Vaccines for my 1 year old

[bulldog24]

Have 2 pandas kids. 1 severe 1 mild and a 1 year old who while I was pregnant I had Lyme. my 1 year old had her cord etc tested by specialty labs for Lyme and Babesia PCR andit was all neg. I treated as agressively as possible. She is doing awesome. Walking at 9 months running by 10! I vaccinated her by reg schedule up until 6 months according to guidelines. At 6 months found a new pedi and the more I spoke with Lyme/PANDAS docs they said to go easy. so I have only done 1 at a time. So far so good. But she has had swollen tonsils,hoarse voice and sore throat every 6 weeks for awhile. Always culture negative. But my "mommy gut" says something isnt quite right. The doc keeps telling me I amjust more aware and alert for this stuff and these are viruses. Well her 1 year visit is next week. I think my plan is to hold off all vaccines until I can get her in with Dr. B in mid cotober. I have the appointment made. The list of vaccines at the 1 year appt I think is 7 vaccines including the MMR. I also worry about exposing my son who is severe to someone who got a live vaccine. I generally believe that vaccines are usually a good thingin moderation. I dont think vaccinating a 1 year old with 12 different pathogens at once with the hx of autoimmune stuff we have going on.

 

She did have a tick bite memorial day weekend. It was a dog tick but it was attatched. not engorged and she was on amoxi for one of her sore throat episodes for 7 days before the bite and 5 days after the bite roughly. I still have the tick.

 

I just dont think I can test her for lyme because wont she have my antibodies? I suppose if it was a pcr test that would work or if it was an IgM pos test that would mean something.

 

UGH nothing is ever easy.

 

I know that I amholding off these vax but want to hear from other people that I havent lost my mind.

 

She doesnt go to preschool btw

[bulldog24]

here is what it says she is due for-

 

Who would do that?? Good grief!

 

•HepA

•HIB

•Flu_Seasonal

•MMR

•Pneumococcal

•Varicella

[dcmom]

bulldog-

 

Both of my kids were fully vaxed till now (delaying meningococcal) pre pandas.

 

I tend to try to be middle of the road. My thoughts would be NO vax unless the swollen tonsils thing resolves. When that was resolved, I think I would look at each vax, and see what the risk of the disease is at your child's age and lifestyle, and then determine from there for myself which vax were needed. I would also give one at a time, with 8 weeks between.

 

Off the top of my head I would skip the flu vax and chicken pox vax.

 

I know it is really, really tough- and it sucks that we as parents don't have enough info to really make a solid decision (no studies on the safety of the required vax schedule).

[bulldog24]

thanks. Both of my PANDASkids are fully vax'd but have exemptions for them in the future.

[sf_mom]

I would ask your LLMD about vaccinations for 1 year old. I know, I know, it sounds like you took a lot of precautions but I would still worry.

 

Here is our experience: All 3 kids have gestational Lyme et al and older DS had his first coughing tic 3 weeks after 4 year vaccinations, sudden on-set was 3 weeks post 5 year vaccinations, strep related illness and exposure to child with virus. With the younger twins we delayed the one year vaccinations until 18 months due to illness at time. After 18 month vaccinations they seemed to be sick regularly and as a result I gave them the flu shot and 2 months later at 2 1/2 years of age one was on antibiotics for potential PANDAS Diagnoses (OCD and rage behavior). We discovered Lyme at 3 1/3 years of age for both the twins.

[bulldog24]

I defintely always remember that the baby could have lyme despite the tests at birth. I will ask my LLMD when I see her, Plus I see dr. B with her in october. Thanks for your advice

[Missmom]

That is such a tough decision. My kids were fully vaxed on regular schedule before pandas, but I just got an exemption for my pandas son on his seventh grade Tdap booster. The process to get that exemption for us was brutal. We live in Mississippi which is one of only two states that don't allow any personal or religious exemptions, only medical exemptions. We got the dr. to agree to the exemption but still had to get it approved by a state health representative. Then the state lost our exemption..... Luckily I had made copies of the letter from our dr. to resubmit to the state.... Ugggg. I was able to finally pick it up the week before school. The govt. just needs to back out of our medical decisions and leave those decisions up to parents and our doctors. I was highly perturbed when i thought about the fact that one govt. official had the authority to decide if my child would be allowed to enter school. Anyway, If you do decide against some of the vaccines be very thankful if you live in a state where you can file either a personal or religious exemption for school. Don't let anyone bully you into getting the vaccinations. Follow your gut.

