Real vax climate in MD?

[lovemysunshine]

Hello all! We are considering a move to MD (Eastern Shore if it matters) and I'm wondering what the climate is really like in regard to vaxing (or lack thereof, actually). I see that MD only allows medical and religious exemptions; we are in CA now and go with the philosophical exemption here.

My DD was fully vaxed until age 2 and my DS's are not vaxed at all. What is it really like if I go with the religious exemption? What will I need to know about that? I realize I would probably have to say my DD hasn't been vaxed, right?

TIA for any insight you can provide!

[lovemysunshine]

Double post, oops!

[lovemysunshine]

Anyone? We need to make a decision soon (today?) and this is one big unknown for me.
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[MegBoz]

I haven't had problems with my daycare (although it's a woman's home - not a big center) & I hear schools aren't really a big deal. A friend of mine had her daughter in one of the bigger daycare centers & has also never had a problem (she's had no vax.)

So it seems it's generally fine.
Best of luck!

[lillymonster]

I know a lot of people that claim religious exemption with no issue.

[lovemysunshine]

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[lovemysunshine]

Thanks ladies- that puts me at ease a bit more. I started reading online and was getting worried by what I was seeing for religious exemptions in general.

I suppose I should have specified that I'm mainly concerned with the schools as DD will be in school and DS1 might start next year for kindy.
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[beachbaby]

I'm on the Eastern Shore of MD. We haven't had any real issues so far. DD is enrolled in a private pre-school this year and they had no issues with our not vaxing. I don't have experience with public schools, but as far as I understand, it's just a matter of signing the exemption line on the required forms. Finding the right pediatrician might take a little work (I've known a few families locally who've been 'fired' by their peds for not/selectivley vaxing), but there ARE doctors in the area who are no-vax friendly. PM me if you need specific recomendations. You might also want to check an ongoing (although not recently active) thread here entitled "Eastern Shore Mamas...Join us here" for some local support. Hope this helps some.

[raelize]

i can't specifically speak for the eastern shore, but i haven't ever heard of anyone ever having problems with the religous exemption.

[secondimpression]

I'm not on the eastern shore, but for my area I'd say the climate is tolerant. Definitely not supportive, but no one has ever given me a hard time about my kids not being vaxxed.

My kids aren't old enough for school, but we've been through the vax exemptions for various daycares a few times now and never had anyone question it. I have found that the medical forms I've been given in every case have lacked the religious exemption line so I've always had to print out the correct form that includes it.

When it comes to pediatricians, we've never had any issues. We've been through several and while they've all printed out those ridiculous FAQs on autism and given them to us, there has never been any further pressure to vax. We've avoided the practices that are known to drop families who don't vax on schedule and whenever we've used urgent care facilities we just say the kids are current on their vaccines to avoid any lectures.

[lovemysunshine]

Thanks for all the replies! We ended up turning down the job and are hoping DH is able to get one of the soon-to-be-open positions on the west coast so that we're not quite as far from our entire family.

But he is still in the job pool for MD and if we don't get something out here, we may end up in MD at some point anyway. So I may end up needing the help here if that happens! I'm glad to hear that it doesn't seem to be a huge issue though~ I was getting anxious about that!