Monthly RSV Shot ... ?

I say whatever it takes to prevent RSV. My son got RSV when he was 3 months old. It was so bad! I say if it can be prevented, then by all means do what it takes. My son was in the hospital a week for it. His little skin clung to his rib cages when he was trying to breathe. They were to the point of putting him in mist tents for it, when he started to get over it. I had to buy a breathing machine and give treatmennts for about 3 months afterwards. Like I said, do what it takes to prevent this. It is really bad stuff!

S.

If you can get approval from insurance, go for it. I work in a pedes office, and we had a baby in about 2 months ago, who was a premature twin, and his brother died at birth. His parents brought him into the office "because he didn't look good" (failed to mention the history of this baby, but that's another story!) and it turned out his blood ox was 76. We admit patients if their blood ox is 92 or less. He crashed in the office, and literally almost died. The diagnosis was RSV. Don't mean to scare you, but it's very serious with babies with the health history that yours have.

I'd definitely get the Synagis shots for your sons. My twin daughters were born at 24 weeks. One of our daughters died in the hospital and the other came home after 100 days in the NICU. Our surviving daughter received Synagis shots for her first two winters (she was born in August, but came home in November) and she never got RSV. I'd say even at $2,000-$3,000 a month - it is well worth the alternative. Most insurance companies will pay for it since your babies were preemies, but don't be surprised if it takes some work on your end. I spent many hours on the phone with the insurance company and the doctor's office about my daughter's Synagis. But, with persistance (and talking with several different people at the ins co if you don't get the answer you want the first time) - it worked out. Also, if your ins company balks at it, talk to the person at your doctor's office that files claims, often they can help too. Even different pediatricians handle the filing of Synagis claims differenly - with one doctor we were going to have to pay almost the full amt. with another doctor we only paid a portion of the shot cost each month.

Good luck. Congratulations on your boys!!

S. B. in Kansas

My foster daughter was 8 months old when I got her and that winter she got one shot (by then she was about 16 months old). I don't know how they did it the winter before I got her. In the bag she came with, there was a medical waste disposal box with several used needles in it, so they may do it once a month for the first winter.

B.

J. my twins were born at 27 weeks. They were 3 months early. We had to do the RSV shot from the first of Oct to the end of March. This shot has to be gaven every 29 days. I am glad that we did the shot. I feel that the shot is a good thing. We were very lucky that our twins did not get RSV. I do know of people who had children that did get RSV. They only had to have the shot for the first year. The reason they did not have to have it the second year was that they wre gaining weight our doctor said that the ins would not approval it for the second year. I was ok with that because they were not going to daycare. They had grandma's and a aunt to watch them when we were at work. My twins just turn 5 in June. The shot help to protect them. Other thing you need to rememeber is that when it is cold you do not want any that has a cold to be around your twins. Anytime we had friend who want to come over and see TJ and Carissa. If we knew that that they had a cold or were sick. We would not let them in the house. I was lucky that I did not go back to work tell they were 5 month and my mom came and took came of them when I was teaching. When it come to RSV you do not want to play with it. If I can help you out with any more advance on the RSV shot just let me know.

My middle boy was not premature but developed RSV when he was 9 months old and we battled lots of problems and hospitalizations for that winter.

Fight for those shots. A weeks worth of effort each month is worth a lot more than two sick babies for a harrowing season and dealing with the medical problems afterward.

J.,
I have two sons that were born premature. Kaleb got a the RSV shots. I had him in Feb of 2001. And our insurance paid for Kaleb to get the shots. Andrew was born premature in May of 2004. Our insurance would not pay for the RSV shots. That was still after the doctor wrote in saying that our son need the shots durning Nov. to March. With both of the boys we were very careful how could hold them and where we took them.

Both of mine were premature, one at 35 weeks and one at 37 weeks, one in December and one in February. They both got the shot in the hospital but our insurance wouldn't cover the cost for monthly shots. It was such a scary time, we couldn't afford the shots and I had a close friend who's son got RSV and it was terrible. We were lucky, neither got RSV, but we have a good situation at home, no daycare, my mom keeps our kids at our house while we work, so there was very little exposure to others. If you can get it, I say get it.

