Travel to Mexico w/ Unvaxxed 2yo - WWYD

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

We plan to enroll our child in public school, and in Connecticut, there is no way to avoid vaccinating unless you are willing to forego all vaccines.  We are not, and so we are in the unfortunate position of having to comply with the required vaccines by the time DD is in kindergarten. She is currently 15 months old, and our plan has been to delay EVERYTHING until she is at least 2 years old, possibly longer.  Our ped. is on board, and until this week, I hadn't worried much about it. 

This week, I learned that my cousin is planning a destination wedding in Mexico next April. She is very dear to me, and my whole family will be attending, so it will be a very special experience for us all.  I very much want to go, but DH and I are presently planning to become pregnant sometime in the next year, and if I am any later than 6m pregnant in April, I won't be traveling to Mexico, I just don't feel comfortable or safe doing so.  If I am earlier than 6m, we probably will, and that presents the current situation. 

DD is not vaxxed for anything at the moment.  If I go to Mexico, I think I would want to get her caught up on a few vaccines, but I'm not sure which ones, and I don't know how many in each series she would need for the vaccine to be fully effective.  I am thinking of polio and DTaP, possibly HepA.  Should I also consider MMR and/or HepB? What would you do in this situation? Would you go at all?

My dilemma is that I did not want to begin the vaccines until DD's system was more mature, and I feel that starting now would be too soon - but then I don't want to have to cram in tons of shots in a really short period of time because I think that's just dangerous. I also don't want to skip this trip though.  This decision sucks. 

[lilikoi]

I go to Mexico every summer because my research is there. I actually got pregnant there last year and moved back to the US when I was 5 months pregnant. A couple months ago, I went again and this time took DD with me (she was 5 months at the time). I did a lot of research on this because she had no shots before the trip and I was trying to decide what to do. I don't have a lot of time right now to look up the sources I used, but I will try to get back to this thread soon. What I found out (I think was on the CDC website) was that Mexico has much higher rates of vaccinated children, so not a lot of outbreaks. They have major vaccination campaigns with people knocking door to door. One of the things I was worried about was that they use the live virus for polio (the oral vaccine). 

I will be back to add more. DD just woke up.

[lilikoi]

Here is something that may help you: http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/en/globalsummary/countryprofileresult.cfm?C=mex

[ma2two]

The only one of those diseases I think there would be any increased chance of her getting in Mexico would be hepatitis A. But that's a good thing. If you research hepatitis A, you'll most likely want her to get it as a child, as natural immunity is lifelong, and the disease is extremely mild in young children, usually causing no symptoms at all.

Why can't you vaccinate her for everything you want up until a few months before kindergarten, and then change your religious beliefs?