immunization help - NYS

are these 'laws' that schools require for immunzations or is every school different?
my twins have not had their MMR and they start pre-k in the fall. they were in nursery school and it didnt seem to matter at their old school.

http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2370.pdf

 

Yes, there are state laws requiring vaccinations. All states have medical and religious exemptions. Some have "philosophical" exemptions. But seriously, get your kids vaccinated! I can't tell you how horrifying it is to me as a parent to think that my children are attending school or being exposed to preventable diseases from kids who aren't vaccinated due to irrational fear.

 

they have not gotten their MMR yet.

 

Are they not old enough? If so, I apologize for misunderstanding. It's a hot button issue with me.

 

Ate they going to a universal pre-k program? I remember at least one kid in my girls pre-k class was give. A letter that the school had to have proof of the vaccinations by a certain date or child could not go to school. In her case she had the vaccines but school needed the paperwork.
I would call the school, and your pedi office and ask them.

 

they are 4.
i chose to hold it off for a couple of reasons. their vaccines followed sears' delayed schedule, that's all.
fam was going thru chemo - now its here. mmr makes me nervous, thats all.

sorry - not UPK - private.

 

Dr. Sears is a quack with no training in immunology or public health. There is zero reason to be scared of the MMR. This bothers me as a pregnant woman. You are putting others at risk. Rubella causes frequent miscarriage in women in early pregnancy. My baby could be exposed to measles or mumps, both of which are serious illnesses, by someone who chooses not to vaccinate for no reason other than unsubstantiated fear. I also have a nephew with leukemia and a compromised inmune system who needs herd immunity because he couldn't get all his vaccinations on time for medical reasons. I get being afraid. I do not get making decisions based on that fear, particularly when those decisions could hurt not just your children but other children.

 

If u already filled out school applications, u must saw the medical statements which are required their pedis fill out. They are list of all immunizations that your kids had so far. Those papers must be submitted to shools before kids can start. I'm not sure what the rules are in your area. In my city, my kids would not be able to start school, if they missed one.

Immunizations are big deal here. Once my kids were sick and I had to reschedule their shots. Even my health insurance called me constantly about it!!!

 

I am also a strong believer in vaccines. Our pediatrician's office believes strongly enough in them, that they 'do not accept as patients the children of parents who completely refuse all vaccines'. :good:

The following are some websites that do a good job of cutting through the hype the media feeds us.
- from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
– from the American Academy of Pediatrics
- www.immunize.org
- stories of “unprotected people”


I am not sure the OP was trying to start a conversation about the importance of vaccines.. but I couldn't pass up a chance to put some facts into a conversation that too often begins and ends with fear.

I think everyone comes at this from a personal stand point.. mine is that my dad almost died of polio as a child. During that time the family was completely alienated because people were terrified. In my family (even a generation later) epidemic diseases are a reality and very scary.

Edited to fix links.. i hope

 

I googled the exemption form for my state (exemptions are a state-by-state basis) and filled it out. I attached one for each kid with my paperwork at enrollment. I'm not sure if private schools are different, though.

 

My boys private school will not accept kids without vaccination. Private schools can refuse anyone they want. Our dr. office also refuses to accept kids who do not get vaccinated.

Please discuss it with your doctor and seriously consider getting up to date on vaccinations. You are putting other kids at risk. Also discuss the family issue about the chemo. The fact that someone in the family was undergoing chemo is a very GOOD reason for everyone else to be up to date on vaccines. You are potentially exposing an already sick family member to preventable diseases.

 

The laws for immunizations are not different for every school. The laws apply to all children enrolled in all public and private schools. However, the immunizations required do vary by age. Schools (that are licensed by the State) are required to maintain health and immunizations records and are inspected on a periodic basis to make certain that they have the appropriate records for all the children who attend the school.

As the PP's stated, there are some exemptions. These exemptions vary by state. The best person to answer any questions you may have about the immunizations required for your children to attend school, at their age, and the risks to your children, is the doctor who knows them.

 

Laws are state by state, but the great majority follow AAP and ACIP guidelines and thus are the same. The only thing that really varies is how easy it is to get an exemption. For some states, it has to be a medical or religious reason, but other states are more lax in who they will grant an exemption to. For MMR the general rule is that the first dose is given around age 1 and the second dose is given between age 4-6. My guess is that without a valid exemption reason (nervousness is not a valid reason!) children would be required to have at least 1 dose before starting kindergarten.

As a pediatrician, I will say that I try to respect moms who want to do a modified vaccine schedule, but this means still getting all the vaccines in, just giving less at any one time. I find it unacceptable to just skip MMR for a number of reasons. First, there is nothing to be nervous about. The vaccine is one of the oldest ones we have and its safety has been well proven. No one was ever scared of it until that quack Wakefield published his paper. What people don't know is that his M.O. was to market individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and thus his "results" were financially motivated and were never accurate science. Yes, it is a live virus which means that a person cannot receive it if they are severely immunocompromised, but it is safe for family members to be around the vaccinated person. Even our kids who got bone marrow transplants were re-vaccinated once they were far enough out from their transplant for the vaccine to work!

