Reply to When did you do first hep b shot for new baby?

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Reply to "When did you do first hep b shot for new baby?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I did it at the ped's office, around 4 weeks.

I'm very pro-vax, but that one is given at birth for social reasons, not medical ones (with obvious exceptions like pp's situation).  The population most at risk are the ones least likely to get all their immunizations, so it's on the schedule to be given at birth.  I personally wasn't comfortable giving permission for it before he was born, so we just waited to do it with the pediatrician.[/quote]

How is it "social reasons"?  The vaccine is given at birth because there are no risks associated with giving it early, and doing so provides protection for kids who were exposed prenatally, including those whose parents didn't realize they were exposed.

That's a hell of a lot better reason for giving it on that particular day then the fact that we give the Chicken Pox vaccine at 12 months, a decision that was likely made because it's an easier age to remember than say 12 months and a week, or eleven and a half months.[/quote]

Not that PP, but hep is not transmitted in the same way as chicken pox or many of the other diseases for which children receive vaccines. It's transmitted to children generally only from the mother, and mothers generally only have hep B because they engage in risky behaviors and those behaviors are associated with low rates of vaccination. Giving the vaccine to everyone can cover those children even though their mothers aren't getting care, so we do that even though the majority of children aren't at risk until they are older and start engaging in the risky behaviors - sex, IV drugs, tattoos, etc. I believe that's what PP means by social reasons, not temporal placement on the schedule relative to other early childhood vaccines.[/quote]

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