It's been a while, but I remember having to bring in my vaccination record to be able to enroll in school and if you were missing one, they had a nurse on campus to give you one otherwise you were sent home. Do they not do this anymore?
Yes, but unfortunately super special people write letters of fake religious exemption and get through on that.
There is also a difference between what vaccinations are required for school and what is recommended by the cdc. We will meet school requirements
flerlgirl said:
MorganW24 said:
Ladies, at the end of the day we all get to make the choices we feel are best for our children. No one is going to feel exactly the same way about ANY of the parenting choices we make whether it's about vaccines or breastfeeding or parenting styles etc. If you make the choice to vaccinate your child or not it is strictly your choice based off what you believe is best. What's right for our family isn't going to be exactly the same as what's right for your family.
But this argument makes no sense for vaccinations. This isn't how you bedsharing or starting solids at four months doesn't affect me so I shouldn't judge. My child is immunocompromised and other people not vaxing affects me a lot more than I would like it to. Andplusalso, didn't you start this thread, @morganw24? We have discussed this several times before so you had to know what most of our responses would be. I call shenanigans.
-----quote fail------
Ditto. Not vaccinating your child is NOT a personal decision since it affects everyone your child comes into contact with. This would be like saying that you think it should be allowed to fire guns into the air for New Years Eve because it's your personal decision on how to celebrate the holiday. There is a possibility that your bullets may land safely, but there is a very great risk that your bullet will fall on someone's head. The more people decide to start firing guns in the air (ie, not vaccinating) the more chance everyone has of accidentally getting shot.
@pepper6: I agree that for the large part vaccinations are a good thing. I'm not a hippy living out in a hut planning on feeding my child leaves and berries and never interacting with the world. I NEVER said that we are not vaccinating. I said that we are delaying our vaccination schedule and will opt out of certain ones. We will meet the requirements for our child attending school because it is a greater common good, We will however do vaccinations at an older age and more spaced out. I do believe it is a personal decision when they are injecting anything into my child's body.
@pepper6: I agree that for the large part vaccinations are a good thing. I'm not a hippy living out in a hut planning on feeding my child leaves and berries and never interacting with the world. I NEVER said that we are not vaccinating. I said that we are delaying our vaccination schedule and will opt out of certain ones. We will meet the requirements for our child attending school because it is a greater common good, We will however do vaccinations at an older age and more spaced out. I do believe it is a personal decision when they are injecting anything into my child's body.
You contradicted yourself. You are selectively vaccinating. Which ones are you opting out of? And why wouldn't you vaccinate according to CDC recommendations?
@pepper6: I agree that for the large part vaccinations are a good thing. I'm not a hippy living out in a hut planning on feeding my child leaves and berries and never interacting with the world. I NEVER said that we are not vaccinating. I said that we are delaying our vaccination schedule and will opt out of certain ones. We will meet the requirements for our child attending school because it is a greater common good, We will however do vaccinations at an older age and more spaced out. I do believe it is a personal decision when they are injecting anything into my child's body.
I understand that, and that example wasn't necessarily directed to you personally, but just the use of the "what I do with my kids is none of your business" argument. When it comes to public safety, it's absolutely everyone's business, so the use of that ideal in any vaccination debate just kind of rubs me the wrong way. As long as kids ARE vaccinated, and within a reasonable time frame to provide the benefits of the vaccine to them and those around them, then I agree that the exact schedule is at the parent's discretion, but it still doesn't justify saying that "it's no one's business"...if that makes sense.
Because vaccines have all but eradicated them. *hits head on desk* so if everyone had the same thoughts as you they would become more prevalent again!!!!!11
Do you think we could heard all the non-vaccinated people together so they don't infect the rest of us? They have peanut free tables at schools, how's about non-vaxed schools and communities. I guess a gal can dream.
If you choose to vaccinate your child then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Yeah, but kids who couldn't be vaxed due to health issues should probably know where it's safe to sit.
***
Or if they're the one kid in 100,000 for whom the vaccine doesn't take.
@MorganW24, you are an idiot. Even if my kid gets her shots, she can still get sick from your kid that never got it's shots.
MISCONCEPTION #2. The majority of people who get disease have been vaccinated.
This is another argument frequently found in anti-vaccine literature - the implication being that this proves vaccines are not effective. In fact it is true that in an outbreak those who have been vaccinated often outnumber those who have not - even with vaccines such as measles, which we know to be about 98% effective when used as recommended.
This is explained by two factors. No vaccine is 100% effective. Most routine childhood vaccines are effective for 85% to 95% of recipients. For reasons related to the individual, some will not develop immunity. The second fact is that in a country such as the United States the people who have been vaccinated vastly outnumber those who have not. Here's a hypothetical example of how these two factors work together.