Second, I have seen what these diseases can do. There have been recent mumps outbreaks in NY state...mumps used to be one of the highest causes of sterility in boys. There are also isolated measles outbreaks every year, and at best measles makes kids miserable for weeks, while at worst it causes brain damage, deafness or death. When I worked in Africa for a month, we ran a vaccine clinic. We simply put up fliers stating we would be offering the vaccines, and we immunized 900 kids for measles and polio in one weekend! These people had seen what horrible things these diseases can do and were willing to wait in line all day to get immunized.

Third, herd immunity only works if the herd is big enough. There are people out there who cannot get immunized because of cancer or immunodeficiency. There are people out there who have undiagnosed immunodeficiency and do not know that the vaccine they willingly got will not work. These are the people that herd immunity should protect, not people who buy into unproven hysteria. I've seen a young boy, finishing chemo with his leukemia in remission, die of varicella because he was exposed at school. I've seen a little girl neurologically devastated by Hib meningitis because her undiagnosed immune deficiency meant that her vaccine didn't take. I've seen countless 4 week olds on ventilators because they were too young to be vaccinated against pertussis or influenza, and the people supposed to be caring for them are the ones who got them sick.

I urge you to talk to your doctor about your concerns, but I urge you to get them vaccinated for all the required vaccines before they start school. This isn't Burger King where you can have it your way. People's lives are at stake!

 

Laws do vary state by state. Our pediatrician's office will not see patients whose parents who will not follow the recommended vaccination schedule (only with serious exceptions, i.e. the child has some illness or allergy that has to delay a vaccine).

I would check with your doctor or preschool about what vaccines they need to have before they start. I can understand your fear about the MMR vaccine but I can promise you there is nothing to fear.
A friend of mine thought her twins were up to date with their vaccines until she registered them for kindergarten, for whatever reason (I forget the vaccine they needed) but their pediatrician's office did not give it at 4 and they were going to get the vaccine at 5, so the school district accepted a copy of the appointment card to the pediatrician for their registration and then after they had their 5 year appointment, my friend could take an updated record to the school.

 

Mumps and measles are on the rise now because of people's fear of getting the MMR. There is absolutely no reason not to get that vaccine. The man that stated that admitted it was an uncontrolled study and only a small handful of subjects. That's hardly enough to base any study on. However, because of this man's silly claims, it did force more scientists to look in to the causes of autism. Though there's no absolute proof of the cause, there has been more attention to the red flags that show up in autistic children even before the MMR vaccine is given. It's just coincidence that the MMR vaccine is given around the same time that autism usually shows up. I'm no scientist or doctor so I can't make claims, but who knows if there ANY correlation on if the side effects of the MMR such as the occasional high fever may irritate the autism, but there's no proof that the MMR itself actually creates autism. Your child would have to already have autism for anything to occur. There is a constant study now on the causes of autism. There's even a suggestion that autism starts in utero or even when a mother induces labor or hurries labor along. That article I read (can't find it at the moment) said there seemed to be a higher incident of autism under those circumstances. Even then, there is not definitive proof of that being a cause...it's just something that has raised an interest and is being further studied. If autism shows up in-utero, that means that it could be a gene situation, or maybe something the mother or father is taking medicine wise, topical, or food intake. There is just so much not known about this condition, but the MMR vaccine has been ruled out as part of the cause.

The whole reason for vaccines are to slowly eliminate diseases. That is why the smallpox vaccine has been discontinued. NO ONE has it anymore. If no one in the world has smallpox, there's no point in taking a vaccine for a disease that you can no longer catch. Polio and I think one other illness is starting to make it's way out and those vaccines will soon be considered to be discontinued. People ask why did we not have so many vaccines when we were younger? That's because more and more vaccines are being discovered and made to help protect us against some terminal or serious illnesses. For example, chicken pox. The vericella (chicken pox) virus can cause some serious issues in an adult who has never had the chicken pox. For those that have had the chicken pox as a younger child, the virus lays dormant in the body. Then if the immune system gets compromised, shingles appears from the same virus. That too can be very painful and irritating. There's no cure for it and can pass on to another person as chicken pox. So, if your child gets the chicken pox and is around an adult that has never been vaccinated nor had the chicken pox, that child can pass it along and that adult will likely get very sick. So, the vericella vaccine is an important one to give your child hopefully before he or she catches the chicken pox. Eventually, the vericella will no longer be an issue and that vaccine will be discontinued.

So please give your kids vaccines. The side effects that can happen are not common. The bad side effects are even rarer. It's worth it to avoid some seriously bad diseases that are still hanging around.

 

I teach preschool and we were just going through our student records!

Our kids have 30 days to get all records in (including medical statement and vaccine). Our area does allow for exemptions for medical or religious reasons (waiver) but the form has to be in...you simply can not send them without documentation and no waiver form.

I understand some medical rationals & personal reasons because we did a delayed vaccine schedule due to prematurity & other health issues. At 4, though we were caught up.

Be aware that some preschools will not allow attendance w/o vaccines. Many schools are pretty strict as well. Not saying it cant be done-- just that you may have to jump through some extra hoops.