Was Going to Delay Vax, but Now Traveling to Bulgaria

[hippymama25]

I have a 4 month old baby girl who will be 7 months old when we travel to Bulgaria. I was going to delay vaccines until who knows when, but thought that international travel could be dangerous if she is unvaccinated. So, we went ahead and got the first DTaP vaccine. I don't know what else to do. Has anyone researched international travel and what the most important vaccines would be to get? Everything I search for online says to of course do all vaccinations on schedule, but I just want to do perhaps the most important ones. I'm not worried about Bulgaria because we'll be with family, but more thinking about the airport and not knowing who we will run into or sit next to on the plane. What do you all think? I am not anti-vax but just was planning to delay vaccinations until she was older.

[slmommy]

She will be too young still for MMR, chicken pox, meningococcal and Hep A.

She is too old now to do rota.

You could still do Hep B (but that wouldn't really concern me at this age), hib, pc, polio... Most people who are breastfeeding are not too concerned about hib and pc... I doubt there is any polio in Bulgaria, although maybe they use Oral polio there? I would not be concerned about polio vax just for that trip.

Flu vax is something I would never consider, but I think they do give to kids over 6 months?

Personally, I think you got/are getting the "most" important one. 

I flew internationally, 9+ hour flights for four trips before DD was two. One time we did get a little girl behind us coughing the whole trip, DD did get a runny nose for a few days after, but luckily it didn't develop into what she had. I usually just kept her in my lap the whole time and bfing most of the time (although that was mostly so she wouldn't cry and because she was a big night nurser and we took overnight flights). No other issues other than that one time.

[hippymama25]

Thanks for your thoughts! If I continue to follow the delayed schedule I was looking at, the next 2 shots would be Pc and Hib. Isn't it true that the first shot in the series is the most "effective"? If I decide to go ahead with Pc and Hib (I haven't decided yet), would it make sense for us to only get the first shot of each of them since that's the most effective shot and wait until later for the rest, or if we're getting those vaccines do I really need to do most of the series? I just want to get the least amount of shots but still not leave her vulnerable, since we will not be in our own safe community. I do exclusively breastfeed and she doesn't go to daycare or anything, so I wouldn't be getting any right now if we weren't traveling to the other side of the world :)

slmommy, was your 2 year old DD unvaxed for those trips?

[slmommy]

My DD was sel. vaxed for first 6 months... but first trip was 4-5 months during Sept, so then she had had bcg (live outside US and is on schedule here), 2 hep Bs and 2 pentacels (dtap, ip, hib). That wasn't the time she got sick... she got sick on another trip at 11 months during March, but it just turned into runny nose, which wasn't fun for sleeping, but no real problem!

Not really sure about efficacy after the first shot... might have to research that...