Do you vaccinate

[CarenM]

I am curious who else doesn't vaccinate , who vaccinates, who does selective vaccinations or delays them.

 

We vaccinated until my son was around 2 and a half, he had a bad reaction to a vaccine and we stopped vaccinating all together. So, he has a full schedule up until that point. My daughter who is 2 years younger has had none. We don't do flu shots either.

[KungFuPanda]

:lurk5:

[thowell]

We are selective on what we vaccinate. We do not do the flu shots either. We also do not do the chicken pox shot, or the HPV shot, and I just can't decide on the meningitis shot.

[JulieH]

I fully vaccinated all of my kids. However, I fully believe my son's problems happened after his booster shots.

 

If I had to do it all over again, I would do a delayed schedule.

 

I also did decline the hepatitis vaccine that they give immediately at birth. No way were they sticking my baby immediately after birth with a vaccine.

[JulieH]

We are selective on what we vaccinate. We do not do the flu shots either. We also do not do the chicken pox shot, or the HPV shot, and I just can't decide on the meningitis shot.

 

I was not going to do the meningitis shot for dd. However, she is 19 now and just had her physical and let the dr talk her into that AND hpv. Obviously at 19, I wasn't there. I did put off hpv for several years though. sigh..

[Elm in NJ]

I fuilly vaccinate, but no more than 2 shots at a time, we don't do flu vaccines and chicken pox is done after age 12.

[Pam Wilhelm]

No vacs here.

[Punchie]

We fully vaccinate (minus the HPV at this point as they're too young and I really, really don't feel comfortable w/it). I do delay some of the shots a bit as I think the amount they want to do at one time is excessive (5 shots for my 15 mos old? No way). Our ped has no problem spreading them out a bit.

[sixpence1978]

I picked that we selectively vaccinate. Really we are closer to full vaccination, but we do not do flu shots and will decline the HPV vaccine when the children are older.

[mommaduck]

I am curious who else doesn't vaccinate , who vaccinates, who does selective vaccinations or delays them.

 

We vaccinated until my son was around 2 and a half, he had a bad reaction to a vaccine and we stopped vaccinating all together. So, he has a full schedule up until that point. My daughter who is 2 years younger has had none. We don't do flu shots either.

 

Pretty much right there. Oldest is fully vaccinated. He had no reactions (I didn't even know anything about reactions at the time). We nearly lost our second child to a vaccination reaction. We cut off her vaccinations, some of the others have had one or two, and the last three have had none. We don't do flu vax either.

[Gailmegan]

I chose option 3, but really it's 3 and 4. We only do a few and we delay them. And I am also careful about which brands so I can be sure of ingredients.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Mine are pretty much up to date. We do get the flu shot due to my ds's asthma. I have not yet decided on the HPV vax yet, but if we do it will not be soon.

[Ginevra]

I chose fully vaccinate, but I did delay some things. I chose fully vaccinate because if I had another baby, the only vaccine I would be likely to delay is the Hepatitis one at birth. That does seem insane to me. I was much more on the delayed/selective side when my last two were babies, but I was researching and didn't know what I thought. I have made up my mind towards favoring vaccines, so I chose the option closest to my beliefs now.

[Amira]

There are a few vaccines we've delayed, but in general we vax fully and on time. I'm not at all interested in getting even a familiar disease like chicken pox or the flu in some of the countries we've been in.

[BamaTanya]

We did all the recommended vax on schedule with our first 4 dc. And then discovered we had 2 dss on the autism spectrum

We have delayed vax for #5. (Still doing all, but spreading them apart.)

[BigMamaBird]

We do most vaccinations. My kids won't get the HPV shot and dh and I go around and around about Chicken Pox. We get the standard ones on time.

[Rhonda in TX]

My kids were fully vaccinated up until school age. DS was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 6 and DH said "no more" to vaccines. Now that the kids are older, we are more open to them, but in no rush to finish it up. We don't do flu vaccines.

 

DD will not be getting the HPV shot while she's a minor. If she decides to do it as an adult, I hope it's an informed decision.

