Unvaccinated 4 year old Titer Results

[MomofTwinsPlus1]

Hi,

My almost 4 year old daughter is starting preschool next week (much to my dismay) and I am scared to death.  She is completely unvaccinated and until now has never been in a group preschool/daycare setting (not even at church, gym, etc.)  I am so worried of what she might come home with this year, but she is sooo ready to go.

I recently got her titers for all 12 vaccine preventable diseases (normal 11 + Hap A here in AZ), we are still waiting on Polio & Pertussis to come back, but as of now it is showing that she has naturally acquired Diphtheria & HiB bacterium.

I was a bit happy to see that she had acquired immunity to HiB, but really quite shocked that Diphtheria was positive!  I have read for years that this disease is unheard of in the US these days (and we have not traveled outside the US).  Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with this?  Does this mean she had a mild form of the illness and so now she is immune to the severe form?

[ma2two]

I'm really surprised about the diphtheria result as well. It's possible it's a false positive. But if it's correct, I read that antibiotics given for other diagnoses would fight diphtheria, so maybe there is actually more than 1 case per year in the U.S., but they never had a chance to get to a serious stage where diphtheria would be diagnosed.

[nukuspot]

I think it's much more plausible that she had a strong immune response to the Diptheria antibodies she picked up from you in utero or breastfeeding and formulated immunity that way.

That said, I have a completely unvaccinated 3.5 year old about to start preschool who has been in group settings since she was small. I understand your concern but I don't think you need to worry so much. Most likely she will pick up more colds, flu, viruses...But a VPD is very unlikely. Possibly with the exception of pertussis but even then it is unlikely. The only thing that keeps me a bit on my toes VPD wise when I think about preschool is tetanus since it won't me my meticulous wound care she is getting. But I plan to discuss my concerns with the teacher beforehand. We can't keep our kids, unvaxxed or vaxxed in a bubble. It's just not fair for them, though for sure I get where you are coming from with your concerns.

[serenbat]

 I think about preschool is tetanus

what about sepsis? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/nyregion/after-rory-stauntons-death-hospital-alters-discharge-procedures.html

[nukuspot]

Not quite getting the point of the link. Sure there are tons of things a mama could worry about but I was talking about VPDs...

[MomofTwinsPlus1]

As a follow-up, we just got her Pertussis and Polio results.  It says that she has acquired immunity to Polio but not Pertussis.  This is really crazy to me!  I have been researching VPD extensively since my twins were born 9 years ago, and I am shocked that my not yet 4 yr old daughter somehow was exposed to Polio when they say that there has not been a US confirmed case since 1985?  

I guess I should be relieved that I don't have to worry about Diptheria, HiB, or Polio infections anymore, but honestly I wasn't that worried about them to begin with because I THOUGHT they were so rare?  I am still worried about the others.  I feel that I should get a Tetanus only shot for all three of my kids - my twins were fully vaxed through 18 months but with their 4 yr old titers neither showed any immunity to Tetanus.

Honestly, I really think the medical community has way less knowledge of all of this stuff than they lead everyone to believe.

[nukuspot]

Again, I doubt she was exposed. Immunity probably came from you in utero or through breastmilk.

[nukuspot]

Ps: A tetanus only shot for kids does not exist (and the adult TR contains a full dose of thimerasol anyway). You would have to choose between pediatric DT or DTaP if you wanted to get them tetanus protection. Strangely, if your kids were vaxxed fully up to 18 mon this they should already be protected from tetanus, as they would have gotten 3-4 DTaPs??? Something doesn't seem right about those titer results...

[Taximom5]

Originally Posted by MomofTwinsPlus1 

>Honestly, I really think the medical community has way less knowledge of all of this stuff than they lead everyone to believe.

This.

[nukuspot]

Adult TT not TR

[serenbat]

Not quite getting the point of the link. Sure there are tons of things a mama could worry about but I was talking about VPDs...

The only thing that keeps me a bit on my toes VPD wise when I think about preschool is tetanus since it won't me my meticulous wound care she is getting. 

it was regarding your comment on tetanus- I feel you risk is much greater for a non-VPT such as sepsis yet you seemed worried about tetanus

[MomofTwinsPlus1]

As my pediatrician reminded me when we got my twins titer results  - vaccines are only 70% effective.  Even after receiving their entire rounds of infant/toddler vaccines - their blood showed that neither of them were immune to 80% of the Pc strains, HiB, Tetanus, Pertussis, and only 1 of them to Chicken Pox.  As I said, they both got all of their vaccines exactly on the AAP schedule, and were raised in the same environment - it just goes to show that even child is different and there are a lot of uneducated moms out there who have a false sense of security just because they do exactly what their ped. says.

So as for us, I now have 3 children you "need" the Tetanus but not the Diphtheria vaccine.  So silly that they can't some separate - you would think big pharma would understand that by forcing a combined mixture, they in the end are lessening their revenue...at least this family will not be buying either the DT nor Tdap, nor DTaP.