Most important vaccine?

[kathymuggle]

I am curious as to which vaccine you think is the most important?

[katelove]

I think rubella is important for women of childbearing age if they haven't acquired natural immunity. I also think tetanus is important for people who are likely to have at risk injuries, especially if they don't have ready access to health care. For example, where I grew up we were an hour and a half from the closest hospital and that was only if it wasn't raining heavily and the tide was out ( in the early days anyway). Once it took us 5 hours to get to town. I wouldn't want to have to do that just to get a puncture wound treated.

[kathymuggle]

Originally Posted by katelove 

I think rubella is important for women of childbearing age if they haven't acquired natural immunity.

  Chicken Pox can also be dangerous in pregnancy.  I would prefer a system where these childhood diseases were not routinely vaccinated for (they are quite benign in most children - rubella especially!) and the vaccines was offered to teen girls who had not acquired natural immunity.

[rdehoff-us]

I worry more about Tetanus since wound care is very important and toddlers are prone to getting bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Rubella doesn't scare me since I'm a stay-at-home-mom so he has limited exposure to the community at large (including other pregnant women) and we're not looking to have more kids right away. Also after getting the MMR shot it is recommended to not be around pregnant women for six weeks after receiving the vaccine according to some sources (such as Dr. Sears) because it is a live virus vaccine.
 

[marsupial-mom]

Depends on the child's age and where you live... I think that if there's an outbreak of a deadly disease in your area, then if that disease has a vaccine then that vaccine would be "the most important."

[rdehoff-us]

If by outbreak the doctor meant a whopping total of 4 deaths in our state in the last 6 years with a population of 6,516,922 according to the 2011 estimates of the U.S. Census Bureau?

[HouseofPeace]

with my son, i believed polio- as i still thought 'we wouldn't want an epidemic like in the past.'  so he got polio.  and my dr. said Hib- so i believe him.  then i learned more, and realized that i don't even believe in the midst of an epidemic that i would trust the vaccine to protect against the disease.  similar to kathymuggle, i think that teenagers who never get a childhood disease should have the option of getting an immunization.  but then i worry about teenage reactions to immunizations as well.  

i think that getting the hep b shot as a teenager may have been related to my flare-up of celiac disease.  http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/medicalguidelines/a/hepatitisB.htm  

and a friend got epstein-barre syndrome from a booster shot as a teenager/college age

leaving me to wish that there were vaccines available for those who want vaccines, and a traveling band of childhood diseases that my kids could be exposed to naturally and recover from.  at this point, they're exposed to the flu yearly, and colds, and many other things and don't ever get them.  i do not want to protect them from exposure, but to allow their bodies to be exposed to bacteria and viruses so their bodies may develop a natural immunity.  This does not include tetanus.  I practice good wound care, and if there was a real risk, would get the anti-toxin.  

so that leaves, hmmmmmmmmm.  oh wait.  yeah, i'm that mom.

[CA Country Girl]

I am going for the Dtap first (with no preservatives).  This is the recommendation of my naturopathic pediatrician due to local outbreaks of pertussis in the last few years and my two month old's exposure to my college age students (she comes to school with me).  My husband and I both got boosters last year, for the P (because we had friends with infants) and the T (because we always keep tetanus up to date).  Our life style demands it.  Unfortunately good wound care is not always enough.  My husband ends up wounded by all kinds of weird things because of the type of work he does.  Also, for me death is not the only measure of an epidemic.  I don't want my baby or other people's baby suffering in the ICU either.  

[rebecca_n]

what dtap are you getting? i wasn't aware of one with no preservatives, but haven't looked into it lately

[CA Country Girl]

Rebecca- It turns out that the DTaP I got did have low levels of aluminum, but no thimerosal.  It was the Daptacel.  Baby responded really well- no issues at all.