Hello moms,
We decided to start with vaccinations now that my son is 3 years old. He has had any yet. For those moms who have waited...with this process, which ones did you do?? and in what order?? Any recomendations on how to explain my son mom and dad are not trying to hurt him, just helping....
Please no lectures about having waited this long to start, we have no regrets, just want to start the process now that he is older.
Thanks moms!!
I have a response to the response... Hep B vaccine is recommended by the AMA as the virus can be acquired from ANY body fluid of an infected person and the immunity acquired lasts a lifetime. No, a toddler is not likely to engage in a voluntary activity that would result in infection, but this is a crazy world and also toddlers grow up. Of course, the ultimate decision is up to you.
Hepatitis A can and has been transmitted in restaurants, in fact just here in Houston last year in a very popular restaurant... Vaccinations are not something to be dismissed and I am glad to hear you are ready to take the step =) Go MOM
If you have a doctor who understands how dangerous vaccinations can be, then they should be able to advise you on which ones to start with. Some doctors can offer separated measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations, which is preferable to the triple-shot that seems to have caused so many problems for so many, even though it means more shots and trips to the doctor overall.
And yet... MMR may not be high priority, as measles used to be a run-of-the-mill, no-big-deal disease that would give you natural and uncontaminated immunity after it passed. I just watched a Brady Bunch episode where the whole brood came down with it in one day, and the most distressing part of the show was that Mike and Carol had called in two different doctors. Measles and mumps are not generally life-threatening, so not a high priority.
I would stick to the most debilitating and deadly diseases: polio & rubella. Polio vaccinations are not supposed to use live virus anymore, so do your homework. One of the most common reactions to the chicken pox vaccine is shingles. I'd rather have chicken pox than shingles! Whooping cough is scary but treatable, survivable, and recovery will provide natural immunity. HIB is like kennel-cough for toddlers, so I wouldn't bother with that, if your kids are at home.
And whatever you do... (oops, preaching!) stay far, far away from all of the Hepatitis vaccinations. When your 3-year-old starts having unprotected sex or injecting drugs, go get it. In the meantime, you don't need it. That was crass, but for Heaven's sake, they're giving them to NEWBORNS! Ridiculous...
Read the Dr.Sears vaccination book - it gives good breakdowns on the vaccinations as well as a schedule that could probably be adapted. Please remember that there is a required minimum interval between vacinations and some vaccinations that are contradicted after a certain age (rotavirus for example. Good luck.
We started immunizations at 18 months for our daughters. I had planned to wait longer, but the day after her 18 month checkup my oldest daughter slipped and cut her forehead on a rusty rake (we were gardening}. So we began the process very slowly. Our pediatrician obviously recommended the DTaP first because they are out in dirt a lot...I don't really know how likely it is to contract tetanus from dirt, but that's what we started with. Our pediatrician said to wait on the Polio vaccine because it's less likely that they will be exposed. I would definitely talk to your pediatrician to get his or her take on what is most important. With my first daughter we did Hib as her second shot. With my second daughter our pediatrician recommended pneumococcal. I'm assuming you know that you can get an exemption from all immunizations for admission to school. There is a form you fill out and have notarized.
We did also split up the MMR shot. I think measels can be deadly and even with an exemption your child will not be able to attend school if there is a measels outbreak. My sister's pediatrician told her that if she hears of a measels outbreak she should go and have her daughters immunized immediately. I don't think Mumps and Rubella are that big of a deal. If you had a daughter, Rubella would be more important before she gets pregnant.
There is a website that gives you the catch up schedule if you are behind. Basically it tells you the minimum spacing for the shots and also tells you how many they need if you start later. With my older daughter we conveniently got the fourth DTaP after the age of four so we could eliminate that fifth one. http://www.cispimmunize.org/IZSchedule_Catchup.pdf
We just tell my five-year-old that she needs to have shots to keep her healthy. We talk about the disease the shot she is getting will prevent. We don't do it very often (one every three to six months) so it really isn't that bad. She was a pretty terrible patient around the age of three and four, but now she knows what to expect and isn't obnoxious in the doctor's office. If you start earlier they get a lot of shots when they are clueless, so it's easier on the parents, but I think it's worth it to wait.
