Hard time deciding what to do

[springmum]

Hello there,

A little background:

I have an almost 4 month old son.
I had a plan for a selective and slightly delayed schedule that I was comfortable with based on our situation.
Our son has Laryngomalacia (a floppy airway that restricts his breathing) and we do plan to travel to Malaysia probably before he's 5.

My plan was to do

2.5 months (Pentacel - we're in Canada) then give the rest of the doses every 3 months.

No Prevnar, or chicken pox or MMR

My schedule has now changed to delaying the rest until further notice because of two things.

1. 3 hrs after he received his shot he had a very intense cry and he couldn't be consoled at all. I had to give him Tempra (one dose which I'm now learning wasn't the right thing) which helped and he was back to his regular behaviours as soon as it kicked in.

2. I have had to take my 3rd dose of abx now (c-sec, mastitis I've had 7 times and could get rid of it on my own except twice) and he is showing that his little body is out of whack (which breaks my heart)
He has a tiny bit of eczema, and developed a late case of cradle cap (also has mucous in his stools) So while I try to get his body back in balance, I don't want to add a vacc to the mix.


The floppy airway worried me, because he's stopped breathing twice just choking on his drool (lips turned blue once) So I'm not sure that he could handle whooping cough like a normal child could.
I'm aware that it takes 3- 4 doses (?) of the pertussis vacc to be effective, and by the time he received the full set (if we spread it out) he would probably outgrow the floppy airway (it's usually resolved on it's own by 1 or 2 years old)
I also know the vacc doesn't prevent the disease, it just lessens the severity, duration.

We haven't been to the ENT specialist yet, so I'm not sure if there's any other factors we're dealing with, but I know if I ask them for advice it will be to vacc.
His ped is not supportive of selective/delayed vaccing, so I want to be confident before we go in later in Sept.


Sorry for the long post, I thought I needed to give you what was going through my mind...
Any thoughts you may have are welcome!!

Thank you

[springmum]

Forgot to add,

He's EBF and will be until at least 2. He will not attend daycare, although we attend many playgroups and certainly don't stay at home much.

[springmum]

I'm thinking I have more specific questions..

Do I continue with the Pentacel (specifically DTaP) every 3 months to offer him some protection while he has the floppy airway?

Do I space out the series even more? (and what might be a good spacing?)

Do I even continue with the series at all? (and worry about the international travel situation after he's like 2)

I shouldn't give any vacc's while he's dealing with eczema right?

Any help would be appreciated!

[springmum]

Oh dear.. I know it's a tough decision when I'm the only commenting on my own dilemma...

I'm really torn and don't want to make the wrong choice.

I know I can't unvaccinate, but I would also feel guilty if he got whooping cough knowing that he already has trouble with his airway.

I've read as much info as I can (books, reputable sites etc.) but nothing really addresses laryngomalacia...

If it was your child in my situation what would you do? (I know I have to make the ultimate choice and feel comfortable with it, but I really need to bounce this off of some other people to see what some other opinions are)


Thank you for your input!!

[Treece]

Here's my 2 cents.

I'm torn also. ~so~ I'm not. End of story. Which has been good cuz my son has had some weird things happen in his life which i would have attributed to vax. So, i am very confident in not. At least till I find a legit reason to.

So, follow your mama gut and it won't lead you wrong.

[springmum]

Thank you Treece..

Anyone else?

[alegna]

If you're currently undecided, I would go with the default of NOT vaccinating until you're 100% sure of which ones (if any) you want.

-Angela

[mrs_mandolini]

My son had a floppy airway & we dealt with croup every time he got a cold for the first 18 months. He's finally maybe grown out of that.

We didn't vax after 4 months, and only one of the many ER drs we saw gave us any crap about it. We DID avoid going most places over the winter because he was a preemie also.

[btower]

some things to think about

You might want to keep an eye on the CDC or whatever you have in Canada that will tell you if there is an outbreak in your area...you might consider holding off on the vaccine unless there is an outbreak and then taking action depending on what you find out. I am new to this whole thing myself so I don't consider myself an expert... but when your DS body is dealing with so many things, you might want to get things to a healthier state before introducing more chemicals into his system. Also about vaccines and boosters, I was under the impression from my ped that after you get a vaccine your are immunized (as much as if you got all three boosters) the reason for the booster is that a childs immune system doesn't have the memory like an adult system does, so the doctors keep giving boosters to "remind" an infants system to develop an immune defense against the disease... so if there was an outbreak of whooping cough in your area and you decided to vaccinate, that vaccine would be as effective as having had the vaccine all along. Consiquent boosters depend on the age of the child and if the vaccine was given at an age when his immune system was mature enough to develop lifelong "immunity". If anyone with more experience understood the reason for boosters differently please feel free to share... this is my understanding, after a long extensive talk with our doctor.
I hope this helps. It is a tough choice and only you know in your heart what you feel would be best for your son in his specific condition.

[nwmamas]

About the eczema thing, I don't know that I've heard it's worse to vax during flare-ups. I know eczema has been linked to asthma and allergies, and the whole shebang linked to vaxes, so I consider my DD with eczema to be more likely to develop those. No advice, just something else to heap on your research pile, sorry.