Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ped told me he thinks Hep B is unnecessary for kids and should be delayed until the teen years. We still haven't gotten it. Child is 2 and not in daycare. We will have to get it by school age as it is required for school but are delaying until then. DH and I know we don't have it and we are the only caregivers for our child.

I guess your pediatrician knows more about this than the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians?
Sooun
I, personally, would find a new pediatrician.

Sounds like her pediatrician is great. Doctors should treat patients, and not blindly follow advice theat groups think apply to everyone.

Yeah, doctors should listen to their patients recommendations on how to be healthy instead of following guidelines that have been rigorously studied and proven to be effective. That's what I want out of my doctor!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ped told me he thinks Hep B is unnecessary for kids and should be delayed until the teen years. We still haven't gotten it. Child is 2 and not in daycare. We will have to get it by school age as it is required for school but are delaying until then. DH and I know we don't have it and we are the only caregivers for our child.

I guess your pediatrician knows more about this than the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians?
Sooun
I, personally, would find a new pediatrician.

Sounds like her pediatrician is great. Doctors should treat patients, and not blindly follow advice theat groups think apply to everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we are coming at this from the wrong side. What's the big deal about giving the vaccine to a newborn? Why wouldn't you do it?

If you read through the posts, most people who delayed it simply delayed it by a matter of weeks, so that it was done by their pediatrician. It was given to them as a newborn, just not the actual day they were born. I personally wasn't comfortable authorizing a shot for my child who was still in my womb. The risk for my child was extremely low, since neither I nor anyone in my family had the illness. He got it a couple of weeks later. No big deal.

Why weren't you comfortable doing so? This is what I don't understand. Science says it is safe and effective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm one of those posters. It's just not a very common disease in this country, and the addition of the vaccine to the schedule is relatively recent. According to the CDC, since it's been introduced on the schedule, rates have declined significantly, which is a great public health win. Public health, like everything else, is political (see, for example, the debate about gardasil) and choices for emphasis have to be made. I simply question whether focus on this disease, which is most commonly, though I agree not exclusively, transmitted via sex and blood contact is the right public health choice. My kids were vaccinated in accordance with the schedule, so it's really a political/social point and it's certainly not an anti-vax point.

Neither is polio. Why? BECAUSE OF THE POLIO VACCINES!!!!!!!!! (Capital letters for shouting.)

Thank you. I HATE it when people say X just isn't that common in this country... Because of the vaccines.

But what people don't seem to realize (and in very urban areas like DC) is that we get TONS of immigrants (legal and illegal) that are not fully vaccinated and travel back and forth between countries with bad diseases. So you don't live in BFE in a bomb shelter - you live in an area with a constant chance of high exposure to crap.

Hep A and B are preventable now and NOT STDs and NOT limited to drug use. Saliva, urine, blood and fecal matter also have it. And three of those fluids are found in abundance on babies in all kinds of manner and the play with the stuff too. One bite and that kid without those three shots could have something that is TOTALLY preventable.

Yes, but the point is that it wasn't a common disease in this country even before the introduction of the vaccine to the schedule. The other point is about most common modes of transmission. HIV is in saliva too, but in small amts. And there are a bunch of other points about how we weigh risk and make decisions. In my reading experience, dcum isn't a great forum for a rational discussion of risks because most people's list of factors seem to begin and end with "any conceivable risk at all." I don't use the cares harness on planes but I do always use a carseat for kids and a seatbelt for adults. If it were up to me, I wouldn't vaccinate for Hep B until my child was older or until they were traveling to a country were rates are higher and/or where they don't test the blood supply for the disease. It's not really up to me because the CDC makes the schedule and the public schools follow it and I want my kids in the public schools. I don't think it's a big deal, really, even if my continuing to post would suggest otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:I think we are coming at this from the wrong side. What's the big deal about giving the vaccine to a newborn? Why wouldn't you do it?

If you read through the posts, most people who delayed it simply delayed it by a matter of weeks, so that it was done by their pediatrician. It was given to them as a newborn, just not the actual day they were born. I personally wasn't comfortable authorizing a shot for my child who was still in my womb. The risk for my child was extremely low, since neither I nor anyone in my family had the illness. He got it a couple of weeks later. No big deal.

I think we are coming at this from the wrong side. What's the big deal about giving the vaccine to a newborn? Why wouldn't you do it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm one of those posters. It's just not a very common disease in this country, and the addition of the vaccine to the schedule is relatively recent. According to the CDC, since it's been introduced on the schedule, rates have declined significantly, which is a great public health win. Public health, like everything else, is political (see, for example, the debate about gardasil) and choices for emphasis have to be made. I simply question whether focus on this disease, which is most commonly, though I agree not exclusively, transmitted via sex and blood contact is the right public health choice. My kids were vaccinated in accordance with the schedule, so it's really a political/social point and it's certainly not an anti-vax point.

Neither is polio. Why? BECAUSE OF THE POLIO VACCINES!!!!!!!!! (Capital letters for shouting.)

Thank you. I HATE it when people say X just isn't that common in this country... Because of the vaccines.

But what people don't seem to realize (and in very urban areas like DC) is that we get TONS of immigrants (legal and illegal) that are not fully vaccinated and travel back and forth between countries with bad diseases. So you don't live in BFE in a bomb shelter - you live in an area with a constant chance of high exposure to crap.

Hep A and B are preventable now and NOT STDs and NOT limited to drug use. Saliva, urine, blood and fecal matter also have it. And three of those fluids are found in abundance on babies in all kinds of manner and the play with the stuff too. One bite and that kid without those three shots could have something that is TOTALLY preventable.