S/O: Not allowing vaxed children around non-vaxed

[Anonymous]

How do you actually put this into effect? Do you really question everyone before playdates, parties, classes, playground, etc?

I could maybe understand TDAP, MMR, etc, but the Flu? The CDC even said this years vaccine was not nearly as effective thanks to a mutation. What about just common sense? Don't let your kids around people who are sick, wash hands often, etc?

DD is fully vaxed (minus the flu) but I would never tell her she can't have a playdate with a friend just because they were not vaxed. I mean that's the point of vaccinations right? To keep the child from getting the disease, even if they come into contact with it?

[Anonymous]

Realistically, there's a limit on what you can do, because unless you're a shut-in you can't expect to avoid unvaccinated kids at school, the playground, other kids' parties, etc. The only context in which I had that rule was that we had a playgroup where one of the younger siblings was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect at birth and had to have several surgeries that delayed all of her vaxes and made her more susceptible to illness (and created bigger risk if she did get the flu or something). To make her feel safe in the playgroup, the other co-founder and I put a vax rule into effect, that every child had to be current on vaxes up to the standard schedule, and had to get the flu shot asap in the fall. There was only one family in the group at the time that it significantly affected (they were doing a delayed vax schedule, and we gave a little leeway there when she agreed to accelerate the catch-up), the rest of us just had to be more diligent about getting our flu shots early. It did keep a couple of other families from joining the playgroup, though, because they didn't want to comply with the vax rule.

[Anonymous]

If I had a baby or child who was immunocompromised, I wouldn't allow my other children to have a play date with an unvaxed child. If not, I wouldn't allow my child to go over to the other child's house of there wasn't a good reason to skip the vaccinations. The parents must be kind of dumb and I would be concerned about other questionable parenting decisions.

[Anonymous]

I don't. I just follow common sense and don't go through with play dates if any kid (including mine) is exhibiting symptoms of illness.

[Anonymous]

I just limit close contact with people who are not vaccinated. Not for all kids, just for babies and those who are immunocompromised, and of course if there is an outbreak in the area. Or if we are going to be visiting great-grandparents so I really don't want my kids to be sick.

It's not really feasible to avoid in public spaces, but I wouldn't go to someone's house or have them at mine. I'm not a germaphobe, my kid rides the subway and the bus daily, but snotty toddlers tend to get it all over each other and that's where I draw the line. It can be socially awkward to turn down a playdate, but when people choose not to vaccinate, we have to fall back on the older methods of limiting contact to prevent contagion. People who don't vaccinate usually understand this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just limit close contact with people who are not vaccinated. Not for all kids, just for babies and those who are immunocompromised, and of course if there is an outbreak in the area. Or if we are going to be visiting great-grandparents so I really don't want my kids to be sick.

It's not really feasible to avoid in public spaces, but I wouldn't go to someone's house or have them at mine. I'm not a germaphobe, my kid rides the subway and the bus daily, but snotty toddlers tend to get it all over each other and that's where I draw the line. It can be socially awkward to turn down a playdate, but when people choose not to vaccinate, we have to fall back on the older methods of limiting contact to prevent contagion. People who don't vaccinate usually understand this.

. You have no way of knowing who is or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you actually put this into effect? Do you really question everyone before playdates, parties, classes, playground, etc?

I could maybe understand TDAP, MMR, etc, but the Flu? The CDC even said this years vaccine was not nearly as effective thanks to a mutation. What about just common sense? Don't let your kids around people who are sick, wash hands often, etc?

DD is fully vaxed (minus the flu) but I would never tell her she can't have a playdate with a friend just because they were not vaxed. I mean that's the point of vaccinations right? To keep the child from getting the disease, even if they come into contact with it?

For clarification: the CDC did not say that this year's vaccine was "not nearly as effective". There are three strains of flu in this year's trivalent flu vaccine: one influenza A (H3N2) virus, one influenza A (H1N1) virus, and one influenza B virus. The CDC said that 52% of the A-H3N2 viruses collected and analyzed between 10/1/2014 and 11/22/2014 were antigenically different from the A-H3N2 virus in the vaccine (48% were antigenically similar), and so therefore the vaccine may be less effective this year. However, the vaccine still fully protects against the A-H1N1 and B strains in circulation, and it may also reduce the likelihood of hospitalization or death if you get the different A-H3N2 strain.

http://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00374.asp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you actually put this into effect? Do you really question everyone before playdates, parties, classes, playground, etc?

I could maybe understand TDAP, MMR, etc, but the Flu? The CDC even said this years vaccine was not nearly as effective thanks to a mutation. What about just common sense? Don't let your kids around people who are sick, wash hands often, etc?

DD is fully vaxed (minus the flu) but I would never tell her she can't have a playdate with a friend just because they were not vaxed. I mean that's the point of vaccinations right? To keep the child from getting the disease, even if they come into contact with it?

No vaccine is 100% effective. For example, some vaccinated people don't produce a good immune response. That's why it's important to vaccination a very high proportion of the population, so that the vaccine-preventable illness can't spread. That's called herd immunity, and here is a good visual demonstration of how it works:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/video/herd-immunity/

[Anonymous]

If I know someone is a non-vaxxing family, we don't associate with them. The end. But my kids are still pretty little (5, 3, and 1) so I have that luxury for a little bit longer. Choosing not to vaccinate is so stupid that it's akin to choosing to join a hate group or denying climate change.

[Anonymous]

I think fax/no-vac is a much bigger conversation topic w/ the pre-elementary school set. In my experience, once the kids were in elementary school no one talks about this issue.

[Anonymous]

That would be vax/no vax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just limit close contact with people who are not vaccinated. Not for all kids, just for babies and those who are immunocompromised, and of course if there is an outbreak in the area. Or if we are going to be visiting great-grandparents so I really don't want my kids to be sick.

It's not really feasible to avoid in public spaces, but I wouldn't go to someone's house or have them at mine. I'm not a germaphobe, my kid rides the subway and the bus daily, but snotty toddlers tend to get it all over each other and that's where I draw the line. It can be socially awkward to turn down a playdate, but when people choose not to vaccinate, we have to fall back on the older methods of limiting contact to prevent contagion. People who don't vaccinate usually understand this.

. You have no way of knowing who is or not.

Au contraire. Some of the anti-vaxers are rabidly open about it. These are not the kind of people with whom I would be friends, so a playdate is never going to happen anyway.

[Anonymous]

My friend's child regularly plays with a non-vaxed child and I'm even hesitant to have ds hang out with her kid, even though she is vaxed. It definitely concerns me, especially with a newborn on the way.

[Anonymous]

DD is fully vaxed (minus the flu) but I would never tell her she can't have a playdate with a friend just because they were not vaxed. I mean that's the point of vaccinations right? To keep the child from getting the disease, even if they come into contact with it?

Well, vaccines are not 100 percent effective, so it doesn't mean your child won't get the disease. But to your larger question, having one five year old fully vaccinated child, I probably wouldn't worry about it that much at this point personally. However, if my child had younger brothers or sisters that had not yet received all their vaccines, I would definitely feel differently.

[Anonymous]

My kid is through the first two years, is not immunocompromised, and is fully vaccinated, so I wouldn't stress about it, but frankly, I'm not going to associate closely with people who don't vaccinate by choice. It's a bit like being a climate change denier or a creationist--it's a signal to me that our values are not in alignment, and frankly, that you're not very smart. In the case of not vaccinating, it tells me that you don't understand the scientific evidence and/or you don't give a shit about other people; either way, it doesn't speak well of you and I don't really want to be your friend. (Obviously does not apply to people who don't vaccinate for real medical reasons.)