s/o delayed vaccines question

[dcurry]

I was reading another thread about delayed vaccines. Some of my kids are up to date, but my 10 year old never had his kindergarten shots & later (because of autistic tendencies that took years of therapy to undo), and my now 6 year old only had up to his 6 month shots before we quit because of a "severe persistent reaction to the aluminum". He actually had to have outpatient surgery to remove the lump from his leg a year later. They called him a "highly reactive child". We haven't given him shots since. (Our dr. assured us there was no mercury/metals in them and that they were entirely safe, and then the reaction). (He also had autistic tendencies like no eye contact, etc, but not anymore).

 

No dr. that I've talked with has been able to give me a good schedule or even to tell me whether I should continue shots with them. Should I catch my 10yo and 6yo up on their shots? Only certain ones? Opinions? I've researched a bunch, and am still in the "waiting" phase.

 

Thanks.

[LittleIzumi]

They should be able to test for titers & then if there are any that your dc aren't immune to, your doc can tell you an appropriate schedule.

[dcurry]

They should be able to test for titers

 

What does this mean? A blood test to determine immunity?

[sleepymommy]

If it were my child that was diagnosed as "highly reactive", I would not give any vaccines unless absolutely necessary. For example, if going to an area that still had polio outbreaks, then I would do just the polio vax.

 

I don't know a whole lot about homeopathic nosodes, but they seem to be viable option if your child does get around something contagious.

 

I would also make sure that their doc is knowledgeable about diagnosing and treating the illnesses that are no longer commonly seen, such as measles, rubella, diphtheria, etc. Because they are not common, many docs just do not know what to look for. They may have only briefly touched upon the subject while in med school.

 

Ds6 had a terrible reaction to his MMR. It was after this that he went from 90% height and weight on his growth chart to dropping off the chart completely.( He has just recently finally gotten back on to about 5% height and weight.) His personality changed, he developed SPD and he hasn't been able to eat gluten, dairy or soy since.

 

I have not given him any of his boosters and I've also been very cautious with his little brother. He just got 2 polio and 1 diphtheria shot last year prior to our trip to India.

[ChristusG]

With how your children reacted to vaccines, I would have titers done for the ones you feel your children need. For us, we do not do ones like MMR, chickenpox, polio, etc. For our family, we feel our children do not need those. But for others, I would do titers for. And then go from there.

[dcurry]

Thank you so much for the thoughts. I guess I should hold off (like I've been doing). It's only two of my children who are not up to date.....

 

I still don't know what titers are, though. I'm assuming it's a blood test.

[LittleIzumi]

Thank you so much for the thoughts. I guess I should hold off (like I've been doing). It's only two of my children who are not up to date.....

 

I still don't know what titers are, though. I'm assuming it's a blood test.

 

As I understand it, titers are the amount (if any) of the virus in the blood (if the body has built up antibodies to it).

[sixglides]

Tiders are determined by a blood test. We adopted 2 children; the blood test was how the dr. determined what vaccines they needed & what they'd been exposed to.

Just an FYI, we were told to get ours checked as well, to see if our vaccines were effective. Certain diseases (Hep B, etc) are becoming more prevalent world-wide, increasing the necessity of the vaccines.

So sorry for your frustration. We have a daughter who reacted to the chicken pox vaccine, only the doctor wouldn't believe me. Took her BACK in after the 2nd dose, and, the on call pediatrician, told me, it was the ONLY case of a child reacting to that particular vaccine he'd ever seen...and he'd have blown me off too. Stick to your guts!!

[Twigs]

titers are the amount (if any) of the virus in the blood

 

Titers are a measure of the amount of antibody to the virus, not the virus itself.

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003333.htm

[SailorMom]

I am very pro-vaccine, but with your child's issues, I'd be cautious.

Get the blood test first. You might be surprised that they "caught" immunity from the kids they are around. I know this can happen for some of the vaccines (polio is one of them, I believe).

[LittleIzumi]

Titers are a measure of the amount of antibody to the virus, not the virus itself.

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003333.htm

 

Thanks. I thought that sounded a bit weird :lol:. A "titer" can be several things (including a virus titer) but this called for an antibody titer, not a virus titer, obviously. *headdesk*

[dcurry]

Thank you so much for the explanation about titers, and for your thoughts & comments. I am pro-vaccine, too, but am so hesitant to give them to two of my children. Seems they should have found a better way by now to minimize risk.