Is your child... (or are your children...)

[emma1325]

considered to be at "high risk" for any disease or diseases?

If so, which ones and why?

How exactly would this be determined? Is it subjective or is it something that would actually be written down in a medical file?



Would being classified as high risk affect your decision to vaccinate for that particular disease (or diseases?)



Thanks!!!

[angie7]

I don't think my kids are at high risk for any diseases but are at a high risk for effects from the vaccinations themselves. I have 2 neurological diseases, they may be genetic. Not much is known about them b/c they are very rare (only about 300,000 people are known to have it). I am concerned that by injecting neurotoxins in their systems that this may effect these possible genetic diseases and if they do have them, make them much, much worse.

I know this was off topic

[KimberlyD0]

Yes my younger DD has a rare congenital defect and it places her in a VERY high risk catigory. We have to be super careful with her. She's already had RSV 2 times, (now vaccinated for it) Pnamonia once (will be vaccinated yearly untill deemed safe to stop) and she's had bronciolitis (can't spell it) So anything that can lead to Lung infections of any sort she gets Vaccinated for.

The exception being Whooping Cough because I have an allergy to something in it. I am especially carefull about making sure she isn't exposed to it.

DD#1 has all her Vaccinations but the Whooping Cough but on a deleyed schedual (just got her last 2 yesterday actually)

DD#2 is deleyed mostly because she's been sick with a fever when she was due for them. But she will be getting them.

Her being high risk deffinitly made it very clear to me that the risks of the illnesses were MUCH worse then the risk of the vaccinations. Which neither of my kids have had issues with. A low grade fever with the first, then nothing.

[carriebft]

My kids are considered high risk for anything due to physical condition-- so they don't have any health problems or congenital problems or anything like that. But, if they were, I would have to look at the exact problem and decide from there.

For example, ifyou remember the hib outbreak in minnesota, one of the boys who got sick had a deficiency that made him prone to certain kinds of infections, but it also rendered the vaccine useless. So what would be the point of vaccinating in that case?

[ZoeyZoo]

My dd is under a year at was at higher risk for WC since I came down with it when she was 7 months (first 6 months is technically the danger period). It didn't change my vax decision. She wasn't vaxed and suprisingly never got any symptoms of WC.

[just_lily]

It depends what you mean by high risk. Do you mean high risk of contracting a disease, or high risk IF they contract the disease. Those are two different issues, but both need to be considered when making vax decisions.

Is my child at high risk of contracting any VADs? Well.... we live in Canada, so she has access to clean water and good sanitation. Most VADs are either rare or very rare around here. She does not any immune compromises of which we are aware. And as far as I know she isn't partaking in any unprotected sex or IV drug use. So no, I don't think she is at high risk of contracting a VAD.

Is she at high risk IF she contracts a VAD? Again, she isn't immunocompromised, we have access to clean water, "free" health care, and adequate nutrition. So I would say no.

However... I do fear that she is at high risk of having a vax reaction. My brothers and I all had bad reactions to vaccines... we all had high fevers, and all had the DTP scream. My mom just went along with what the doctors told her at the time, but is now really supportive of our no-vax decision based on our reactions. I have a lot of allergiec, my DF has allergies and collitis. And for some reason my mommy-instinct just YELLS at me that she won't be able to tolerate vax.

[2boyzmama]

Yes, my youngest is a special needs child with a primary immune deficiency. He has a chronically low t-cell count from an underdeveloped thymus gland. Because of that, he is unable to hold immunity to viral infections, and it takes him a long LONG time to fight off a virus. He also is very prone to secondary bacterial infections because of the length of time and the effort involved in fighting off viral infections. He also has several malformations of his airway which makes him prone to airway illnesses.

Yes, the decision on vaxing him was very hard. We are stuck in a catch 22 of sorts, because he is one of the kids who could truly benefit from vaccinating, but yet because of his particular immune deficiency, he likely wouldn't be able to build any immunity from the vaccine anyway.

I WANT to vaccinate him for pertussis and flu, but after talking myself into circles dozens of times (many of those times in various threads on this forum!) I've come to the same decision. It's not worth the risk. The risk for him is that it won't work, PLUS all the risks of the vaccine itself, so I'm taking on the risk of vaccine side effects for basically no potential of any benefit to him. It doesn't make sense for us.

He did receive RSV immunoglobulin throughout his first RSV season, it's not quite a vaccine in the traditional sense of the word, it was an immunoglobulin given every 28 days. He still got RSV that season, but avoided being hospitalized. He also got RSV this season, he didn't qualify for the immunoglobulin because of his relative stable health. He has been hospitalized this winter for rotavirus, which is a vaccine he's not a candidate for anyway because it's live-virus. He's also not a candidate for MMR or CP or flumist.

It is extremely difficult knowing that my child really COULD die from what would otherwise be relatively minor for most children. So it was a more heart wrenching decision yes.

[anewmama]

My daughter is only in a high risk so to speak because of daycare at an early age. And it is certainly a fact that they get very sick in day care. It might have made her more vulnerable to something really bad. I think though, the worst of her daycare related illnesses are over...although, she did move to a smaller in home care and her health improved dramatically. But she also was older and as they age naturally, they get less sick anyway. But yes, she is high risk due to daycare. But I did not vaccinate and did breastfeed (and still am... she is almost 2).