Vaccines: will you get them for your other children?

[TinyTreasures]

My 3.5 year old was just diagnosed with PANS & is on week 3 of antibiotics. Life is good finally - my sweet boy is mostly back to himself & I hope I never lose him again! He had all his vaccines up until 2 years old (for some reason I just had a bad feeling about getting his last doses of vaccines & kept putting it off). We spaced them all out & he never got the MMR or flu or Chickenpox vaccines & I don't want to give him any more ever. I can't see it making sense to purposefully put diseases in the small body of someone with an autoimmune disorder who can't even fight off a cold without it attacking his brain & completely changing his personality.

 

My question is this - did or would you vaccinate the siblings of your PANDAS child? My 2nd boy is nearly 3 months old and vaccine-free...I just am wondering if there are any vaccines which are truly important that I should give him? I can't bear the thought though that something I choose to give him may change his life horribly someday...

[LNN]

Both my kids were fully vaccinated thru the ages of 5. My son didn't show signs of Pandas until he was 6. I will be taking a religious exemption for the vaccines required for 7th grade, which includes a meningitis vaccine. My kids don't get flu shots, which generally contain thimerisol unless you get a single-dose vial.

 

I do think the ability to handle vaccines is very individual. I would personally avoid any shot that contained thimerisol and I wouldn't give more than one vaccine at a time. But I'm not anti vaccine and I do think the consequences of certain diseases outweighs the potential for a Pans flare in some cases. E.g. polio. I think delaying the vaccines like polio until they're older is probably wise. I think certain vaccines are not necessary - e.g. chickenpox. But I don't know of any way to cherry pick the vaccines you want to give and yet be able to decline others.

 

I think you need to follow your gut on this one. It's not an easy decision.

[Hopeny]

I probably have a different view than many so offer it in the spirit of sharing different views, i recognize this is a complex and emotional topic and hope this does not upset anyone who has a different view/experience. After reading through many of the vaers reports I continue to fully vaccinate. In most of the reports I read, the vaccine reaction did not occur immediately but days to weeks after, so my view is its hard to link a reaction directly to the vaccine as there seem to be many other factors. Other health conditions need to be considered/evaluated as with any type of treatment. The exception is the HPV vaccine, there have been numerous adverse immediate reactions reported so I will not be giving that to either child. I do avoid thimersol and think its only common sense to space them out. My former ped missed a dtap vaccine and my then two year old contracted whooping cough. I watched her helplessly and could only pray. Fortunately for us, likely because she had had the first two vaccines, her case was mild and she recovered, others have not been so lucky. I actually then printed the vaccine scheduled self to ensure that no vaccines are skipped again. The vaers database is publicly available.

[Mayzoo]

I was selective in what vaccines I allowed from her birth. I allowed the ones I received (HIB, DTaP, MMR, Polio), but not the newer ones. My reasoning was, the newer ones do not have long term effects for reproductive issues, etc..., so I opted out. I only did one MMR vaccine because kiddo spiked a high fever that night and for a few days after. Now she is 11 and just had her titers drawn and they are ALL very high for MMR, polio, and tetnus, so she should not have had the second one anyway.

 

Now, I will not likely be giving any more unless a titer shows a great need. Everyone must decide this for themselves. Live vaccines for the siblings are more likely to cause your PANS child to flare than the "killed" vaccines.

[airial95]

My son had his onset at 19-20 months old after a strep infection, but wasn't dx until 26 months. He did have a very bad reaction to the H1N1 shot around 23 months (we were taking a trip to mexico - it was when it was rampant down there so the ped suggested we get the kids vax for it - we thought it was a good idea at the time...)

 

Since his dx, we have kept both kids up to date on vax as well, like Hopeny, we try to balance the overall good with the individual bad. We have done it on protracted schedule, only one shot at a time, with a couple of weeks in between to see reaction. We do not do the ful shot at all for either child - after seeing my son's reaction, we felt the reaction was too much to risk that one.

 

This approach has worked for us, we take each vax on a case by case basis. I doubt we will do the HPV vax for either child when the time comes - but I still have a few years to make that decision and will cross that bridge when we come to it!

 

There is a local group here led by a Dr. that advocates delaying all vaccines until after 2 years old. Their organization is called "Two and Talking" - probably can find them on the web.

[lulu4]

For what it's worth, my dd12 with PANDAS received only the very first vaccines at age 2 months. She has not received any more. Her younger sister has never been vaccinated. Their pediatrician feels there are several issues to consider with vaccines, not only the diseases and the thimerasol, but other ingredients too that are foreign proteins and things that are held in the body like toxins. He feels that toxicity and high metal exposure only hinder the body trying to fight off infections and deal with the autoimmunity response. We have enough of those last too just from environmental issues, so we're not adding any more with vaccines. My girls seemed to have developed very good immune systems, so it was a shock to find out about the PANDAS. Ped still recommends no vaccines for either girl. It's not always an easy decision, so all the best to you.