Did you vaccinate your new baby at birth?

[kristal]

Our DC2 is due any day now :). I was wondering what parents on the board decided regarding vaccinations given at birth? We plan to follow Dr. Sears's vaccination schedule for DC2. Dr. Sears recommends pushing out the vaccinations given at birth to couple months later. But I wanted the feedback of the folks on here.

Also did you decide to skip the eye drops that are put after the first bath?
Thanks!

[JBaxter]

no but our practice has stopped doing the at birth dose of HepB anyway. They start it at a month.
We are starting at 1 yr and the HepB wont be done till 11 or 12 ( in our family)

I skipped the eye antibiotics ( they are given to prevent blindness from veneral disease and I dont have one) and we skipped the VitK shot also

[BabyMine]

We had the HepB shot only with both DC.

[SnuggleBuggles]

No, no shots till he was 2+m, iirc. He left the birth center without anything having been done to him- no eye drops, vit k (though I still don't feel strongly on or the other really on that) or shots. That was ds2. I read the Dr. Sears' book on vaccines and have been doing his alternative schedule with a few exceptions (no rotavirus vaccine is one I remember most).

Ds1 did not get vaccines at birth but we did do the eye drops and vit k.

No STDs so I don't feel a need for the eye drops. I only just decided to go with the flow after ds1 but decided to make my opinion more firm after ds2.

Beth

[elliput]

You will find the opinions regarding vaccinations and eye drops all over the map here, and this is a subject which has been known to cause some very heated threads.

After much thought, I decided to follow my pediatricians' preferred schedules. At birth my daughter's ped preferred not to give the HepB shot until three weeks. My son's ped preferred within 24 hrs (Different peds in different practices and states).

[calv]

no no vax @ the hospital

[tnrnchick74]

I had no problem with eye goop - so he got that. Hep B was given in the hospital, though if there ever is a next time I might wait until 1 month.

Vit K - I REALLY urge you to research this and the risks of hemorrhage in babies because of clotting issues. There have been some really good posts in the past regarding the shot vs oral solution vs declining. As a NICU rn, I would NOT skip this as I have seen some devastating consequences of healthy, full term babies with horrible bleeding in the brain. It's 1 shot. There is an oral version out there, though not available easily in some areas. I URGE you to do your research carefully, and especially search for that info in the archives here.

[DebbieJ]

We had a homebirth, so we did nothing. DS had Vit K at the ped's office a few days later, but that was it. We were on the fence about vax for a long, long time, and so we did nothng, but recently brought him up to date, only allowing 2 vax to be given at a time.

[kijip]

Yes, I do. I follow the CDC schedule pretty much exactly. I have read a lot, including the Vaccination Book, and that is what I am comfortable with. ETA: except Finn was born early and a sleepy nurser so I held off on his Hep until his first doctor's check up a couple of weeks later.

[jenny]

we did all vaccines on schedule.

[Moneypenny]

We put off the Hep B until she was 4 weeks maybe (it's all fuzzy now) per the advice of our ped. We did the eye stuff and vit k in the hospital at birth.

[pb&j]

We did not do the hep vax at birth. We left the hospital w/in 24 hrs after the birth, and I didn't want to give a vax so soon. In fact, the L&D nurses and pediatricians encouraged us to wait until the 1 mo visit, since DD's risk of contracting hep B in that month was practically nil.

She was given the eye goop as required by law here, but our nurses were pretty crunchy, and I only noticed the barest little whisper of ointment. She did get the vit K shot, which I wanted.

[AnnieW625]

yes, I didn't think not to. I followed the recommended schedule too. I don't think DD could've left the hospital without the Hep B shot.

[Clarity]

With dd1, yes. I pretty much followed CDC guidelines.
With dd2, no. I waited until she was 2 months to start her vax and she did not get the HepB until she was 4 months and due to start daycare.

[Raidra]

It made absolutely no sense to me that a newborn would need Hep B if the mom wasn't a carrier. Fiona was not having sex nor using IV drugs. Routine Hep B and post-birth baths are mostly for the nurses' sake rather than the baby's. Fiona was born at home and she didn't even have a bath for the first week, much less any shots, or ointments. We put her on Dr. Sears alternative vax schedule (minus rotavirus), but it caused such a ruckus at our pedi's office that we switched her to my family practice doctor, and it's gone really well.


