What am I in for? 27 weeks pregnant

[erin23kate]

Hi -

DH and I made the first step decision not to do the HepB vaccine at birth, and to do serious research before allowing any vaccine to enter our baby's bloodstream. I can't say for sure that we'll skip vax completely, but we DEFINITELY won't follow the standard schedule.

We both work full-time. The baby will be with my mom for daycare for the immediate future, but homeschooling is not an option for us. I have found a vax-thinking-pedi, and have a collection of research materials.

I'm hoping you all can give me some insight on "what to expect" as a non-vaxing or selective-vaxing parent. How does the whole school/daycare thing work? How have your families reacted? How has vax-thinking changed your day-to-day lives?

[FernG]

Congratulations on researching! One thing to be aware of, is that many people will justify certain vaccines by describing a never-documented scenario (e.g., children in daycare can get Hep B from a Hep B positive child biting - this has never been documented to actually occur, so how is it a good reason to vaccinate?) We started by looking at the diseases that are on the vaccine schedule and decided that none of them were serious enough to vaccinate for.

A second point of confusion that seems common is that parents and health care providers may think that there are vaccines that prevent meningitis. Meningitis is a condition that can be caused by many invasive bacteria and viruses. When researching "meningitis" vaccines, you have to look at the incidence/course of the disease of that specific cause of meningitis.

Many parents don't look very deeply into their state's vaccine laws. Each state has specific vaccine laws. In some states, private daycares/schools must accepts vaccine exemptions offered by the state for public schools. In other states, the private daycares do not have to accept the exemptions. A few states offer a philosophical exemption which means that you can object to each vaccine individually. Most states offer religious exemptions, which the courts have defined as being opposed to the process of vaccination - in other words, no vaccines. In these states, you do not want the schools to learn that you are selectively vaccinating or you risk loosing your exemption. States are beginning to create vaccine registries so that schools can look up what vaccines children have. In most states, you can opt out and have you child removed from the registry, but in a few states, you cannot opt out.

On a bright note, most states do not require the full CDC schedule for school attendance. In some states, if you start a vaccine series, you can check antibody levels in the blood (tighter testing), and if the child has enough antibodies, you can submit that for school attendance. Check your state's vaccine schedule.

I'm not saying this to discourage you. I just want you to understand the legal side. If you tell us your state, we can link to your laws.

[erin23kate]

Thank you. The state is Rhode Island.

DH is strongly in favor of catholic school (I'm not catholic so I'm not sure) if that makes any difference. This could tip the balance if they are less likely to care about vax in private schools.

[blueridgewoman]

We've had no significant trouble at all, honestly. We have a pediatrician who, while not 100% supportive over our decision not to vaccinate at all, is very pro-selective vax/delayed schedule. I just put on my "don't mess with me" face when I state that she won't be receiving vaccinations right now.

My family is very pro-vaccination but we basically don't discuss it. My sister is a nurse and has vaccinated her daughter on schedule (even when she was ill) but again, we don't discuss it. Otherwise, I don't typically bring up my daughter's vaccination status unless it's medically relevent which it very nearly never is.

We did have some trouble when she had a febrile seizure due to a silent kidney infection, but the pressure was from some gung-ho nursing students who happened to be doing a ride-along in the ambulance that responded to my call for help and I was feeling pretty vulnerable since I'd just had to give DD mouth to mouth- I don't think it would have bothered me otherwise.

I also got a mini lecture from the nurse who attended us at the hospital that day, but it was reasonably low pressure and I just stated with a smile that it wasn't up for discussion.

In terms of school, we're lucky to have an exceptional public school here, and she'll be attending there most likely. I'll need to do a religious exemption and that's about it. Private schools and preschools are a bit more tricky, just because they're within their rights to deny your child entry based on their vaccination status but really, there are tons of preschools in our area and I know I'll find one that I like who will accept her.

[FernG]

Rhode Island Vaccine school exemption law...

PDF with schedule for school/daycare and exemption form.

It looks like RI does require most vaccines for school and does not accept titers (but will accept a physician statement about chicken pox). There is only a religious exemption, which must cover the process of vaccination rather than individual vaccines.

[AFWife]

My biggest piece of advice is to devour all bits of research you can get your hands on. And be prepared for people that haven't researched (that are just going on what they've heard) to argue with you and assume you're a neglectful mother. My parents think I'm setting my child up for debilitating illness by not vaccinating.
Know what does and does not communicate diseases. (you're not going to get tetnus when you cut yourself chopping veggies in the kitchen) I recommend you read The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears. It's an unbiased book.
And, of course, check in on MDC often!

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by AFWife

My biggest piece of advice is to devour all bits of research you can get your hands on. And be prepared for people that haven't researched (that are just going on what they've heard) to argue with you and assume you're a neglectful mother. My parents think I'm setting my child up for debilitating illness by not vaccinating.
Know what does and does not communicate diseases. (you're not going to get tetnus when you cut yourself chopping veggies in the kitchen) I recommend you read The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears. It's an unbiased book.
And, of course, check in on MDC often!

Agree with all of this...except the part about The Vaccine Book by Sears being unbiased.

At the end of the day Dr. Sears is provax. This is abundently clear in this book. There are other books out there that are more unbiased IMO.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by Marnica

Agree with all of this...except the part about The Vaccine Book by Sears being unbiased.

At the end of the day Dr. Sears is provax. This is abundently clear in this book. There are other books out there that are more unbiased IMO.

The way I took it is : at the end of the of the day, he's still a doctor. I appreciated that he presented the pros and cons to both sides and offered advice to those of us not vaxing

[anj_rn]

I have actually found that private parochial schools are less tolerant, and not likely to accept a religious exemption.

We look at each disease, the likelihood of exposure in our area, how the exposure occurs, the danger of contracting the illness, and the efficacy of the vaccine before deciding what to vax. The other thing is that not all docs carry the individual vaxes, they have a lot of combo vaxes, so you have to decide in advance if you want the combo or to go elsewhere to get your vaccines.

We have not had any problems with our ped or the hospital, but I came into our ped very well prepared. We discuss vaccines at every visit. So at her 9 month WCE we will discuss what vaccines she will be getting at 1 yr. That way the chart has the notation, and his staff don't give me any problems.

We did opt out of the state registry (so no one can look up our status). When asked if we are UTD, I just say no. When asked about giving vaxes, we just say that we prefer our pedi to give all the vaxes.