2 month visit, going to daycare @ 10 weeks

[Joanner]

 Hi everyone, new mom here to a 6 week old baby girl. Have been hemming and hawing about vaccines for awhile. I consider myself pretty educated, and I would not vaccinate if my child was not going to daycare at such a young age. I am a full time RN, and will possibly be part time when I go back (2 days a week). My child will need to be in daycare at least 2 days a week. It breaks my heart to have to do that to her, but we are in financial need.

I was just wondering if there is anybody out there that is in the same boat as me? From browsing the forums people waited a lot longer before putting their babies in daycare, and I would if I could. My doctor is very lax about vaccines, and is going to let me do whatever. I live in MI and can opt out for personal reasons. I am concerned most about rotavirus and pertussis. These seems to be the ones that are most at risk for my baby right now. What did you do?

[poorlittlefish]

Are you concerned that working as a nurse you might come in contact with something and bring it home?  I am a vaxer but putting your baby in daycare and your profession would cause me to vaccinate.

[Joanner]

 I am not so much concerned with myself, being that I work in Surgery and Endoscopy, we don't get super sick people usually. I will be using the hospital daycare though, so I am more concerned with what the other kids parents are bringing home to them. I would like to be selective with my vaccinations, and defiantly not get 5 in one trip!

[LisaSedai]

Sorry you are having to start her in daycare so early. Were you able to breastfeed? If you did and you could continue to do it you'd be providing her protective antibodies. 

I personally would not get the rotavirus for 3 reasons. First of all, it is a hospital daycare and health care employees ( I would surely hope) know to diligently wash hands in between diaper changes to prevent the spread of the disease. Secondly if he does catch it, it is diarrhea. Miserable, yes but unlikely to cause lasting harm (we don't live in a 3rd world country where diarrhea does kill babies who get dehydrated and don't get medical care. The vaccine probably saves lives in those cases) We are only one of 3 or 4 industrialized countries that have put that one on the recommended schedule. Thirdly- both of the rota vaccines on the market are contaminated with DNA (or RNA I forget) from one or two piglet wasting viruses. One of the vaxes was taken off the market for a short time because of it but it was concluded that  human babies wouldn't be harmed by the piglet virus. Well, all I got to say is SV40 was in the oral polio vax and is now found in human cancers so pardon me if I am skeptical.

Pertusis is a really difficult one. I did get that one for my son (but not my daughter yet, 14 mo) but I waited until he was over 6 months. I was a little scared last year while my daughter was under 3 months old because that's the most dangerous age yet even if you get a vax at 2 months, the baby's not protected (if you believe the vaccine works) until she has the other 2 at 4 and 6 months. From what I've been reading I think that virus has either mutated away from what's in the vaccine or is possibly parapertusis might be what everyone has been catching. How strict is the daycare about keeping sick kids home or at least separating them? Looks like MI had over 800 cases in 2010 and over 400 so far in 2011. Bleh. I wish we had decent paid maternity leave so babies could stay home until after 3 months at least.

As a healthcare worker, I worry sometimes what I have been colonized with (MRSA?) and have probably passed to my family.

[Joanner]

Thanks for the response!

I have been trying to breasfeed, but I do not produce enough milk (if I'm lucky, 2 oz a DAY). Ever since I had to supplement, she refuses the breast. I pump like a maniac, and I do feed her what I pump but I am doubtful that she gets enough antibodies. I know some is better than none. Hopefully my supply will increase, but I am realistic because it is the same that it was at 1 week and we are now 6 weeks.

I think i will delay doing any vax until later. I just found out that I got the part time position I applied for, so now she will only be in DC 2 or 3 days a week. Yay!

[LisaSedai]

Congrats on getting the part time job!

Off topic of vaccines, but I wonder if you are only getting 2 ounces a day b/c your pump is not a good fit for you or isn't working properly? Have you seen any lactation consultants or La Leche people about it? I know babies are better at getting milk from us than a pump is, and the whole milk thing works on supply and demand... if you aren't getting alot out, the boobs won't make much. Once the baby finds out it is easy to get milk from the bottle it IS hard to get them to try to latch but they do have supplemental nursing things that you can use- you fill the device with formula and it has a little tube that you put next to the nipple so the baby sucks both breast and tube. I think that is supposed to help the mother increase her supply. Have you checked out the breastfeeding boards here on mothering? They might know something that could help.

I had problems with my first because I used a nipple shield. Unfortunately I could never get him to latch without it and it made my supply decrease as well.

[nia82]

It's really hard. I have a different situation, my child is at home and I'm able to nurse on demand, but our older child started preschool when DD was 1 week old. We locally luckily have not had any pertussis or other VPD cases. He has the HiB vaccine (only needed one dose at his age) and so far one DTaP. He had a weird rash for 6 weeks in his face afterwards. We'll draw some titers at his 3 year checkup soon. I want to get the measles only shot in Europe for the kids, but if there are measles cases popping up around town our 3 year old would get the MMR. I'm not fond of it for several reasons, so I would only do it when pressed by urgency.

The thing about pertussis is that it is scary, but that the vaccine only works after so many doses in infants especially, that many vaccinated kids still get it (albeit mitigated) but hence some parents don't keep their kids at home thinking it's just a cough and they spread it then... I think in your case I would access the statistics of pertussis outbreaks and other diseases that you are considering vaccines for in your area and then get a better picture of risk of contracting vs. risk from side effects.

OT about milk supply - when I had to use a nipple shield with DS in the beginning to get him to latch, the lactation consultants had me pump 5 minutes before and after each nursing session on both sides to ensure a good milk supply. I rented a hospital grade pump to do so for 2 weeks. I did end up with an oversupply for a couple of months. But they explained how the nipple shield basically reduces the amount of suction so the breasts get lesss stimulation = less milk.

[Joanner]

I think my SO and I agreed last night we aren't going to do any at the next visit for right now.

As far as breastfeeding, yeah, i've seen LC's, I have a great pump, no nipple shields. I've been working on this forever it seems. I think maybe I wasn't taking enough time to eat properly, because I have been focusing on that and have noticed a slight bump. We'll see!