Our son was born 6 weeks early (Dec 2005), spent 11 days in the NICU & he received the shot in Dec, Jan & Feb. After that, the Insurance decided he no longer needed it. I was unsure about the shot & I still am. He didn't seem to have any issues with the shot, but I'm not sure it was necessary. At the time, it had only been used for about 7 years (if I remember right) so there wasn't much info on longer term effects. Are you breast feeding? The antibodies they receive from the breast milk will help protect them from illnesses. You can also give them natural multi vitamins to help boost the immune system. Also, if you are able to keep your boys at home during the winter months, make sure everyone around them washes their hands & keep sick people away, they should be fine. I didn't want to give my son the shot, but the nurses in the NICU made me feel like a horrible mother if I didn't. 1st time mom & emergency C-section due to high blood pressure... didn't take much to put me on a guilt trip. It's kind of sad that I wasn't able to say no to the shot, but the insurance company was & that was ok. Here's a couple sites I found when I researched the shot. http://www.rsvprotection.com/risk_factors/risk_factors.aspx & http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/palivizumab_ad.htm . They don't tell you much & the nurses & doctors couldn't answer any questions I had. They just said you must do it to keep your son from getting sick. Again, since you can stay home with your boys, you should be able to protect them from getting sick. One thing I didn't like was the company who gives the shot came to our house to give our son his 2nd shot at home. Sounded good at first, this way we didn't have to expose him to sick kids at the doctor's office. She asked questions and inspected our home like we were bad parents. It was a very uncomforatable feeling. So if you do the shots, go to the doctor's office so you don't have to go through this. If you let the office know when you check in that your boys are preemies, they should try to get you in a room to keep them away from the sick patients. Our doctor's office did.
One more thins...Here's a website that sells signs to help keep germy hands off of preemies. I had one & think it helped a little: http://www.mytinyhands.com/ . Just make sure you do what feels right for you. Take care of those little guys. You'll be amazed at how fast the first year flies by!

My daughter was born at 26 weeks and my son at 28 weeks so they both received the shots. My daughter only had them for the first year because she was born in June, but my son had them the first two years because he was born in December. The shots are very costly and it depends on their weight how much they need. My son was weighing in the mid to upper teens this past winter and he was already having to have two viles which ended up being around $3000 for each shot. I think the cost completely depends on your insurance company and how much they will pay. It is not considered an immunization so with our ins. it fell under the medical which meant they pay less. Neither one of my children have had any problems with RSV but I don't know that I could say that if they didn't receive the shots. I saw Optioncare was listed in another response and we went there in OKC and did not have a good experience. While going there we had a change in our health insurance and they failed to tell us that the change was going to effect how the shots were covered and just sent us this enormous bill after one of the shots. They were not willing to work with us on payments they just wanted their money immediately. For a bill of almost $2000 I think that is asking a little much. The advice I have is to be careful of who you go to for the shots and talk to your insurance company about what portion they will cover. You can find lots of info. about RSV on the web. If you would like more info. from me please don't hesitate to ask. I hope all of this helps you.

i tried to get my insurance to pay for the the synagis vaccine but we were denied 3 times; we had mutiple risk factors, low birth weight, born before 34 weeks gestation, and that he goes to a day care facility, however, they were not enought because he was born in april of 2006 and by the time the RSV season started he was already 6 months of age; the shots are super expense if insurance does not pay; your children may have more risk factors like a lung condition that may qualify them for the insurance to pick up the bill, good luck!; we just avoided large crowds and cigarette smoke especially around Nov-Mar and we are planning on being just as careful this year

HI there,
My son was born 6 weeks early in August 2005 and he got the synagis shot every month from Oct to March and it was approved with the insurance so we paid $35 each visit. We got them at a place called Optioncare located on Sheridan between 61st and 71st (in Tulsa). It was great.. and he has yet to get RSV (he's turning two next month). It was also fun to get him weighed and measured every month when we were so focused on getting him to grow and gain weight. He spent 5 weeks in the NICU at Saint Francis and went home on an apnea monitor. You shouldn't have any trouble since your twins were born earlier than my son. The only issue I can see is that they will be over 6 months old when RSV season starts... sometimes insurance companies have requirements about being younger during RSV season. My son wasn't elligible to get them this last winter. He was fine, but we kept him out of the church nursery (that's the only childcare he's ever been in) during the winter.

I had a great experience with the synagis shot and the place where we got them. The nurses there were all really nice. We had Community Care HMO insurance at the time.

Hope that helps,
E.

Hi J.,
I have never heard of this before but you may want to do some research to make sure these shots are needed for the amount of money they are. And I'm not saying that this is what should decide but I would make sure the benefits outway the risks.

My son was 2 months early last october, and had to have the RSV shot, once a month from october until April 20, he got his last one! They are VERY expensive, closer to $2000, per vile,per baby, per month, and if they get too chubby, they may need two viles which you still pay for all of vile even if they only use a drop out of number 2. I am sure they will give you a pamphlet about it, but from mine it basically states what you probably already know, since they were premature they did not receive all the virus fighters from you, Synagis gives them antibodies to fight for a whole month, hence why they are needed every 28-30 days. There are small side effects, which accompany nearly all meds, examples in this brochure are upper respiratory tract infection, ear infection, fever, and runny nose. Which it is very clear that these are not common, just has happened, so don't fear. In my opinion, this is well worth the money! Knock on wood, but my son has yet to get sick until now, and it is only allergies from all the rain we've had in OK. He is almost nine months old and not even an ear infection, and I only breast fed for two and a half months... He maybe just a healthy baby, but I attribute it to this shot. They told us they may even recommend he take it again this year, which i will not decline if my insurance will allow. Because I have a friend whose daughter contracted RSV and was in ICU on ventilators when she was 6 months old! I'm sure you never wanna go there again! Hopefully I didn't frighten you, and may have provided some help.