Can we talk a little about Hib? - Page 2

[Electra375]

Hib -- again a newer vaccine.
We didn't have this on the schedule when I was a child. If I didn't get the vaccine there is no way I'm letting my children get it. I had vaccines for typhoid, black plague, yellow fever, and other off the wall things. I can't believe my mother was so nieve, but wouldn't let me get small pox vaccine b/c of the scar... I was under 3 for all of this.

Did you know that if you wait until the child is 12 - 15 mo old, they only need one dose instead of one a 2, 4, 6 and 12-15 mo? This tid bit of information is in the fine print of the vaccine schedule put out by the CDC.

What Hib is suppose to prevent is so limited a strain, it isn't effective against all cases.

Hib was the one shot I didn't do w/ my 1st child b/c he was not at risk. Meaning I was a stay at home mom and he was not in a daycare environment. I caved in when I sent him to preschool, it was on the public school schedule even though it is not to be administered to children age 5 and over (it has since been removed from the school requirements).

My other children won't get this period. I'm not convinced it is necessary for my children.

[KatSG]

Originally Posted by gilnikche

Is this the thread you were referring to?

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=150709

Yep. That was one of them.

[milkmommaof2]

I wish I read this thread before my ds 15 month check up yesterday
We are doing the delay/selective vax BUT yesterday I went in and I didn't want to get ANY vaxs!! Well my doc kind of lectured me since he is behind in his vaxs. He was due for the HIB and MMR, I def. am NOT getting the mmr until much later if at all so i went with the HIB I wish I would have just stuck to my guns and not gotten any!! My ds, well both of my sons actually always get ear infections!!

[chicken]

I was wondering about the pink eye and HIB connection. We had the same thing happen around here a couple of months ago. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for the pink eye without seeing us. Is it possible that we really had HIB? If so, where would we stand now? Natural immunity or lowered? Confusing!

[mamamoogs]

Come to think of it not to long after my dd 's hib shot when she was two months old her eye got very gooping and teared alot for about a week so i called the ped and they said that it sounded like a blocked tear duct, and to apply warm compresses on it and message the corner well it wasnt working so they rx and an antibiotic ointment for us to put in her eye but we never did because after another day or so it cleared up and (knock on wood) we havent seen it happen again and that was three months ago, she hasnt had any more shots since then nor will she be getting anymore.

[azmusiclover]

My brother got one of the very first Hib vaccines when he was 18 months old. He had a seizure, a bad one. Then continued to have seizures. They checked him for everything, never found a cause, stuck him on all sorts of nasty seizure meds.
My mom is convinced now that it was the Hib vaccine and has told me to refuse it for my kids (which I do anyway) but I see my brother who has stunted growth from all the seizure meds and learning disabilities that have occurred from all the seizures which he would not have had.

So this seems to be another way for them to have scare tactics and add more $$$ to the pot.

[owensmom]

Can anyone point me to the what the symptoms of HiB are? Reading the above, and the mention of pinkeye (which I believe my son had in both eyes with his longterm cold this past couple weeks), I'm curious.

I'm actually reading this thread because I ended up taking him to the ped even though his cold had seemed to clear up - he was tiring easily, not eating, and his glands were swollen, and I thought he was getting better - so I got not our normal ped because she was out, and of course I got the vax lectures. She tried to scare me about ds getting epiglottitis because he doesn't have his HiB (or any) vax.

She also told me I could catch him up on his vaxes, even though he was sick.

Thanks!

[Mommy To Baby Roni]

He said he has seen two 2 month old twins die from meningitis when he was a young doctor and that it really impacted him and gave him a healthy respect for the disease and the vax.

If this experience impacted him so deeply, why hadn't he mentioned it before? Why wait until your child is 6 mos. old, when you've already had vax discussions, to mention this story about 2-month olds. I think many peds try to start parents on "just one" vax, then "oh, and this one is also most important", etc. Honestly, I think he's just using it go lure you in.

[KatSG]

Originally Posted by owensmom

Can anyone point me to the what the symptoms of HiB are? Reading the above, and the mention of pinkeye (which I believe my son had in both eyes with his longterm cold this past couple weeks), I'm curious.

I now really wish I'd written it all down because I can't remember, but I know when dd had HiB she had pink eye in both eyes, the green, goopy kind. She had a sniffly nose, and she just felt rotten. She was so little, though, a few months old, that I couldn't tell you if she was especially tired or lethargic because it's just harder to tell at that age, you know?

It did go on for a few weeks but was only really bad for maybe 5 days. I know it wasn't weeks of trauma. We did do the AB for the eyes because the culture came back as bacterial. Our FNP suggested it but I was skeptical and irritated at him for throwing ABs ate me until the culture came back positive. I'm a firm believe in diagnostics, and I'm glad our FNP is, too.

If you want to know for sure get a culture. Like I said, sometimes it's worth it to go to the doctor even if it's not an emergency just to get an accurate diagnosis so you know what's the appropriate course of action and so you can keep track of your kid's health history.

[nancy926]

HiB stands for Haemophilus influenzae type B. It's a type of bacteria and 90 percent of us have it in our systems right now. It can cause bacterial meningitis (which is an infection of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord) in young kids (under 4) especially. this type of meningitis has about a 10 percent death rate and can also cause seizures, etc. It's treated with antibiotics - but thanks to antibiotic overuse, Hib meningitis has become more common, or at least it did from about the mid-1940s to mid-1980s.

www.909shot.com says:

In 1995, out of 74 Hib disease cases where age and vaccination status were known, 41 had received at least one Hib shot; 22 were appropriately vaccinated for their age; and 18 had completed the primary series.

That leaves 3 that were unvaccinated!

emedicine.com says about 70 percent of cases are in kids under 2. Mayoclinic.com says there are about 700 deaths a year overall. So if there's a 10 percent death rate, there are about 7,000 cases, or about 5,000 cases in kids under 2 in the U.S. That's not many. i have no idea how many kids under 2 there are in this country (and you would think that would be relatively easy to find out!).

I do know that our new wee one will be at least selectively vaxed, and HiB is not at the top of my list of vaxes I'm keen on getting.