Delay/Partial Vaccination questions!

I never thought the question of whether to vaccinate/delay vaccinating/partially vaccinate would be so hard. It is so hard to live with the decisions, whatever they are, knowing that it's my DS that is the one most affected. :(

DH and I are pretty certain that we want DS to have the whooping cough vaccine (although not necessarily at 2 months, possibly delayed).

The questions we have (and I'm struggling to find the answers to) are:

Can we get the Whooping Cough vaccine as a single vaccine? I'm not yet convinced that we should get the Tetanus or Diptheria vaccines. We'd be happy to pay for the single vaccine it if necessary.

I'd also like to refuse the Hep B vaccine - but can we get the HIB vaccine as a separate one? Still not convinced about this one either (at least, not at this stage).

And the BIG question for those who delay/partially vaccinate...can you tell me your schedules? We've seen Dr Bob's, and Michael (Schmickers) schedules. What about yours? I have no intention of judging your responses, I'm just interested in knowing what others are doing - I hope you can feel safe in sharing, as I know how emotional the topic can be. If you can give your reasons (if there's enough time and space) that would also be appreciated.

TIA muchly.

DD (almost 3)has not been vaxxed at all..
we were going to delay but now we dont see the need at all(and she has been in CC since 8 months) the "mantra" we have sat by is that it is easy to vax then to unvax.
DS 5 was vaxed as per mainstream schedule until 1yr.

I know whooping cough sounds scary and can be terrible(media is great for parenting :p ) but look in to how it you treat it naturally.. bub is unlikely to be far from you for MANY months so keeping her "away" from sick people is relatively easy.
taking a wholistic stance of health helps vaxing or not vaxing is such a minor part.

I didn't end up seeking out seperate vaccines- so we went with the awful infranix hexa!!! We wanted our son vax'd against all of these things but we possibly would have left some till later (such as we wouldn't have done HepB & tetanus till he was mobile!).

We planned on delaying at least a couple of months but started get a bit antsy about whooping cough so we started his vax schedule at about 2.5 months. We did each needle one at a time with a couple of weeks between them. We skipped the rotavirus vax as I didn't like the idea of a live vax and didn't see the point as it wasn't life saving (just hospital admission preventing) and didn't apply to us as he was fully BFed and wasn't going to child care. We've also skipped the chicken pox vax to avoid more live vax, it doesn't seem very effective or necessary.

Our schedule ended up being:

2.5 months Pneumococcal (we did this first so he wasn't getting the full whammy of 6-in-1 first up)
3 months Infanrix Hexa (dip, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hib & hepb)

4.5 months Pneumococcal
5 months Infanrix Hexa

8 months Pneumococcal
8.5 months Infanrix Hexa

13 months Hib
14 months Meningococcal
22 months MMR

Next time around I'm going to wait longer between each needle and I'll most likely start with Infanrix Hexa just to get whooping cough covered.

:bump: anyone else?

I've booked in to see a pro-choice GP next week to discuss each vac so we can try and decide what to do. I'm thinking of delaying all of them at least for a few months.

I've been giving this some thought too for No. 2. With DS we just did everything on schedule (except chickenpox), but want to be a bit more selective second time round. I think we'll more or less go with Schmickers' schedule for high-risk (since DS is in daycare).

How do you find a doctor who'll work through this with you? How hard is it to split vaccines, or is it even possible? From what I've heard it's difficult to get separate vaccines?

I don't want to do HepB and don't think diptheria or polio are necessary, either. Also wouldnt' mind delaying tetanus till baby is walking. Whooping cough though I'd probably do, and HIb and peumo-thingy. But maybe later than 2 months....
Also like to push MMR or even jsut measles to 2+.

Just to warn you it will extremely difficult to get seperate vaccines and you may have to hunt/push for them very hard. As far as I have seen I don't think you can seperate the diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine. Pneumococcal comes seperately. I have posted on a couple of previous threads in this section info on where to try and find these vaccines and what exactly is and was available in Australia. Good luck with finding your information :)

It really is a tough decision isn't it! We are like you Persephone and were pretty set on getting whooping cough...but from what I can gather it's near impossible to get it as a separate vaccine.
so our schedule has gone like this so far...

2 month vacc (done at 4 months): Infanrix Hexa & Pneumococcal
4 month vacc (done at 10 months): Infanrix Hexa & Pneumococcal

That's all we've done so far, will get the last round of Infanrix & Pneumo done when DS is 16 months and most likely wait until DS starts kinder to do Meningococcal. We have no interest in getting the rotavirus or chicken pox, in my opinion they are just common childhood diseases which they are probably better off catching. Still undecided about MMR...still researching that one.

Good luck with your decision....out of curiosity Persephone who is the doctor you are going to see? As much as I love our GP she just isn't very helpful with it comes to questions about vaccinations so hunting around for someone else.

Thanks muminalice. That's what I thought.

It must be possible to get Hib separately as they give it as a separate dose at 12 months.

So, is delaying the infanrix a better option then? It's usually 2, 4, 6 months, right? So if you delayed you could conceivably cut that to 2 doses over roughly the same time period?

Yep HIB is seperate at 12 months but just check that it is suitable for children under one. Also research whether you can get adequate protection from 2 doses or you need three to provide that. Might just mean giving the third dose at a later time. Takes a lot of research doesn't it?

I think you can spread the 2, 4 & 6 month jabs much further apart but I'm sure how much? Last time I did them 2 months apart but I realised later I would have been happier to leave them longer, and I'm sure they're still fine. It think they are effective from the first one- it's just how long that lasts that is the question. If you ring the immunisation line they should be able to tell you how long you can wait.