[bulldog24]

I let my old pedi bully me into getting my son vax after I asked if this would flare his issues (didnt have official dx but I knew what it was) and my gut said noand I did it anyway. he had a mild flare. thank fully I have a letter from dr. b expemting him from further vax. I also got a vax friendly pedi. I did learn though that if you sign a waiver of vaccines to write the reason why you are declining them. Like I would write expert immunologist advises against it or something like that. Dont just sign it.

[smartyjones]

But my "mommy gut" says something isnt quite right. The doc keeps telling me I amjust more aware and alert for this stuff and these are viruses.

 

 

have you read Kenneth Bock's 4 As? he has a vacc schedule in there and he makes some distinctions between daycare and non daycare. my kids were fully vacced when i read it but i did wish i had read it when i was tryhing to do vacc research.

 

 

when i read your post, it reminds me. . . ds had strep at 22 mths, pandas onset at age 4.5. i cannot remember when it began, but he would have random fevers and/or throw up. he'd not feel good for a little while and then get over it. at the time, we thought it was just how it body was processing whatever he'd been exposed to. there's no way for us to ever know, but now i wonder if he had subclinical level of strep (or the many other viruses he has been treated for) and that flaring was causing the trouble.

 

 

i agree with your doc -- you are more aware and alert -- and i think you are likely noticing something that is causing your daughter a problem.

[Hopeny]

This is regarding the dog tick, engorgement or attachment time are totally irrelevant. This is another myth brought to us by the folks who deny chronic Lyme etc. My nephew acquired Lyme in a tick, not engorged, attached less than 12 hours. I found a bullseye on my 3 year old's arm this weekend, if she had a tick it was not on there long, and I mean a few hours, because it was in a completely visible spot and I check all the time. Dog ticks carry very nasty coinfections, Ehrlicia etc. I would test the tick if that is still viable due to the time passed and pursue antobiotic treatment if anything comes back positive. The amount of antibiotics your DD had is not enough. You need 4 weeks abx for a bite with no symptoms.

[airial95]

There is a campaign started locally here by some doctors in our area called "Two and Talking" - where they advise against vaccination for ALL kids until they're at least 2 years old. I hear them talking about it on the radio quite frequently.

 

They're still working on the website, but here is the Vaccine Schedule that they recommend - the campaign was started by a very prominant local doctor and his brother who is a medical injury attorney. Theyr'e a very prominent famly and vaccine injury was something that affected their family so that's why they got involved.

Edited August 24, 2012 by airial95

[colleendonny]

I would say no and I think the pedi may agree given the family history... And Dr. B will definitely say no, and will give her an exemption letter.

The more I research vax, I wish my kids never received any!

[bulldog24]

Oh yes I am well aware about ticks in general. I comoderate a support group for Lyme and we see it all the time. Dog ticks are especially bad for RMSF. I also agree attatchment times are not relevant either. I guess I was just aknowledging that she could have been infected with that bite.

 

I will hold off vaccines for now.

[SSS]

I think you posted because your intuition is telling you not to- and if you do decide to continue, DC mom's comments about completely healthy and 1 every 8 weeks sounds good-

 

I do know exactly where you are coming from- I stopped all vaccines 3 years ago, BUT, by then all kids were fully vaxed, except my youngest, who is 5 years old, and 100% neuro typical and healthy. This child I never breast fed, for personal reasons. I thank God for that, because I had no idea I had Lyme and co.

She is missing 1 DTAP, and MMR. I won't do them, and unless something grave happens (like confirmed strep throat!) I won't put her on antibiotics.

She has only been on antibiotics maybe twice, years ago.

 

My Ped. tried to tell me about continued vaccinations for her: 'But the plates are already up in the air, spinning. You need these boosters to keep them spinning.'

Well, I cannot take the risk of setting something off. I think it would be the death of me.

I also waived the right for my teenage son to get middle school DTAP (CA). No flu shots, no nothing anymore.

I know it's probably different, since my kids have already had/have the majority- I now figure: no more of them on my time. When they are 18, if they want, they can continue.

It's so hard.

I wish to God they could at least try and 'green' these vaccines.