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.

Okay, this is still a work in progress and open to amendment as we go, but DH and I have come up with this:

No vaccinations until 6 months (this bit might change - I'm not convinced that he even needs them as early as 6 months). Also, we've only made decisions about the first 6-12 months, decisions about vaccinations at 12 months and beyond are still up in the air because we just haven't talked about it much yet.

6 months: Infranrix IPV (this is different to the Infranrix Hexa, does not include Hep B and Hib but does include Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus & Polio)
Prevenar (for Pneumococcal)

8 months: Infranrix IPV
Prevenar

10 months: Infranrix IPV
Prevenar

12 months: Hiberix (for Hib)
Possibly get the MMR (probably as split vaccines)
NeisVac C (meningococcal)

18 months - will NOT get the Chicken Pox vac

And beyond that, not sure. At some point we'll consider having DS vaccinated against Hep B, but I personally don't see that he needs that vaccine until he's a teenager (which is when I received the vaccine).

So essentially, DS will receive vaccinations for Whooping Cough, Diptheria, Polio, Tetanus and Pneumococcal but on a delayed schedule. We might have the Infranrix IPV and Prevenar on separate days, a few weeks apart. He will not receive vaccination for Rotavirus or Hep B, and won't receive it for Hib until he's at least 12 months old. We'll make firm decisions about the MMR closer to the time. He won't receive the Chicken Pox Vaccine.

We will have to pay for the Infranrix IPV doses because it's not covered by Medicare. Dr Lucas said that it's about $60 per dose. We have a script which we take to the Chemist to have it filled, and then back to the GP for it to be administered.

In making the decision, we considered that DS will be fully breastfed at least until 6 months, and then breastfed as long as he chooses beyond that. I was breastfed beyond 2 years, and have no problem doing that with DS. We also have no intention of putting him into care at least until he's 12 months old. We're not planning on travelling overseas, or even interstate any time soon. Everyone's circumstances are different, but these are the things that we've considered in making our decisions.

So, because Dr Lucas is not exactly local to us, we have to decide whether we go back to him for the vaccinations, knowing that he's supportive of our decision, or if we just tell our local GP what to do and expect her to support us. I'm thinking I'm going to take our schedule to our GP and tell her that we expect her to administer them. Does anyone know if the local council will administer the Infranrix IPV if we take it to them, or will that just be too "outside the box" for them?

Does anyone think I'd have to complete a COF for our delayed schedule? I don't really care either way, just curious.

Thanks for that Persephone! It's great to know there's an option to skip the Hep B at least.

After talking to the immunisation register this morning, I would say that you would need COF signed. They allow 1 month after each is due before they send a reminder, then another 28 days, another reminder, then if no action they will consider cutting payments.

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After talking to the immunisation register this morning, I would say that you would need COF signed. They allow 1 month after each is due before they send a reminder, then another 28 days, another reminder, then if no action they will consider cutting payments.

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Does that only apply if you're receiving a Centrelink pension? Does it mean the Baby Bonus would be cut off? What I mean is - the only payment we'll receive is the Baby Bonus. If the immunisation stuff doesn't affect BB payments, I don't have any need to worry myself with a COF, cause Centrelink doesn't pay me anyway. :confused:

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Does that only apply if you're receiving a Centrelink pension? Does it mean the Baby Bonus would be cut off? What I mean is - the only payment we'll receive is the Baby Bonus. If the immunisation stuff doesn't affect BB payments, I don't have any need to worry myself with a COF, cause Centrelink doesn't pay me anyway. :confused:

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I think it only affects CCB/R and the Immunisation allowance? But I could be wrong. We have been doing our own schedule quite similar to that and get FTB (and used to get the BB), nothing got cut off because we weren't vaccinating.

I think if you're delaying/varying the schedule then I'd sign a COF. I've never had any useless reminder letters, I could enrol my son in child care at 2 years old with no hassles (could have been earlier if we had wanted obviously), I received the immunisation payment and I wont have hassles with school either.

:redface: Can I ask how much the Immunisation Allowance is? I thought it was only about $150 so I wasn't really concerned about it. If it's more, well, maybe I should be more interested :D

It's about $180 I think. Would cover your out of pocket IPV scripts ;) I didn't sign the form for that but having the form done is one less hassle to deal with later when enrolling for care/kinder/school etc.

Well there you go ;). Maybe you won't need one.. Maybe that is just what they say, and what they do are different things (not knocking them cause I have never had a problem with them)

I don't get any centrelink pensions, just family tax benefit and child care rebate..

Thanks for that hun. I was scared into vaccinating against more than I wanted today, though I was very clear last week that I wasn't doing the Hep B :) I might write down your schedule and approach the doctor with it. Though because the HIB vax protects against illnesses that hit between 2 months and 2 years that is one I want him to have. We do a LOT of activities and playgroups every week so he's quite exposed.

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Though because the HIB vax protects against illnesses that hit between 2 months and 2 years that is one I want him to have. We do a LOT of activities and playgroups every week so he's quite exposed.

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Yeah, we don't have the exposure to play groups, etc, that Elijah has, particularly as Archie doesn't have any siblings. We might have a different schedule for any subsequent babies, if Archie is in care or at school by then.

Hope Eli is recovering from his jabs today! Bug Mumma cuddles for him!

Yeah- I was wondering about delaying Hib too. But as you can get it individually then you could do IPV + Hib to avoid HepB if you wanted. Sadly, I see HepB as similar to tetanus given that even in my safe, quiet suburb we found used needles in the park outside my playgroup :( So for me, I wanted HepB covered from an active age just like tetanus.

Just bumping the thread for someone.

Also, we had our first vax a week ago, of the Infanrix IPV. We're getting the Pneumococcal vax next month. We completed a CO form and got the shot at the local council, no problems.

:D Persephone1

Thanks for the info in this thread.

I am looking for info on the Vic 12 month vaccines that are offered.
My blue book says the schedule is:
- Measles/Mumps/Rubella 1
- Hib*4
- Meningococcal group

I am considering getting one of these done, but would like info on what is in the 3 vaccines (not info on the diseases). Where do you go for this info?

DO i need to know which vaccine brands my Council does or should they be standardised State wide?

ta

HotI- 'The Vaccine book' by Bob Sears has info on how the vaccines are made and what the ingredients in them are. Other than that you could try contacting the manufacturer?

eta- i am pretty sure the brands used are state wide...

My library doesn't have that book (they have very few of the books i actually want) and funds are a bit tight for book buying atm.

I don't know the manufacturers either, i am kinda right at the start of investigating.

If you started a thread asking for vax brands, people have it written in their blue books I'm sure they'd help. I wish I had my copy here, I'd love to swap you for the children are people too one for a few weeks!!! Dh could bring it over in 6 weeks and I'd be happy to loan it to you if you can wait that long......

Otherwise you could ring your local Mchn and ask them what they use.

Or I could find this for you.....

http://www.health.vic.gov.au/immunis...edule_victoria

If you google the brand names in the right hand column you should find the manufacturer of each.

I called the government vax helpline a couple of times for details about vaccinations and they were really helpful.