[happyhomemaker25]

I chose option 3, but really it's 3 and 4. We only do a few and we delay them. And I am also careful about which brands so I can be sure of ingredients.

 

That's how it is here. I am really not comfortable with how many vaccines we pump into our infants. I'm looking for the info, but I think I saw somewhere it's like 25 vaccinations by the time they are 12m old. That's a lot of stuff to be pumping into such tiny bodies, IMO.

We do start a sort of schedule as they get older, but it's very restricted.

If my kids were in daycare or public school I would reconsider, I think.

[swellmomma]

With my first 3 I did all vax's on the time line the health unit told me to follow. Then came along my youngest. Unlike my older kids when she went for her 2 month shots they injected her with 3 needles, my oldest 3 all only had 1 at that age. Anyway, she had a severe reaction. The CDC nurse investigated I was told to not vaccinate her again unless there was more risk of getting teh actual disease(so in an outbreak for example). Skip ahead to last summer. She got attacked by a neighborhood cat. Having no vax's past 2 months old she had to have the tetanus immunoglobulin as well as the Dtap because her risk of getting tetanus was an actual possibility. The good part in that was I had spoken with the health nurse the week before, because the province was having a measles outbreak and I wanted to know the actual risk it posed to my dd. THe nurse had spent hours in contact with our ped and the cdc to gather information regarding the risk vs benefit of vaxing my dd against the measles. Anyway, having gotten the all clear for that 1 I was relieved when it came to the tetanus. We held off on the measles and did just the tetanus ones. NO reaction. Decided to start with the 4 months shots in a few weeks, no reaction. SO on we went following the initial guidelines but at an older age. If there a date that would normally involve more than 1 injection, we made 2 appts 1 weeks apart and only did 1 at a time. We still will not do the chicken pox vaccine, but otherwise now at nearly 4 she just finished up her 18 month shots, and in grade 1 will do her preschool ones etc. The health nurse has been great and is 100% on board with the pace we are going. If we could get individual vax's rather than the combined like in the case of Dtap I would but that is not available here.

 

The older 3 are all up to date, They had flu shots in the past but it is not a regular occurance, but the years I have brought a preemie home we have all had them done as a precaution. DD12 has had the first HPV vax as well. My grandmother died from cervical cancer so it hits too close to home for me. DD and I had many many discussions before she had the vax, we read up about it online etc and I let her chose if she wanted it. She did. SHe is terrified of needles but was willing to have it done if it would prevent her getting cancer down the line.

 

If I ever had another baby I would do a delayed vax schedule, and not start before 2 years old like I did with my youngest dd. I like having them fully protected, it gives me a huge peace of mind BUT I will not risk another infant to the vax's either. The Ped thinks dd's reaction might be because at 2 months old her corrected age was only 3 weeks, and they injected A LOT that day. Not going to happen again.

 

ETA: my oldest 3 also had a meningitis shot during an outbreak years ago. I only found out last week that that particular one was only good for 3 years. When they get their grade 9 tetanus booster they will be getting a new meningitis one as well. I forgot about that one

Edited August 10, 2011 by swellmomma

[littlebug42]

My children are mostly vaccinated. We do not do flu shots and will not do the HPV shot. We have done the chicken pox shots and will also do the meningitis ones.

[swellmomma]

I also did decline the hepatitis vaccine that they give immediately at birth. No way were they sticking my baby immediately after birth with a vaccine.

 

This is one we don't have here in Canada. Well in Alberta at least. Hep is given in grade 5 as a series of 3 shots. Why are they giving it to newborns?

[Parrothead]

We fully vaxed until dd was 2. Then she had a reaction to (I think it was) the Hep B shot. We only selectively vax now. She recently got the tetanus booster.

[Parrothead]

This is one we don't have here in Canada. Well in Alberta at least. Hep is given in grade 5 as a series of 3 shots. Why are they giving it to newborns?

Because the powers that be are in the pockets of big pharma.