Yes, thanks for those tips!
I'm starting to remember why I just went with teh schedule first time :rolleyes:

Re: finding a pro-choice doctor:
I have a really great GP, who works in an holistic clinic. I thought she would be really happy to support whatever decision DH and I made, but the look on her face when I told her that we were considering delaying/not vaccing told me otherwise. She got very snooty and judgmental and then told me that, in all honesty, she'd never thought much about it :rolleyes: She was also really negative when I mentioned the word "homebirth" when discussing other things with her.

So, I was resigning myself to having to try and make the decision without any professional support, until I saw a post by a friend on FACEBOOK of all places. She mentioned that she had decided to delay vaccinating her little one after discussing it with her GP. I asked her who her GP was, and she gave me his details. For those in Melbourne, it's Dr Peter Lucas at Wattle Park House, in Box Hill. We've made an appointment with him next week - seemingly he holds long appointments with parents like us and goes through each vaccination with them and helps them decide which ones to say yes/no/delay to. Can't believe it's so hard to find someone who is willing to help parents make informed decisions about their baby's health. (Btw, Dr Lucas shares his practice with a homebirth IMW, and he supports women to homebirth...so he sounds like he's pretty cool).

I'm now leaning toward delaying all the vaccinations, although I'm still open to the idea of the whooping cough vaccine. My little sister had whooping cough as a baby (she had two of the three vaccine doses before getting the illness) and I saw how awful that was. Obviously vaccination wasn't enough to protect her though, and the reasons she hadn't had the third dose is because she had reacted so badly to the previous two doses. Bah, I'm so conflicted!

I'll let you know how I get on with Dr Lucas.

And yes, Marcellus, you can see why so many parents simply go with the Schedule, cause it's really hard trying to research and make an informed decision about this when the government so kindly tells us what to do!

Oh Peter Lucas was who we were hoping to make an appointment with. Please do tell us how you go. He attended my doula's homebirth...very cool!

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Oh Peter Lucas was who we were hoping to make an appointment with. Please do tell us how you go. He attended my doula's homebirth...very cool!

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He attended my DHs birth 31 years ago!

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I didn't end up seeking out seperate vaccines- so we went with the awful infranix hexa!!! We wanted our son vax'd against all of these things but we possibly would have left some till later (such as we wouldn't have done HepB & tetanus till he was mobile!).

We planned on delaying at least a couple of months but started get a bit antsy about whooping cough so we started his vax schedule at about 2.5 months. We did each needle one at a time with a couple of weeks between them. We skipped the rotavirus vax as I didn't like the idea of a live vax and didn't see the point as it wasn't life saving (just hospital admission preventing) and didn't apply to us as he was fully BFed and wasn't going to child care. We've also skipped the chicken pox vax to avoid more live vax, it doesn't seem very effective or necessary.

Our schedule ended up being:

2.5 months Pneumococcal (we did this first so he wasn't getting the full whammy of 6-in-1 first up)
3 months Infanrix Hexa (dip, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hib & hepb)

4.5 months Pneumococcal
5 months Infanrix Hexa

8 months Pneumococcal
8.5 months Infanrix Hexa

13 months Hib
14 months Meningococcal
22 months MMR

Next time around I'm going to wait longer between each needle and I'll most likely start with Infanrix Hexa just to get whooping cough covered.

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Can I just ask if you had any issues with Immunisation register/centrelink payment by doing this?

Reason I ask is I am wanting to give my DS his 12 months over a few weeks rather than in one hit. My GP has said yep, no probs. However a friend today called her GP and was told that to do this, it isn't recognised by centrelink and she will have to pay for each immunisation. I am not wanting to split what is in the immunisations, just not give all the needles on one day..

It's not Centrelink, its whether you can get it bulk billed or Medicare-subsidised that affects it. Some of the vacs are free under Medicare, like the Infantrex one. But if you wanted to split the vacs, you might have to pay for the dose and have it ordered in from the chemist. I don't see that Centrelink should have anything to do with it, unless you're wanting to complete a COF and lodge it with them?

We saw Dr Lucas today, I'll bbl tomorrow with more info. We've come up with our own delayed schedule and I'll post it here.

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It's not Centrelink, its whether you can get it bulk billed or Medicare-subsidised that affects it. Some of the vacs are free under Medicare, like the Infantrex one. But if you wanted to split the vacs, you might have to pay for the dose and have it ordered in from the chemist. I don't see that Centrelink should have anything to do with it, unless you're wanting to complete a COF and lodge it with them?

We saw Dr Lucas today, I'll bbl tomorrow with more info. We've come up with our own delayed schedule and I'll post it here.

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Sorry if this might sound dumb.. But do the immunisations come in separate packaging. (ie the 6 month ones were 2 needles, would the contents of each needle been in the same sealed bag, just separate viles? or totally separate?

I know I am going to be charged for each Dr's visit cause my GP doesn't Bulk bill, but if I just want to get Mengicoccal one week, HIB the next, and MMR the next. Is that likely to cause problems (hypothetically of course)

You can get the needles seperately-no problems at all. They are all packaged on their own and are all free on the schedule so medicare will still cover them. Splitting MMR would be another story however. So long as you have them all done before 18 months there are no problems with centrelink/child care rebates etc either. As you can see, I took longer than 18 months but I signed a COF when we went for the very first vax. I was lucky as the lady checking us in gave me one and had the nurse sign it as I was varying from the schedule so it was easy-peasy to get done and I've never had any hassles with immunisation payments.
I have done all my son's vaccinations at the free council clinics so I just rock up, tell them what needle we are there for and he just has that one.

Persephone- I'm looking forward to hearing your varied schedule. Glad the appointment went well.