I just wanted to commend you for all the work you put into your posts! Awesomness. :)

Except, of course, that there’s not. At all.

Motherlove combined with irrationality is a scary, dangerous thing.

Kudos to you and your doctor for developing a vaccine schedule that works for you. I also spread out the vaccines and avoided doubling up and it worked well for us too.

(Wow, that reminds me — though I vaccinate multiple kids with HepA every day, I actually haven’t had the shot myself! I’m too old for it to have been included in my recommended schedule when I was a kid. Better write that down for the next time I visit the doctor…)

Thank you for the wonderful insight, its nice to know there are other people who are pro-vac but are willing to think about different aspects of all those shots!

When I was pregnant, I did all the same research, and made a decision based on the fact that our child would never be in a daycare setting. That decision was that we would wait until age 2 to start vaccinating, and then give no more than one shot per month. Period. I got the pediatrician to agree with me.

Our son was perfect and developed completely normally until 2 ½, (right about the time we had the first MMR) when he sort of slowed down. He was still breastfeeding, tho, and we didn’t really notice the slow down (my parents apparently did, tho, but chose to not tell us). He was speaking in full sentences, and interacting appropriately, etc. We continued our schedule of shots, and I ended up weaning him the month before he turned 3 (Jan of 08). Over the course of a month, he had the stress of starting preschool, and getting a horrible virus (eventually diagnosed as the flu). After the virus, his speech disintegrated. We got the child find people involved, and the doctors… got him an IEP, pulled him out of preschool., did a hearing test, MRI, CT Scan, had him evaluated for and got started with speech and occupational therapies, had an EEG, had another virus and a second regression in November, and finally this January a pediatric neurologist told us “this is autistic regression syndrome” and it’s the result of a latent virus living in his language cortex. (Which is what we’d suspected, especially after the second virus / regression). So we landed with an MD who specializes in biomedical treatment for autism, AND started the ball rolling for more specific therapy both privately and through the school. When I told the autism specialist that we’d delayed shots until he was 2 and spaced them out, the man shook my hand and told me that we’d saved him from much earlier regressions.

So. We’re making progress with the biomedical – learned a LOT, had a lot of tests… tweaked diet and vitamin supplements…. And the therapies are starting to show some improvements. In retrospect I wonder if being breastfed until January somehow helped his immune system fight a reaction from a virus that took residence in the language cortex of his brain (which was confirmed as measles via titer levels that were much too high to have been from a single vaccine). Whether that virus was actually a wild measles virus he was somehow exposed to or a somehow flawed vaccine, we will never know, nor do I need to know.

I’m glad we waiting to vaccinate because we KNOW he had a distinct regression, not a developmental delay and we know that he as a traumatic brain injury with a specific cause – a virus – not a fuzzy, nothing-you-can-do-about-it autism diagnosis that insurance won’t pay for.

What are we going to do about the rest of his shots – right now nothing. I need to get his body back in balance before we consider anything else. We’ll get titers drawn for immunity, and then decide. What I had originally decided on the chicken pox was that if he didn’t catch them on his own by age 10, we’d get the shot. I may go with the same philosophy for mumps and rubella if he doesn’t have high enough titers. The rest of them, I just don’t know.

It makes far more sense to me to require it before the child enters the 6th grade. That way the immunity is given a bit closer to the time that kids start to actually experimenting with sex and drugs…

I think the diseases are scarier than the side effects of these vaccines and, unless an allergy to the ingredients precludes it, that all children should be vaccinated. I do, however, question the wisdom of slamming new babies with so many vaccines at one time-especially since their immune systems are still developing. Spacing vaccines seems the most intelligent compromise we have right now.

If you do give the chicken pox vaccine, I would suggest having a titer drawn periodically. As far as I am aware, no one really sure how long the vaccine is effective since it is fairly new.

I received this vaccine “by choice” during my second night of boot camp when I joined the Navy in 1997 at the age of 18. With nothing but personal observation and memory of the consent forms and speech given by the drill sergeants, human testing on new GIs is the last phase prior to FDA approval for the general public.

Granted, I was not a child nor an infant, but I didn’t have any negative experiences. I don’t know anyone who did.
Years later, I’ve had it given to both of my sons and they both received the vaccine without incident. I actually felt proud and relieved to know what a risk I had taken in order to protect my children.

Anthrax, on the other hand…

I have actually done a lot of research on vaccination and worked with my ped to have a modified schedule within their parameters. My ped is very pro-vac, but I found that when I made an appointment to talk to her about it specifically, discussed it all intelligently and assured her that I wanted vaccines but to think them all through and make decisions with her opinions considered as well as MINE, she was very reasonable about it all. I preferred to space them out and see my daughter’s reactions to each shot (I’m surprised at myself for not catching the rash connection!). I would have liked to seperate the MMR shots (into an M, an M and an R), but apparently the manufacturers stopped making the seperate shots.

On the Hep B: My understanding is that they do it in the hospital because of the chance that the mother is unknowning carrying the virus and it can be passed to the baby during birth. Having been tested for Hep B (standard part of fertility testing), I know for sure I don’t have it therefore will not get that shot in the hospital with my baby that’s due in June. In fact, the likelyhood that my children will be exposed to it is pretty low, so I will wait at least a few years before them getting it.

Hep A: My understanding here is that whether or not someone is likely to need the shot (be exposed to the virus) is based on location. Some areas of the US have high exposure rates, while in other areas (like my area) it is practically non-existent. My very pro-vac doctor is fine with my kids not getting it.