[justamouse]

You need more options. We delay and are selective.

[justamouse]

Because the powers that be are in the pockets of big pharma.

:iagree:

 

The sheer # of vaccinations our kids get nowadays is staggering. Not as many are required in the UK.

 

I remember the Dr. of Pharmacology telling me years ago to NOT get the chickenpox vaccine because the kids would later get shingles. And he was right because now in front of every pharmacy in town is a sign for "get your shingles vaccine here!"

Edited August 10, 2011 by justamouse

[LittleIzumi]

Selective and delayed but I could only pick one. :tongue_smilie: Good thing too, since ds ended up having an egg allergy (MMR contains egg). I was also told to not bother with the varicella vaccine at the (pro-vax) pedi's office.

[NicAnn]

We have not vaccinated. Except for certain circumstances, I don't support the vaccination of small children, especially on the standard schedule.

 

There are a few DD will never get, for religious reasons...particularly varicella/chicken pox and the MMR.

 

I am going to re-research the DTaP, because I've been thinking of it lately.

[RahRah]

Very selective and delayed.

 

I am going to re-research the DTaP, because I've been thinking of it lately.

 

We opted for a pediatric DT instead of the DTaP since DS was older than 2 when we vax'ed for tetanus. I'm not sure if it's still true now or not, but when we decided on that, there wasn't a stand-alone tetanus for kids, just the DTaP or DT.

[Mom22ns]

I chose option 3, but I really wanted an other. We fully vaccinated for the first 2 yrs of ds's life. He is autistic spectrum (first started regressing at about 2 1/2) and was diagnosed with seizures at 3. Our ped worked with us to pick the vaccines that were most important and put those on a delayed schedule.

 

Dd has all the typical vaccines, but we still don't do the optional ones. No flu shots, no HPV (yet at least), no meningitis (although the universities here requires it so we probably will at some point). She has had a pneumonia vaccine which we did after she had pneumonia THREE times in one school year. We did the vaccine once she was fully healthy again and she has never had pneumonia again.

 

If I had more kids and if anyone asks my stance, I say delay and spread out. I am not anti-vaccination, but I am anti current vaccine schedule recommendations which are a huge assault on the immune system of infants and toddlers.

[stripe]

My kids had had most of their shots by 18 mo or so, i think, so I don't recall still having a regular slate at 2 1/2.

 

Anyway I just wanted to point out that even parents who fully vaccinate per the guidelines are choosing the shots their kids get. Shots don't just happen -- you have to take the kid to the doctor and consent to them.

[stripe]

This is one we don't have here in Canada. Well in Alberta at least. Hep is given in grade 5 as a series of 3 shots. Why are they giving it to newborns?

 

Because older children and teenagers are less likely to have health insurance and a regular doctor. Welcome to the great American health care system.

[LisaKinVA]

We delay and select.

[KrissiK]

Our children are vaccinated because when they were younger we had no choice, they were in the foster care system. We do keep up with their boosters, though and my ds with asthma gets a flu shot every year.

[NanceXToo]

I put fully vaccinate; the only thing we don't get is flu shots, and I haven't accepted the gardisil as of yet, but other than that, we've always vaccinated fully. With my youngest (now almost 6) the only thing I did was not allow too many shots in one visit when he was a baby, we'd go back another day to get one or two those times when they wanted to do 3 or 4 vaccinations at once.

[kreistetter]

We don't do the flu vaccines. Not convinced I would vaccinate if I had it to do over.

[Leav97]

This is one we don't have here in Canada. Well in Alberta at least. Hep is given in grade 5 as a series of 3 shots. Why are they giving it to newborns?

 

Because the younger you are infected with Hep, the more likely you are to have life long complications. But, within hours of birth is (IMHO) crazy.

[Lady Florida.]

We fully vaccinate on schedule, including the flu shot.

[curlylocks]

We do only Tetanus vaccines.

[astrid]

Dd is fully vaccinated, with the exception of HPV.

