Did your day care situation color your decision about vaccinations?

[GISDiva]

(I posted here instead of the Vaccine board, trying to target my audience here...)

DS is at what I would call a "medium" sized day care center. We're selective about what vaccines we're doing and are spreading them out.

Enter swine flu.

I wouldn't ordinarily give DS a flu shot, he's a very healthy kid (despite day care!). But then I hear it's the healthy ones that are most being affected and the fact that he's in close quarters with everyone else...

So I have a decision to make. But my question isn't specifically about the swine flu per se, I'm wondering if anyone changed their decision about vaccines based on the fact that your kids are in day care?

[Mosaic]

Our decisions about vaccines are always based on estimated risk of getting the disease, consequences of getting the disease, and risk of the vaccination. DD going to daycare is definitely part of our decision-making process as it impacts her exposure profile, though of course that's more an issue for some illnesses than other. For example, I don't really worry too much about her picking up yellow fever at daycare.

For H1N1, however, daycare is something we considered more since so many children DD's age are getting the Flumist vax (which sheds).

[caenach]

Originally Posted by Mosaic

DD going to daycare is definitely part of our decision-making process as it impacts her exposure profile, though of course that's more an issue for some illnesses than other.

[Alyantavid]

Well, not really.

My 3 year old goes to a small in home daycare. One child there was suspected of having swine flu. I won't vaccinate for that though, he's already been exposed. He's also around the kindergarten kids who go to school half days so whatever's going around the schools, he'll be exposed to.

My 7 year old goes to public school. They are actually having vaxing done for the swine flu at the school, but we've declined that.

[rcr]

Actually it did, but not in the way that most people would expect. DCP does not vax, and she was really the first to open up my eyes to vaxing.

[Qestia]

Well, from what I've been hearing, swine flu is really really contagious, but is also really really mild. As in Australia, which is just coming to the end of flu season, had fewer flue fatalities than normal. Here they are telling the schools to just treat it like any other illness. And in fact, I think our whole family just got over it. I'm not a big flu vaccine fan to begin with though, even though I vaccinate my kids according to the state school requirements otherwise. You can read more here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1#

The only thing I do different because of daycare is get the Hep B vax for them, because it's a requirement. I wouldn't bother with it if I were a SAHM. And while I might do most of the vaxes, I wouldn't probably do as many doses (FIVE DTaPs before K? give me a break).

[cschick]

Not necessarily daycare/school, but what I see going on in my local community.

The kid's preschool has had one confirmed case of H1N1, in August, and it was mild. His preschool doesn't seem to have been hit yet.

In the past two weeks--outside of his preschool--three people I know with kids around his age or older have had previously-healthy kids end up in the hospital due to H1N1. (1 co-worker of mine, 1 co-worker of my husband's, 1 neighbor), and several others have had rather ill children that didn't get admitted (3-4 days of fever in the 103 degree range, most of the other symptoms). If the kid gets "confirmed" H1N1, whether mild or serious, he's out of school for a minimum of 7 days (school's stated policy related to H1N1).

Either we've just got a really bad pocket of H1N1 going on right around us, or we're seeing the mutation into the more serious form of the disease that's been feared.

It may already be too late, but that has driven our decision to have him vaccinated at the clinic on Monday, if we can.

The seasonal flu vaccine has so-so effectiveness because it's a guess from year-to-year . . . and that's the reason I'm generally against getting it (until I hear what its coverage for that year's strains really proves out to be). Some years, it covers almost none of the strains that actually circulate, which greatly decreases its measured effectiveness over time. H1N1 vaccine has been targeted to H1N1, because they knew it was probably going to be the primary strain of flu circulating this year.

[punkrockmomma]

This is a dilemma I am going through as well. My DD has been at home her whole life, and hasn't been vaxed. In January she'll be starting go to the day care at the college I'll be going to. I'm not so worried about her getting sick, I believe getting sick is good for your immune system especially illnesses like the flu. I'm more worried about missing school because she gets sick, and isn't allowed to go to day care. What I'm doing right now as a preventative measure is giving her an immune system boosting vitamin, and probiotics everyday. Hopefully this will help. I've also been meaning to call my DD's ped. because I know he will have some good suggestions for me, as well. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread to see what other people say about this too. Sorry I wasn't any help.