Saturday, October 30, 2010

lil Thumper's final alternative newborn vaccine schedule

Here's Thumper's final vaccine schedule, along with brand names and notes. I will update it as we go. I'm very happy with my schedule as I've had several months to really think about vaccines, what risks I'm willing to live with, and coming to the understanding that the schedule needs to fit my lifestyle.

Remember, you have to get your vaccines at least one month before hand to build up that immunity before you do your traveling. Not a requirement. But good idea.


























































































AgeVaccinesNotes
BirthHepBDidn't do the research so just got it cuz they offered.
2 monthsDTaP (Deptacel)












3 months














Caught a nasty chest cold. Worried mommy endlessly.
4 monthsDTaP (Deptacel)












6 months












Caught a really bad head cold. Mommy worries about ear infection. And skips the vaccination.
7 monthsPc (Prevnar)Skips the final shot of DTaP since starting summer travel and opt for Pc instead since will encounter lots of people.
8 months











Yosemite trip.
9 monthsPc (Prevnar)Decided with Pc instead since liklihood of whooping cough lower than Pc as we're not going to daycare. This way, we're up to 90% on both vaccines before we take that cruise.
10 months







Cruise
11 months







Starting shared nanny. Since the other kid doing regular vaccination, it'll allow me to continue with my alternate schedule.
12 monthsDTaP (Deptacel)
Mobile stage requires that I finish her T shots. Skipping chicken pox and MMR while I catch up on other shots.
14 or 15 monthsPc (Prevnar)Since 3rd dose is > 12 months, we only need 3 instead of 4! If we go back to Taiwan, I'll move this up to 13 or 14 months since antibiotic resistant strains come out of Asia.
16 monthPolio #1


17 monthPolio #2


20.5 monthHIB (ActHIB)Only need one shot. More reasoning here

2.5 yearsEveryone catches a month-long cold with nasty cough. My research said DTaP efficacy rate after 3 doses is about same as 4. But I worried nevertheless and got her tested just to make sure it wasn't pertussis. Even though gut feeling said it wasn't, it was still good to make sure.
3 yearsMMRHappy with my decision to delay till 3. We had a very small circle of vaccinated children as friends, are not going to preschool, and don't go out to places w/ lots of other kids much. But at 3 years, our social life is expanding so it's perfect timing.
4+ yearsDTaP #4, Polio #3, MMR #2The Swiss trials says 3 doses of DTaP vs 4 have about the same efficacy rate. So I'll wait till 4+ to get the 4th shot instead of getting 5 shots total.



Still need:

  1. Chickenbox - torn about this one
  2. HepB - need to finish the series
  3. HepA
  4. Meningoccocal

Friday, October 29, 2010

New pneumococca PC vaccine (PCV 13)

We're planning to travel to Taiwan in either December this year or March next year. I spent several hours this morning looking at Taiwan's CDC website. I looked at the vaccine schedule in Taiwan and tracked down vaccine and disease info in Taiwan to try and figure out if we need to get those vaccines. My eyes are crossing now, but at least I've got Astroboy's vaccine schedule down. In addition, we're going to add a vaccine to Thumper's schedule.

Some of the vaccines I was looking at are Japanese encephalitis, BCG, HepA, HepB, and PCV. After hours of reading, I decided to just get the PCV.

BCG is recommended by Taiwan CDC. It's a vaccine for tuberculosis. I was relieved to learn that if you're not going to travel to remote villages and stay in Taiwan for a long time, you can skip the Japanese encephalitis, BGC and HepA vaccines. Also learned that HepB really is transmitted via blood and sex. There's a higher rate of infection in Taiwan (10-15%) than US (0.5%?) but it's mostly because it was passed through babies. Since they've started vaccination program for HepB, that rate has gone down. So I don't need to worry about it as much.

As for PCV, apparently the PCV 13 vaccine just came out this year, replacing the PCV 7 vaccine. One of the strains it protects against is A19. In my googling, I found news report of kids dying from A19 strain in Taiwan. A lot of these strains are immune to antibiotics in East and Southeast Asia due to the prevalent use of antibiotics. And transmission season is in the fall/winter. So we're definitely getting this vaccine for both kids before we go back.

Astroyboy definite has a more aggressive vaccine schedule compared to Thumper due to our travel schedule and outbreak of pertussis in California. His schedule for the next 6 months are:

  • 2 Month - DTaP
  • 3 Month - Pc
  • 4 Month - DTaP
  • 5 Month - Pc
  • 6 Month - Pc (month before we leave for Taiwan)

I will have to decide what to do about the rest of the vaccine after we come back from our trip.