Chicken pox vac: My personal plan for this is to wait until my children are going into kindergarden before getting the vaccine. If they get it prior, then they will have natural immunity. If they don’t get it, I’ll get them the vaccine. If I can expose them to it at a reasonable age prior to kinder, I’ll do it. I had thought I read that kids who get the vaccine are more likely to develop shingles earlier (like teens) than those with natural immunity. Recently, I’ve heard that it’s less likely for them to get shingles at all if they have been vaccinated. I’m guessing new research came out (based on kids who get the booster shot) since I investigated this and I’ll have to go research it some more.

Thanks for your perspective on this! I appreciate you talking about it in such a reasonable manner and discussing your thoughts behind your decisions.

As for the flu shot, you can request a thimerosol-free version for your son. They may have to order it for you, and you may have to pay for it yourself (depending on your insurance), but it is available.

5 weeks ago I was admitted to the emergency room ICU because of something that the HIB vaccine apparently prevents. Four days earlier, I had developed a sore throat that became worse every day. Then one day I woke up feeling like I couldn’t breathe – as if a mushroom were slowly growing in my throat. The first 2 emergency rooms I went to told me it was probably strep throat, took a culture and sent me home with oral antibiotics and pain killers. Because I was dizzy and it was becoming more and more difficult to breathe, I had a friend drive me to one last emergency room where they diagnosed me with Eppiglotitis.

HIB is a flu virus that can cause swelling of the epiglottis (the flap of skin that keeps food and air going in their appropriate places down your throat). In children, there’s a high chance of fatality because their airways are so small that even a little swelling shuts off their air passage. And especially in small children, the use of a tongue depressor can trigger a muscle spasm that closes off the airway immediately. Also, babies can’t tell you that they can’t breathe. If they’re able to sit up, they sit forward as if sniffing the air and they drool because they can no longer swallow their own saliva, but if you don’t know to look for that, it can become very serious in a matter of minutes.

The reason I had to go to 3 different emergency rooms is because this condition is so rare today that they rarely ever see it. The reason it’s so rare is exactly as you said: most babies get the hepb vaccine before they ever leave the hospital.

10 years ago, I was engaged to a chiropractor whose mother was a homeopathic physician. They each had many years of experience and were smart, careful, analytical people. They were adamantly against vaccinations. We broke up and 7 years ago, I met my husband, a scientist at Yale Med School ,and we started trying to have kids right away. When the discussion of vaccines came up, I told him I was against them and gave him all the reasons I had learned from the homeopathic physicians I had known and loved and believed in.

He took the time to walk me through all the studies that have been done in the past 10 years on the relationship between vaccines and autism and in the end, I could see clearly that no relation between the two has ever been found, proven, shown or even came close.

Still, in my gut, I was unconvinced. I’ve read so many stories that seemed to indicate that there was indeed some relation between the two. Just because science hasn’t been able to find that connection, didn’t convince me.

We’ve since spent nearly a quarter million dollars on IVF, egg donors and a surrogate to finally reach a point where we might have a child in our future. And I’m TERRIFIED that I’ll lose him or her due to something like this.

However, when I weigh what just happened to me against the vaccines, I’m convinced that for our baby, the HIB vaccine is a must – especially because I may be carrying some form of the virus now that could infect a new born. And if this one seemingly small thing could have killed my baby – or anyone else’s, I don’t know how I’d live with myself. What if I had come across a child who hadn’t been vaccinated in those 4 days I was walking around like a time bomb?

I can’t say that I believe everyone should be forced to vaccinate their children. But I can say that I’ve gone from being adamantly opposed to cautiously optimistic that I’ll be doing more good than harm in vaccinating my child. And I never thought I’d ever say those words…

Also, thank you for reiterating that people have the option of finding a new pedi. People often assume that what their doctor tells them is what’s best for their children.

As long as the parents are educated and have done their own research, they should make the calls.

Thanks again.

I can’t say whether or not getting the chicken pox vaccine absolutely made a difference considering they both received the vaccine and booster and had such different experiences. My daughters lesions did not seem to transform through all the stages. By comparison, my son’s lesions took 7-10 days to blister, pop and crust over, while my daughter’s took 4 days.

All in all, after seeing the agony my son went through, I would put all of my children through the vaccine and the booster again in the hope that it would prevent / at least minimize the effects.

My son got chicken pox in kindergarten last year, but the outbreak actually started in the first grade…The problem is that the infected person is contagious before and after the pox so it spreads so inadvertently.

So then my four year old got it, but very mildly. And my 18 mo. old did not get it. This is why, I think: The proximity of their vaccination. The baby had one 6 month earlier, and the 4 had the booster around the same time. My kinder had both the vaccine, and the booster, and caught it at school and not even from close contact! But it had been 18 months. The other kids who caught it had mostly had the vaccine too.

Anyway, I now advise people to get it, but not be surprised if their kiddos still come down with it! It seems to be consensus though that at least it makes the case lighter.

But my experience agrees with others in that they were both mild cases, I think because of the vaccine.

We decided to vaccinate on the Sears schedule which is basically the full schedule, but spaced out, no more than two vaccines at a time, with only one of them containing aluminum. Just a few days ago our baby girl got her first dtap shot, which was probably worse for me than it was for her.

I think that a lot of people are on the fence about the chicken pox vaccination and that sucks a bit because when they get older, missing that much school is really, really, really difficult to make up!

And I think what you wrote is very fruitful. Thank you.