vaccinations

Rachel&Joe

Stella's doctors, nurses, & nurse practioner are really pushing the vaccinations on us at the moment (she will be 2 months tomorrow).  We definitely are planning on vaccinating her & I think we've decided to do all the vaccinations while she's still in the NICU (so they can watch her if she has adverse reactions), but we're trying to decide on an exact schedule.  I was hoping to wait another week or two on the DTAP since I have been told they cause increased apneas (GREAT!).  I also think I would like to space them out over several days to give her a chance to recover.

What are your opinions on vaccinating in the NICU?  I am not concerned about the autism thing at this point (which some people argue is caused by the MMR vaccine--not one of the vaccines she will be getting until she's a year old).  I am just concerned about how your babies reacted to the medicines.  Or if I have nothing to worry about, then that's good too!

Thanks!

mrs.amandamm

Addie was only in the hospital for her first vaccine... and I talked to my doctor because I was thinking of doing an adjusted schedule, but he really encouraged me to go with the recommended schedule because it could be deadly for a preemie to get any of the things that they are vaccinated for, and the small dose they give them is MUCH better than being exposed from another person.  So, if the doctors are recommending it, I would definately do it.  Good luck!

mrs.amandamm

Oh!  And a lot of people reference Dr. Sears, and I contend that he is just one doctor, and there are many more that do not believe what he says is right.  I would do what your gut tells you, and don't base it on just one book or one reference site.  Your doctors know your baby, and what is best.

SBMBride406

Marino was not in the NICU for his 2 month shots, so I can't speak about how I would feel about that. We chose to vaccinate him on the regular schedule (we just split them up over a month so he got 2 and then another 2 in 2 weeks).

There are 2 primary things that influenced my decision to vaccinate according to a regular schedule 1) we live in suburban DC so we can't assume our son will not be exposed to a variety of illnesses...there is a huge foreign-born population and influx of tourists here...we would be silly to assume everyone we encounter in a day is fully vaccinated and 2) my son nearly died of bacterial meninigitis at 6 weeks old. I can't imagine being given the option to prevent future illnesses and deciding not to. I know I would never forgive myself for that.

Marino is 1 and has never had a reaction to any vaccine, aside from being sleepy afterwards. Our dr doesn't do MMR until 15 months, but I'm really not concerned about the autism link anymore. We also had a measles outbreak here recently, as well as pertussis (one of our NICU friends had it).

mommamorris

i actually just wrote a post about this last night on our blog. we're more conservative/crazy than most... maybe not vaccinating at all... but definitely waiting if we do. we were planning on waiting until our kids were older... about 2ish or so anyway, if not school age.i can see you're not that far leaning. but maybe there's some information there for you anyway.

but definitely since our daughter came at us at 1lb11oz we're holding off on her. i just can't see that the same vaccine could be good for a 10lb bouncing baby boy as for our "can't breathe on her own yet" 3lb little girl. ya know? we also know firsthand that one of the little ones in the nicu, born at 27 weeks was ready to go home. no events, off the oxygen, and when she got her shots she backslid- like majorly. she had to stay an extra 2 weeks, and even then went home on oxygen with an apnea monitor. the doctors said that that can happen. since preemies are so small, so much isn't known about how they will react to different things. i've since read lots of information on the effects of vaccines on preemies. it seems to be a general consensus that a) we don't want them to get sick b)vaccination will help with that c)we're not exactly sure how they will react to the vaccine

good luck making your decision. i feel pretty overwhelmed! i guess this is what parenthood will be like for the long haul. we just make the best decisions we can with the information we have.

mommamorris

oh, and i should tell you too.. most of the vaccine combos have removed the thimerosal (mercury containing preservative). the drug companies haven't gotten around to removing it from the single doses yet. (for whatever reason.) if you decide to break them up to the single doses be sure you call the pharm company to check the content. (many docs aren't aware.)

TripMomma

We did not allow any vaccines at the NICU, and have not started any as of yet. I had first told myself, my Dh, and our Pedi that we would hold off until 3mo. At the 3mo appt I put it off until 6mo, then 9mo. At that point the Pedi asked what was up, I told her my gut was just not at ease with doing the vaccines. She said we could just start them at 2 years with 1 shot per month...I jumped on that. My babies are not in daycare so we all felt good with doing it this way.