I'm confused about vaccine exemption....can someone help me?

[ChristusG]

I did not think I would have to deal with this. My DD is 4 years old and I plan to homeschool her. I have just recently begun to selectively vaccinate her. She did not get her four year old shots, but has gotten everything up until then. I decided to do my research and I'm no longer comfortable with all vaccines.

Well, she has to have speech therapy through the public school system. Even though she is only 4 years old, and even though she'll only be there for 30 minutes twice a week (while I'm there waiting on her) they told me I have to pretty much register her like she's attending school there.

So I have to bring in her social security card, birth certificate, get her a physical, and bring in her shot record. :

Well, of course, her shot record is not up to date. I live in Florida and I know that I can get an exemption for it. I know they cannot question me about my resons behind it, etc.

However, I'm a bit confused about what I read. If I get an exemption for her vaccines.....does this mean that I'm not allowed to get her ANY more vaccines? Here's a portion of what I read....

Florida’s vaccine policy seems to demands that you choose either all vaccinations or none, regardless of individual circumstances or health history. Unless a doctor has a reason to authorize a medical exemption, your only options with current vaccine policy are to (1) comply with accepted vaccine standards and all mandates, or (2) have religious objections to vaccination because partial exemptions and exemptions for personal or philosophical reasons are not permitted in Florida.

If that is so, I'm not comfortable with that. I want to be able to vaccinate her with the ones that I feel she needs at the time. I dont want an "all or none" type of deal.

So by getting this exemption, will I be giving up my ability to get her the vaccines that I choose?

[Fyrestorm]

Yes, Religious exemptions are against the practice of vaccination, not the vaccines themselves.

You might still be able to sneak the ones you want, but you have to be sure that you are not on the vaccine registry. If you got caught...your exemption goes up in smoke.

[ChristusG]

Thanks so much for your reply!

So what do others in this situation do? I really dont know what to do.....I have to have her paperwork to the school by Monday. Actually, today, but there's no way I can get her a physical today.

[Fyrestorm]

Florida also allows a exemption from medical examination:

http://www.vaclib.org/exempt/florida.htm

It's about 1/3 down the page

232.0315 School Entry-Health Examinations
"The school board of each district and the governing authority of each nonpublic schools shall require that each child who is entitled to admittance to pre-kindergarten or kindergarten, or is entitled to any other initial entrance into a public or nonpublic school in this state, present a certification of a school-entry health examination performed within 1 year prior to enrollment in school. The school board of each district, and the governing authority of each nonpublic school, may establish a policy which permits a student up to 30 days to present a certification of a school-entry health examination . . . However, any child shall be exempt from the requirement of a health examination upon written request of the parent or guardian of such child stating objections to such examination on religious grounds."

As far as any additional vaccinations...I have no idea. We don't do any and have no intention to - so I have not ut any thought into it. As long as you're not on a state registry and your Dr. won't report and is willing to not put it in your DC vax record, you could probably get away with it.

What other ones were you thinking of doing...maybe look into it further and see if you really need to.

[suschi]

I have five children and in the beginning, I vaccinated according to schedule, my first was born in 1984. Over the years I noticed that they were adding more and more vaccines to the schedule, and in 1999, my 4th child suffered several problems after his 3rd round of shots, I stopped all vaccines for all my children from that day forward until I could get some answers, I'm still waiting. As a result, my then 4 yr old did not get the vaccine "boosters" required for school entry, and was enrolled in Kindergarten with a religious exemption, despite the fact that he was vaccinated up to age 4. My now 9 year old, also enrolled in K with no shots given after the 6 month round (that he recvd at age 7.5 months).

My youngest, who just turned 6 Sept 3rd, started school this year with no shots at all. While our particular health dept in Duval County Florida attempts to throw a few road blocks, they do give the exemption with no questions. I think vaccines skew the immune system, and not in a good way, so I have no problem not giving any other vaccines, ever.

You can try to sneak some in, but they are pretty big on tracking, so I don't know how well that would work.

Not sure which ones you would deem necessary, maybe get the vax inserts from your dr for every vaccine you are considering and read up on the disease, disease rates and complication rates. The only vaccines given when I was young, polio, dpt and smallpox.

My have times changed!