I have no intention of starting a debate (how could I here... no one comments ;-), but M-Moo and K-Wiggles got a few vaccinations at their 4-year checkup today. They were very brave, but the shots were owie and they were not happy. *sigh*
I had a nice long chat with our family doc, and we worked out my vaccine philosophy a long time ago. The end result seems to be that at 4, my girls are mostly un-vaccinated, but we are now starting a program to (mostly) catch them up over the next year or so.
Who knew, there is a thing called the Red Book, which holds the current recommended vaccine schedule, as well as a "catch-up" schedule for those who are late on vaccines (we are late on purpose, I suppose some may be late by accident!).
Anyway, it turns out that by delaying vaccinations, kids need far fewer vaccinations total than if you do them all on the originally recommended schedule. Bonus for us!
M-Moo had a bit of a fever reaction, and K-Wiggles had a bit of a redness-and-swelling reaction. Normal, I think, for the vaccines they had (a combo DTaP-IPV-HIB on one side and a seasonal flu on the other side).
It will be good to have them caught up on vaccines soon (at least on the ones we want to get).
I did find the adult booster recommendations and I am out-of-date on some vaccines and there are some new ones recommended for adults that I have not had. So I will talk with our doc about those at my checkup next month.
The fun never ends!
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ReplyDeleteThat is very cool that delaying means less. Of course that makes sense since there are so many in the first 3 months alone that they don't reccomend later.
No debate here, the only one I'm surprised about is the flu one... But I'm glad they took them well.
We just dicovered that, too! Kathryn's school was really concerned about her being behind on PCV. She only had 2 of the 4 scheduled, all supposed to be complete by 18 months. Turns out since she got the first when she was past 18 months she only needed 2 anyway. Woohoo, magically caught up with no sticks. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI caved and did Hep A, and now she's just missing CP. Maybe next year. I also finally decided to do H1N1 mist. Two stories of little kids that are friends of friends, Maya's for one, made me decide it is just more random than seasonal flu.
They are in good company. I had recent physical and couldn't remember when I had my last tetanus shot so I agreed to have one. The nurse came in with a DTAP shot. I protested about all the additional junk and asked if just the tetanus was available. She looked at me funny but saide that it was but also siad there were reasons for the combo. I requested and read the info sheet and finally agreed to not make a fuss and have the combo. Why is it that every day you have to choose your battles? And my kids are all grown up!
ReplyDeleteJust when you think you're done, you have boosters to think about. Mine are getting to the age of boosters ( I guess every 10 years or so). I don't let them get more than 2 shots. Once they told me McKinley needed 5 shots and when I told them no they were very surprised. But I am the one in charge!!
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