In a high school of 1,000 students, none has ever had measles. All but 5 of the students have had two doses of measles vaccine, and so are fully immunized. The entire student body is exposed to measles, and every susceptible student becomes infected. The 5 unvaccinated students will be infected, of course. But of the 995 who have been vaccinated, we would expect several not to respond to the vaccine. The efficacy rate for two doses of measles vaccine can be higher than 99%. In this class, 7 students do not respond, and they, too, become infected. Therefore 7 of 12, or about 58%, of the cases occur in students who have been fully vaccinated.
As you can see, this doesn't prove the vaccine didn't work - only that most of the children in the class had been vaccinated, so those who were vaccinated and did not respond outnumbered those who had not been vaccinated. Looking at it another way, 100% of the children who had not been vaccinated got measles, compared with less than 1% of those who had been vaccinated. Measles vaccine protected most of the class; if nobody in the class had been vaccinated, there would probably have been 1,000 cases of measles.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/6mishome.htm
@MorganW24, you are an idiot. Even if my kid gets her shots, she can still get sick from your kid that never got it's shots.
MISCONCEPTION #2. The majority of people who get disease have been vaccinated.
This is another argument frequently found in anti-vaccine literature - the implication being that this proves vaccines are not effective. In fact it is true that in an outbreak those who have been vaccinated often outnumber those who have not - even with vaccines such as measles, which we know to be about 98% effective when used as recommended.
This is explained by two factors. No vaccine is 100% effective. Most routine childhood vaccines are effective for 85% to 95% of recipients. For reasons related to the individual, some will not develop immunity. The second fact is that in a country such as the United States the people who have been vaccinated vastly outnumber those who have not. Here's a hypothetical example of how these two factors work together.
In a high school of 1,000 students, none has ever had measles. All but 5 of the students have had two doses of measles vaccine, and so are fully immunized. The entire student body is exposed to measles, and every susceptible student becomes infected. The 5 unvaccinated students will be infected, of course. But of the 995 who have been vaccinated, we would expect several not to respond to the vaccine. The efficacy rate for two doses of measles vaccine can be higher than 99%. In this class, 7 students do not respond, and they, too, become infected. Therefore 7 of 12, or about 58%, of the cases occur in students who have been fully vaccinated.
As you can see, this doesn't prove the vaccine didn't work - only that most of the children in the class had been vaccinated, so those who were vaccinated and did not respond outnumbered those who had not been vaccinated. Looking at it another way, 100% of the children who had not been vaccinated got measles, compared with less than 1% of those who had been vaccinated. Measles vaccine protected most of the class; if nobody in the class had been vaccinated, there would probably have been 1,000 cases of measles.
Please read my last post to pepper6. We will meet all required vaccinations to attend school. I'm vaccinating my child on a delayed schedule, not avoiding them all together.
As a medical professional, we will absolutely be vaccinating our child.
I respect others' opinions about not wanting to vaccinate their children, however, when those opinions/decisions are self-serving and ultimately put others (especially infants/children who are too young to receive certain vaccines at time of exposure) at risk, then my blood boils.
I found out after getting pregnant that I don't have immunity to chicken pox. I had it as a kid, but it didn't take. I can't get the vaccine til after baby. If you choose not to vaccinate your kids, please hang a warning sign around them for the rest of us who are at risk of birth defects and illness if exposed. Maybe, "warning: public health hazard."
This may be a stupid question, but if you had the chicken pox as a kid do you still need to have the vaccine? I'm not even sure there was a vaccine for it when I was a kid.
This may be a stupid question, but if you had the chicken pox as a kid do you still need to have the vaccine? I'm not even sure there was a vaccine for it when I was a kid.
MOST people develop immunity. Some don't. I had no clue until my midwives did my blood work and said I was one of those few who didn't develop a resistance. Sometimes happen if the kid has a mild case.
This may be a stupid question, but if you had the chicken pox as a kid do you still need to have the vaccine? I'm not even sure there was a vaccine for it when I was a kid.
MOST people develop immunity. Some don't. I had no clue until my midwives did my blood work and said I was one of those few who didn't develop a resistance. Sometimes happen if the kid has a mild case.
Another point about titers/immunity, some healthy (not immune compromised) people never develop immunity even after repeat boosters. A friend of mine had insufficient immunity on her MmR titer, so she got re-vaccinated, titers still came back insufficient. They did one more booster and she still shows no immunity on her titers. Not a reason to not get vaccinated, just an interesting tidbit on immunity.
This may be a stupid question, but if you had the chicken pox as a kid do you still need to have the vaccine? I'm not even sure there was a vaccine for it when I was a kid.