 

astrid

[BeckyFL]

:iagree:

I picked that we selectively vaccinate. Really we are closer to full vaccination, but we do not do flu shots and will decline the HPV vaccine when the children are older.

 

Same here.... no HPV and usually no flu shots.

[Laura Corin]

The boys have been fully vaccinated, with additional jabs from living in interesting places: TB, japanese encephalitis, rabies, typhoid... The boys are not in the high risk groups recommended to have flu vaccines, so they (and I) don't. Husband has asthma, so he does.

 

Laura

[Mert]

We meant to delay and started doing our research about which ones to do when ds turned 2. We realized that many of the vaccines were to help babies and toddlers until their systems could fight off the diseases themselves. So now we haven't done any. We're still considering tetanus and c pox if he hasn't gotten them naturally by the time he's in his teens.

[Runningmom80]

Selective and delayed

[alpidarkomama]

We do all recommended vaccinations. One DD has a hard time getting multiple vaccinations at one time (she was adopted at 2, so her first time at home was at age 2 and she had a lot of leg pain for a couple of days), so I make multiple visits to take care of hers. The others have no reactions to vaccinations.

[nmoira]

We don't mess around with HIB, DPT, MMR, though we did delay the MMR until 24 months instead of 18 as we weren't in a daycare situation and there is some research showing it's more effective at 24 months. Also boosters.

 

The whole family gets flu shots now. I'd never actually had the flu until a two-and-a-half years ago, and I never want to go through that again if it can be prevented.

 

Both girls had chicken pox, so no vax for it.

 

The rest they'll get before 12.

[WiseOwlKnits]

We vaccinate, but on a delayed schedule. DD has had everything except Hep A, which her ped says she doesn't need since she's not in public school and required to have it and we're not planning a trip out of the country, and Chicken Pox, which I'm hoping she'll catch on her own. We'll vaccinate for CP when she goes to middle school if she hasn't caught it before then.

 

DS hasn't had Hep A (same reason), Chicken Pox (same reason), or MMR. I had a bad reaction to MMR as a child and the pediatrician recommends waiting till right before he enters K to do the MMR vaccine. This was also her recommendation for DD. She didn't have any issues with it so I'm hoping DS won't either.

 

We'll start vaccinating DD2 when she's ~6 months old, but we only do 1 shot at a time and I don't vaccinate during the winter when a shot might compromise their immune system and make them more likely to pick up a bug that's going around.

 

ETA: We sometimes do the flu vaccine and sometimes don't. DS had RSV as a baby and had long-term lung damage from it (he's fine now). So when DS was younger, we all got the flu vaccination to try to help him not get it since he had a lot of lung problems anytime he got sick. When he was old enough to get it too, he got it. Last year was the first year we didn't get the vaccine and no one caught the flu. This year we'll probably all get it to help protect DD2 from getting it since she's coming right at the start of flu season.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Hill Country Classical Academy

[Firefly]

We selectively vaccinate. Definitely no flu or HPV though.

[daffodil]

We selectively vaccinate.

[Princess Peach]

We fully vaccinate our kids.

 

We do not get flu shots nor the HPV shot.

[Marie in Oh]

and are selective.

 

No chicken pox or Hep B, though we've been traveling abroad all summer and our very conservative Ped suggested it would be good to get it because of the prevelence, so we did get the ones who didn't have it.

 

The reason they do Hep B's at birth is because a mom can pass it to baby and if they are Vaccinated within the 1st 24 hours they are less likely to contract it. If you get prenatal care, they test you for it when they do the Prenatal panel. If you are negative, you are supposed to be given the option to wait til 2 months.

 

HPV is still up in the air. Again, our very conservative Ped makes a strong case for HPV for girls leaving the household. Not at age 9 or 12, or whenever the mainstream is suggesting it, but for girls leaving the protection of their father's household for college, or if that doesn't ever happen, if it is necessary before marriage. I figure by then, it will have been out for a long time and it will have little more safety data behind it. With 5 girls, it is something I've got to consider. I appreciate my Dr.'s conservative stance on the issue.