Unfortunately, the boys got the whole shebang, something I mildly regret now. It's a case of doing better when you know better.

[MartiesMom2B]

Yes we did Hep B. My mother was a carrier of Hep B (now has Hep B and taking antivirals daily for it) and for my family it's an important one.

[Ceepa]

Yup. All vaccines, no problem.

[MamaMolly]

We did DD's vax on schedule, and because of DH's work involving all of us moving periodically to icky parts of the world we probably vax for WAYYYYYYY more things than 'normal'. And definitely more than many here. I guess in the world of 'crunchy' vax schedules we are marshmallow-y :).

IMO it is a calculated risk in either direction, one that the moms here make with a great deal of soul searching and truly with the very best interests of their children at heart. We just come up with different answers to the same questions sometimes, and that is OK.

[denna]

We did not do the HepB (at all) nor did we do the eyedrops. We are partial-vax'ers. DS did not receive his first vaccine until he was 12mos and he has only recieved DTaP to date (all doses now). From research Ive done delayed vax'ing can vary from beginning certain shots at 6+mos to over one year. Some even recommend waiting to start vaccines until the age of 2.

[prego08]

For DS we did all vaccines on schedule. HepB at hospital.

[MontrealMum]

We did the drops and vit. K. at the hospital.
Hep B is not on our province's vax schedule until the 4th year of elem. school. There are no shots on the schedule at birth here; it begins at 2 mos.

[wencit]

DS was on the traditional vax schedule for his first year, so yes, he got the Hep B shot, as well as vit K and eye ointment.

With the new baby, he/she will only get vit K and eye ointment, NOT Hep B.

[AngelaS]

Nope. (stupid ten character rule....)

[mamicka]

IMO it is a calculated risk in either direction, one that the moms here make with a great deal of soul searching and truly with the very best interests of their children at heart. We just come up with different answers to the same questions sometimes, and that is OK.

:yeahthat: DS1 we followed the CDC schedule at first, DS2 & DS3 got the vitK & eye ointment, no HepB.

[bubbaray]

No. We follow the schedule for our province (separating out the MMR and CP away from the other 12m shots). Our scheduel starts at 2m, there are no vax's given at birth. ETA: IIRC, Hep B starts at 2m and is 2/4/6m or something like that.

We did do eye ointment and Vitamin K at birth, though, along with the standard metabolic testing

[maestramommy]

no. we did the vit K though.

[firsttimemama]

I did not vaccinate at birth
Full disclosure: DS is 19 mo and still not vax'd
I did read the Sears book (among others)

I didn't fight the eye drops fight but if our next birth isn't a homebirth, I may

[smilequeen]

For us...our first did get the Hep B at birth. My second did not. We spread out his vaccinations more. I felt a little more informed with DS2 and our choice with that information was to vaccinate but more slowly. I think many different valid decisions could be made with all the risk/benefit infomation, but that was ours. Every choice carries some degree of risk unfortunately.

[brittone2]

When DS was born in 04, Hep B was routinely given at birth but our ped practice (very mainstream) did not agree with that practice and preferred parents wait until 2 months. We did minimal eye goop and vit K with him.

DD was born at a freestanding birth center. No eye prophylaxis, and we opted for oral vitamin K drops (given several times, not a single dose). No vax at birth. Hearing test was done at our bedside.

[gatorsmom]

We do all vaccinations on schedule. We didn't give the Hep vacc at the hospital. I waited til we were at the ped's office for the first check-up to make sure it was correctly recorded in their records.

[daisymommy]

With Joshua, he was the poster child for getting everything available to us--all shots, eye ointment, vitamin K, every new shot out there, etc. All I'm going to say is this...he is on the autism spectrum, and daily life here is very hard.

With Hannah, she has had no vaccines or the eye ointment, but did have the Vitamin K shot.

With this upcoming baby, we will do no vaccines/shots, but are doing the oral Vitamin K drops (which do not contain any preservatives).

[sunshine873]

DD was 14 weeks early and spent her 1st 3 months in the NICU. Her eyes were still fused shut when she was born, but once they did open (@ 2 weeks old) they did put some drops in them. I asked a few VAX questions, but when surrounded with Drs & RNs that have seen babies suffer from the diseases that you can vax against, it sure seems to make sense to go ahead with the vaccinations. I pretty much follow the CDC schedule.

[Fairy]

Nope. (stupid ten character rule....)

Just make dots and color them white ...................