talk to me about titres

[twead]

can you knowledgeable mamas talk to me about titres? ds goes into the ped for his 2yo well visit this month and I want to know if we should be doing any. So far we have not vaxed.

[emma1325]

Only do them if you need to prove immunity for school or daycare. (Some states accept positive titers in place of shots, but the rules differ from state to state.)

Or, you might want them if you are considering vaccinating - titers can show if your child is already immune to a specific disease, in which case a vaccine would be overkill at best.

Keep in mind that titers aren't perfect, and the testing is pretty expensive. I had my daughter's titers drawn a few months ago, and she wasn't "immune enough" to any of the diseases, according to her pediatrician. (I had her titers run in an attempt to get her into school in Mississippi, which lacks non-medical exemptions.) She was even un-immune to a disease in which she'd completed the shot series, so my thoughts are that titers tend to be unreliable (and of course, the vaccines may be uneffective at producing lab-detectable antibodies.)

Let me know if you want any more details.

Good luck!