Question about shots..

Swood75 wrote: Any and all advice etc. welcome..Kassidy has to go tomorrow for her 2 month well check and shots..Well,1 of them is the rotovirus (I know it isn't mandatory)and I know there have been discussions about this one and also the chicken pox vaccine lately..(which I found out they have to have 1 atleast to start school)..I really don't know what I should do about the roto vaccine tomorrow..What would y'all do??Like I said and and all advice etc are welcome..

my2monkeyboys replied: We took the rotovirus vax just bc I think in small babies the stomach virus can be awful. And with some of the ones that are going around now I'd rather be safe than sorry. It's a liquid form given in the mouth, so no extra needles for it.
JMHO. Hope this helps!

coasterqueen replied: Hmm, is the rotovirus vax new? I'm not quite sure my kids had that, that I remember and if they haven't they won't be getting it. They had the CP vax only because I didn't do my homework before having it done.

It is really a "to each their own" situation. I would have rather had a "chicken pox" party to expose my kids to it then do the vax. Those who get the vax are still at risk to get it, just not as bad, and I'm not quite sure...do you keep having to get the vax all your life not to get it as an adult (when it's even more dangerous?) or how does that work?

I'm against this, but can't really stand on that since my kids had the CP vax.

jakesmommy08 replied: ok im not going to be much help towards you thread but......i dont know if its around here or everywhere but i just picked up paper work for my son to go to preschool and theres a whole list of shots he has to have in order to go to preschool. and its the same way for school too.... so honestly do you really have much choice in what they get? Cuz if i chose not to have him get those shots then he cant go to school???? hmmmmmmmm just makes me wonder

My3LilMonkeys replied: If you choose not to have them vaxed you just have to sign papers with the school....in some states you may have to say it's for religious reasons, but most have an ethical/moral exemption as well. Others here are more knowledgeable about that than I am though.

My kids all had the CP vaxes. The rotovirus vax is new - last year my ped's office wasn't giving it. They just started giving it this year and Bobby had it because DH was the one to take him to the Drs. If I had taken him, I probably would have refused that one.

Kentuckychick replied:
This vaccine is the newer version... the last one was taken off the shelves (or whatever phrase they use in vaccine land) sometime last year because it was linked with intestinal twisting in children who received it.

Caydee received the vaccines (it's an oral vaccine) and when their family ended up with rotovirus last year she vomited once and had one day of diarreah while Connor was extremely sick (vomiting 12 times in one day and sporadically for several days following) and having diarreah for several days. So the child can still get the virus, it just lessens the symptoms.

We had it go through the daycare a few months back and it was the same. The children who'd received the shots either didn't get the virus or only suffered minimal effects for a day or two while those who didn't were very sick for about a week.

I don't know if the shot is worth it for every child, but it clearly does something. If the child can still get the virus but to a lesser extent, then they should still be able to build up an immunity to it.

It's a tough call.

Edited to add; They say they created the vaccine because rotovirus is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in young children each year... out of all the children in the daycare that got it... 3 were hospitalized.

A&A'smommy replied: first of all I wouldn't give her tylenol before shots because you need to be able to know how she is going to react she may not even need it. Secondly you have to go with your gut if you feel that she needs it GET it if not don't. We didn't do the rotovirus because IMO its a common childhood illness JUST like a common cold, she was term and she isn't in daycare. And I'm a little paranoid after everything that happened with the rotovirus vaccine last year.

Kaitlin'smom replied: the other thing to consider is you can space them out do 1 at a time that way if there is a reaction you know what it was to. I started spacing them out and doing the really important ones first, there are I think 2 she is still supposed to have for school but I have not had them done and I am not sure if I will, I had to sign a form for the school.

coasterqueen replied:
Yes, you really do have a choice whether to take the shots or not

moped replied: How does that work with school etc? If they don't have the shots??? Does that mean that my child who has had all vac will be exposed to all the illness's that children that aren't vac have?

Crystalina replied: I give my kids any vaccine that my ped recommends. I don't understand how people don't give them to their kids. My dh (for some reason) never got his chicken pox vaccine and he also has never gotten chicken pox. Now if he is ever exposed to it it could be fatal at his age.

Crystalina replied:
I learned of this about 2 days ago.

Kaitlin'smom replied:
the chicken pox vac is pretty recent, it was not around when I was a kid, infact it was not around when some of my nephews were younger. from what i can find it was licensed in the United States in 1995.

coasterqueen replied:
The only two shots she is talking about is the chicken pox and rotovirus vax. Both of those vaxes does not guaranty your child WON'T get the sickness, just that it's supposed to lessen the degree of sickness. So with these two vax it really doesn't matter if their not-vaxed child exposes your vaxed child. Your child will be exposed to it no matter if someone is vaxed or not - adults aren't vaxed against this stuff so adults can easily expose it to your children - the vax only lessens the symptoms.

coasterqueen replied:
It's a new vax as Di stated. He could probably go get the vax now as an adult if he wanted. I don't think any of us would have gotten vaxed, including you, since it's new. Unless you recently got the vax or you were still in school in 1995. I actually thought it was newer than that. And again, the vax doesn't guaranty they won't get it, just that it will lessen the degree of sickness.

moped replied:
That is very true.......thanks Karen.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
I looked it up and the chicken pox vaccine was licensed in the US in 1995, but I never heard of it until a couple years ago so I wonder if it took awhile to become one of the recommended ones. I had the chicken pox when I was a kid. I don't like the idea of a vaccine for chicken pox because it's such a common, mild childhood disease - although I guess children have died from it so it isn't always mild I suppose.

But the thing is now, that since more and more kids are being vaccinated, there isn't much chance of my kids getting exposed and having a normal childhood case of the chicken pox. So if they don't get the vax, and they probably won't ever get the disease as a child, then there's the possibility they could get it as adults, which would be a bad thing. I'd really rather they just have the chicken pox as kids than have to have them get yet another shot, but since that's not likely to happen anymore I would rather have them vaccinated now than get really sick as adults.

coasterqueen replied:
Sara, do you know if this is a vax you have to keep having to adulthood? Or is this a vax, with an initial shot and then a booster at some time?

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
I didn't know, so I looked it up. The vaccination schedule on medicinenet.com says to get the first one at 12 to 15 months, and the second one at 4 to 6 years. So you must not have to keep getting it.