possible vax issue: DS's school and foreign travel

[snomnky]

I am having a hard time wording this, so here is goes...

DS goes to a small (60kids) private school. About 1/4 of the kids are from India or Japan and spend part of the year in their native country. DS is mostly vaxed, I am not worried about him, but DD is unvaxed other than a DTap at 2mo. Could this pose a threat to DD? I am assuming most of the kids in DS's school are vaxed fully. My concern would be the kids bringing back something from their travels and DS bringing it home. I know this is probably irrational, but I wanted to check.

We also have relatives who travel, in the past few years they have been to Korea, China, Italy, and Ghana.

What, if any consideration should I take with this?

[Gitti]

Originally Posted by snomnky

What, if any consideration should I take with this?

None. The constitution of your kids' bodies don't change just because they come in contact with other kids, foreign or domestic. I believe the worst place to be would be in the subway in NYC, yet I bet this would not worry you.

Nothing you posted could influence me to inject my kids with toxins.

[chaoticzenmom]

hmm, I might look at certain diseases that are common where your children or their classmates may be going. Polio is still around in some parts and from everything I've found, the vaccine is one of the safest, non-reactive ones. So, on that one, I might consider it. I wouldn't do any of the prevnar, hib vaccines because of the reactivity and serotype(sp?) replacement issues. They're just chasing bacteria (unsucessfully) with those vaccines and keep having to add new strains to the vaccines. They started out with 7 bacterias in the vaccine, I think, and are now on 13...working on going to 27(?). Maybe the TB vaccine would be warranted, but I don't know much about that one to know if it's safe. It's been made no longer mandatory in some of the countries where it used to be mandatory and I'm sure it was halted for a reason. I wouldn't do any childhood illness vaccines either. So, maybe polio and/or TB.

I'm not sure about the prevalence of the different types of hepatitis, so maybe look into which of those might be more of a risk than the vaccine. If there's not an extreme risk of hep, then I wouldn't even bother with those.

[miriam]

Originally Posted by Gitti

I believe the worst place to be would be in the subway in NYC, yet I bet this would not worry you.

Outstanding!

[serenbat]

I am assuming most of the kids in DS's school are vaxed fully.

I have a friend that works at an international school, that is an assumption. Most parents are very well educated and many do not vac. their children.

I would not base my decision on an assumption unless you really have clear evidence.