I was given the vaccine a few years ago even though I had chicken pox. I was told it was supposed to reduce my risk of shingles even though I had chicken pox. So that's why I didn't think delaying chicken pox for awhile or even allowing to make that choice as an adult was okay. I hope I wasn't given bad info.
Def vaccinating. I have a friend who chose not to and when she went to register her child for school she had to play catch up on all the vaccinations.
Too many potentials out there if you don't.
Flu is a separate discussion but after the out break of it here locally and 12 deaths in Middle TN due to the flu (H1N1 has been hitting many, showing up in several as pneumonia and takes and turns worse in the matter of hours) my kids have gotten the flu shot.
This is probably not useful for anyone on here already KU, but since we're discussing it I'll mention it just in case: If you have not had chicken pox, and are over roughly age 30 (before they had the vaccine available) GET YOURSELF TITER TESTED.
I was always terrified of getting the virus as an adult -- when it's much worse -- because I never had it as a kid. (And I'm far too old to have gotten the vaccine as a kid.) I asked my doc about getting the vaccine and she put me off for the longest time. She is generally a wonderful doc but on this point she insisted I probably had it young and didn't remember.
Finally, I really pushed her on it and brought up the fact that I was planning to get pregnant soon and didn't want to risk exposure to the fetus. Finally she relented, saying the whole time, "I'm sure this is going to come back positive for exposure."
Well, as I expected, I had ZERO immunity to chicken pox. I got the vaccine and now I'm protected, also vastly reducing my risk of shingles.
My point is: Most docs will not even think about recommending this vaccine because it's so common for adults to have already had it/been exposed to it. But not all of us have.
And while chicken pox isn't going to kill any of us as adults, I would never forgive myself if I got it and passed it on to my LO (or someone else's) or an immunocompromised person who could get much sicker from it.
We do an extremely modified schedule. Baby never gets more than one needle at a time or more than one needle a month unless a series specifically calls for it for the sake of efficacy. We delay many, many vaccines.
Flu and roto are just not happening.
Varicella, Hep B and Hep A will happen in elementary or middle unless we are out of the country.
In THIS developing country in which we currently live - Hep B and Hep A are very real concerns from very early on so DD had those around age 1. If we were stateside we would delay those a few more years. Very little risk at such an early age. I feel reasonably confident that I can control my daughter's sexual impulses and behavior until AT LEAST age 5 and the blood supply is safe.
We prefer natural immunity IF we can get it which is our reason for delaying things like varicella. If natural immunity doesn't happen - then vaccination can happen once chicken pox actually poses more risk than a minor inconvenience - around middle school.
It may become necessary for us to vaccinate for things that Americans don't even dream about - yellow fever, typhoid, rabies, enchephilitis of many shapes and sizes, etc. etc. Some of these vaccinations are ROUGH. Nevermind that we may someday haev to give our kids prophalitic malaria meds which scares the sh!t of of me. So we are trying to be as easy on their immune systems as possible - when it is logically reasonable to do that with little to no risk to their long term health.
Soon to be Big Sister Eowyn - DOB February 2012
My family is a Foreign Service family. Families like mine are posted in every corner of the globe. We live our lives away from family, friends and the conviences and comforts of home. We often live and work in dangerous places among those that misunderstand our intentions and purposes. Sometimes members of our ranks sacrifice our lives to further diplomacy. Please remember that we serve too. And I'm always open to questions.
Hm. So I had nasty, nasty chicken pox when I was 4. They were in my throat, in my vag, just everywhere...I assume I'm good since no doctors have ever mentioned it? I'm so confused.
Ok, so I am a nurse and I have a masters in public health. I work for a school district as a school nurse and in a hospital (yes, I work alot). I don't claim to be the utmost high expert, but since I am paying off about $100,000 worth of student loan debt (I went to a REALLY expensive nursing school) I would like to think I learned something along the way. @Pepper, yes....I kick kids out of my school all the time for noncompliant shots. Did it today in fact on a new kid...better not be at school tomorrow. Ithink everyone else had covered what else Ihave to say about vaccines; they are great. That is all.
Hm. So I had nasty, nasty chicken pox when I was 4. They were in my throat, in my vag, just everywhere...I assume I'm good since no doctors have ever mentioned it? I'm so confused.
Most likely you are still immune. You could always get your titers checked to be safe though. It's a simple blood draw and cheap. (I don't think most insurance covers it, unless there's a "reason" to check. But don't quote me on that.) Regardless, I think my test cost $25.
@wtfisup@merie412 Just out of curiosity, when your first titer came back negative did they re-test you with the more sensitive test? Mine was negative too but I went back in because apparently there is a second test they can do as a follow up, which is more expensive (for the insurance company, not me!) Mine ended up positive for antibodies with that one. I honestly don't know if this is a test that's commonly done as a follow up or not, but in my case I pretty much HAD to find out because I was working in a research lab in a major hospital and was around all kinds of infectious agents (doing tests using antibodies, ironically!)
