning who was pretty adamant about doing all the vaccinations on time and right away. For us, it was a big mistake. I had a sick preemie child whose small body didn't take well to the onslaught of vaccinations. So... I eventually changed physicians and found one who is supportive of our choice to do a delayed vaccination schedule. I asked her for her thoughts about which ones she considered crucial and she was honest with me. If possible, maybe you can consult with a like-minded physician who can help you decide if there are some priority vaccinations to have given your child's exposure in daycare. I wish you the best of luck!

Take care

I personally do not worry about vaccinated diseases. Most diseases run on trends and cycles and people get the disease whether they are vaccinated or not. History has shown this for well over 100 years and there have been arguements about them not working or being effective at preventing disease since they first came out. Anyone who is vaccinated has a compromised immune system for at least 6 weeks, so during that time you are susceptible to all kinds of illnesses, but especially the illness vaccinated against. Your son being a boy has a higher risk of vaccine reaction due to his testosterone, and of course you obviously are weighing each and every vaccine carefully with risks vs benefits. So, the thing I would recommend is to continue researching vaccines and figure out which ones you want and do not want. If you do opt for a vaccine, do it when you have time to be home or he can be in a smaller environment that doesn't expose him to so many children for at least a couple weeks. Boost his immune system with Vitamin D, healthy food and no white sugar or flour and he should do really well whether he is vaccinated or not. He will get colds and the flu from others as it is inevitable in such an environment: as children put everything in their mouths, do not cover their mouths when coughing and many parents send their children to daycare sick and with runny noses even though their immune system is weak and they will take longer to recover as they continuously pick up colds. I have seen this with my own children. I take them out when they are sick and in a couple days we are back and fully healthy while the kids they picked the colds up from are still sick 2-3 weeks later. But, it all will help to promote a strong immune system. I will say that children in daycare get far more ear infections than those who are not, so if he is susceptible to ear infections, you may want to consider a babysitter or nanny instead.

I would definately do the measles one, that is deadly and on the rise. You will need to talk to the daycares and see what they require. Some may not force it like others and that will sway your decision.

I would probably consider polio and mmr but I vaccinate my kids fully just on a delayed schedule but those have also been in the news along with pertussis. You should check with any daycares because unlike a school they don't have to provide services if you don't vaccinate so see what the minimum is that they require

MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) HIB series for menigitis as it's quite contagious and potentially fatal in a short period of time, tetanus because of the potential of slight cuts or scrapes in a communal area. Many daycares will not allow a child in who has not been vaccinated for MMR, HIB and tetanus... so check them out. The potential long term side effects of these diseases are all life altering. Talk with your pediatrician as well to see what they have to say. I'm assuming you have a doctor that agrees with minimal vaccinations.
Take good care!

I do vaccinate. I will not try to give you my opinon. I belive this sight is to help each other out not force opinions on each other. My children have always had to show an up to date immunization record to be able to attend day care. I was told that state inspections require one on file for each child. I am not sure if all states have diffrent requirements but you may need to look in to this to see if your child would be allowed to attend a daycare that is inspected by the state officials. As far as getting any other vaccine I would maybe suggest the one for mingitus. I know a child that passed very quickly from this and it was very scary. Every so often several cases of mingitus pop up in an area. Good luck with your decisions and I hope I did not upset you for responding. P. S. The one thing my kids constantly got from day care is strep throat and you can not vaccinate for that. My daughter had it 5 times in 6 months

We also have our daughter on an alternative shot schedule. I agree with some of the other posts, Dr Sears has a great book and it shows the alternative shot schedule and he explains eat disease and how serious it really is if your child gets it. My Daughter is 19 months old and has had all her DTaP, Rotavirus, PC, and HIb but nothing else. It is recommended that you split up the MMR however you can not do that now because Merck has stopped producing the single vaccines ( measles, mumps, rubella). I would suggest reading the dr. Sears book and doing the research on each disease, the side effects of the vaccines and how serious the disease actually is. I agree about daycares being dirty but pretty much anywhere where there are a lot of kids can have a lot of germs. I always have hand sanitizer with me. And i have vaccinated against the diseases that could be the most serious. So all the other ones, if she happened to get it, would be too bad.

It seems like your pediatrician and/or Dr. Sears may have advice on this matter. Also, it may be possible to ask the day care what sort of issues they are especially concerned about.