I'm definitely not saying you should assume you're immune but maybe that could be a little bit of comfort in the meantime before you're able to get vaccinated or re-tested with the more sensitive test if you haven't already. If you haven't been re-tested, you could certainly do that while pregnant if you want to ease your mind. But until then, yes, stay away from speckled kids!
Most likely you are still immune. You could always get your titers checked to be safe though. It's a simple blood draw and cheap. (I don't think most insurance covers it, unless there's a "reason" to check. But don't quote me on that.) Regardless, I think my test cost $25.
Usually, doctors check you for immunities when you have all that blood testing done at the beginning of pregnancy. I know mine checks at least your chickenpox and rubella titres.
But finding out when you're already KU doesn't help if you need the vaccine. Some of those you can't receive while pregnant. And even if you do, you can be exposed to something before the vaccine takes full effect. Also, I'm pretty sure they don't test for EVERY disease.
That's why most doctors want you to schedule a "preconception" visit to check titers and update shots before your KU (obviously that only works if your planning your pg). Once your pg they check your titers to know what you'll need immediately after birth so you don't catch something and transmit it to baby before they can get vaxed themselves. I think......
That's why most doctors want you to schedule a "preconception" visit to check titers and update shots before your KU (obviously that only works if your planning your pg). Once your pg they check your titers to know what you'll need immediately after birth so you don't catch something and transmit it to baby before they can get vaxed themselves. I think......
Everyone I talked to who did this, their doctor essentially said, "What are you doing here? Come back if you're not pregnant in 6 months/a year." I know doing a pre-pregnancy check up is suggested by a number of books and websites, so I'm pretty confused about what the protocol actually is.
Mine did a full history of both me and DH, did all the carrier testing, std testing, titer checks, and went over ttc and prenatals. It was actually pretty helpful. I know a lot of doctors don't take it seriously though.
I did a pre-preg check-up to check my lytes, get a Tdap, get recommendations on which meds I should avoid and other basic Q&A. Lo and behold I got knocked up a week later, haha!
Re: Will you vaccinate your child?
Breastfeeding Counselor with Breastfeeding USA
Babywearing Guide ** Newborn Carriers
Cloth Diaper Guide
Safe Bed Sharing Info
-----quote fail------
Ditto. Not vaccinating your child is NOT a personal decision since it affects everyone your child comes into contact with. This would be like saying that you think it should be allowed to fire guns into the air for New Years Eve because it's your personal decision on how to celebrate the holiday. There is a possibility that your bullets may land safely, but there is a very great risk that your bullet will fall on someone's head. The more people decide to start firing guns in the air (ie, not vaccinating) the more chance everyone has of accidentally getting shot.
I'm not new. I just hate The Bump.
I'm not new. I just hate The Bump.
Please read my last post to pepper6. We will meet all required vaccinations to attend school. I'm vaccinating my child on a delayed schedule, not avoiding them all together.
I respect others' opinions about not wanting to vaccinate their children, however, when those opinions/decisions are self-serving and ultimately put others (especially infants/children who are too young to receive certain vaccines at time of exposure) at risk, then my blood boils.
Def vaccinating. I have a friend who chose not to and when she went to register her child for school she had to play catch up on all the vaccinations.
Too many potentials out there if you don't.
Flu is a separate discussion but after the out break of it here locally and 12 deaths in Middle TN due to the flu (H1N1 has been hitting many, showing up in several as pneumonia and takes and turns worse in the matter of hours) my kids have gotten the flu shot.
My family is a Foreign Service family. Families like mine are posted in every corner of the globe. We live our lives away from family, friends and the conviences and comforts of home. We often live and work in dangerous places among those that misunderstand our intentions and purposes. Sometimes members of our ranks sacrifice our lives to further diplomacy. Please remember that we serve too. And I'm always open to questions.
I absolutely love you! hehehe
Most likely you are still immune. You could always get your titers checked to be safe though. It's a simple blood draw and cheap. (I don't think most insurance covers it, unless there's a "reason" to check. But don't quote me on that.) Regardless, I think my test cost $25.
I'm definitely not saying you should assume you're immune but maybe that could be a little bit of comfort in the meantime before you're able to get vaccinated or re-tested with the more sensitive test if you haven't already. If you haven't been re-tested, you could certainly do that while pregnant if you want to ease your mind. But until then, yes, stay away from speckled kids!
Mine did a full history of both me and DH, did all the carrier testing, std testing, titer checks, and went over ttc and prenatals. It was actually pretty helpful. I know a lot of doctors don't take it seriously though.