update to rotavirus vaccine mishap

i posted last week about being pissed that my girls didn't get rotavirus vaccine and was in the midst of a family outbreak. so as of today both of my kiddos have had it, one was in the hospital for 24hr rehydration, my husband had it for about one day and now i officially have it. i guess this is day 8 since the first one started. we have had to cancel our holiday plans because it requires flying and we are all just too beat and sick. also i would feel horrible exposing my immunocompromised father and 95 yo grandfather. it all totally sucks.
i spoke with the ped. yesterday about my concerns about them not being offered the vaccine and she explained to me that the practice wasn't offering it at the time that the girls would have been vaccinated. she explained that the larger clinics with high risk populations were offering it as soon as it became available while the smaller community pediatricians were much more cautious due to the history of the old vaccine and waited a year or so to make sure there were no reported side effects. i appreciate her being cautious and willing to sit down and talk with me about it for almost 1 hr. i was ready to change doctors but have now decided to stay with her.
for those who are choosing not to have their children vaccinated for this, i want you to keep a few things in mind:
1. it sucks
2. with twins - expect to be cleaning up diarrhea and vomit for almost 2 wks
3. be prepared with pedialyte to force it down your child's throat to avoid a hospital stay because dehydration is no joke with the little ones
4. my kids didnt get it in daycare - they got it from leaving the house and probably being exposed to it on a surface somewhere
5. there have been no significant cases of intususeption associated with this vaccine so the risk is low
6. it is pretty effective in the first year or so of life - when this virus is most likely to land you in the ER - so the benefit it pretty high
7. you or other family members will probably get it too - but a less severe version - due to prior exposure - but diarrhea is still no fun no matter how brief it is
thanks for listening

 

I think it's great that your pedi tried to explain it to you, but just FYI the rotavirus vaccine has been licensed by the FDA and recommended for all children (with some exceptions not applicable to you) since February of 2006. So, the fact that your pedi wasn't even offering it in early 2008 (2 years later) is still concerning. Sounds like they are in CYA mode.

Totally agree with you on the recommendation to get the vaccine and :hug: :hug: :hug: that you have to go through this and miss your trip!

 

My twins didn't get the vaccine either & I was super pissed once I found out. Both my boys have been in daycare since 9 weeks, so I considered us HIGH RISK. When I called them out on it, they said there had been a shortage around the time they were due & they were out. Again, I was still mad that they hadn't explained that at those visits & was disappointed that I wasn't able to try to find it elsewhere (my parents live in a big city, I may have been able to). My Ped also mentioned the nervousness after the previous oral vaccine, but said that our clinic is now vaccinating incoming kiddos. (Side note: we've gotten off our vacc schedule a few times due to shortages at our clinic).

And, yep, both my kids got it. VERY BAD. But mine were VERY young, like 4-5 mos. It was horrible. I don't even think they were sitting yet. I was feeding them Pedialyte with a syringe every few minutes. It took over two weeks for them to get over it (mine had it at the EXACT SAME TIME). My husband & I didn't get it...in fact, it must be extremely rare in adults since I've never heard of it (I have gotten Hand, Foot, & Mouth from them before though!).

I hope you all feel better soon. I also hope you're on the upswing of the illness now. It really is horrible....

Thinking of you!

 

:hug::hug::hug:

I am so, so sorry you are going through that! It sounds absolutely awful. I'll thank our lucky stars that we never got it, because our boys also did not get vaccinated against it.

I'm glad you had a good talk with your pedi and that you feel good about staying with that practice.

Hope you're all feeling better SOON!

 

QUOTE(Mom to Jack and Anna @ Apr 7 2009, 01:25 PM) [snapback]1262909[/snapback]
I think it's great that your pedi tried to explain it to you, but just FYI the rotavirus vaccine has been licensed by the FDA and recommended for all children (with some exceptions not applicable to you) since February of 2006. So, the fact that your pedi wasn't even offering it in early 2008 (2 years later) is still concerning. Sounds like they are in CYA mode.

Totally agree with you on the recommendation to get the vaccine and :hug: :hug: :hug: that you have to go through this and miss your trip!


yeah i know - i work at Hopkins with a bunch of pediatricians and id folks - it seems that a lot of the community physicians were in CYA mode. her argument to me is that diarrhea in a middle class family with access to healthcare is not life threatening, but intususeption - as rare as it was - is. so it was worth it to her to be cautious and then also she explained that there is a lag time between FDA licensing and having access to enough vaccine to be able to offer it to all her patients, something having to do with the state. i considered changing to the Hopkins clinic - but - while they have access to the up to the minute research - we wouldn't have a ped that we would form a relationship with that would follow the girls long term, since the clinic is staffed by residents who leave every three years. so we opted to stick with our ped. i made sure all other vaccinations were recieved on schedule and they were.

 

I'm glad you were able to discuss it with your ped. The problems with the former vaccine made me nervous, too -- and, we delay all vaccines in general -- but rotavirus was miserable enough with our singleton that we went ahead with this vaccine. So, you're preaching to the choir, with me at least.

So sorry you had to go through this! The tiny bit of good news is that most kids are immune to rotavirus after they've had it once....so here's hoping you're done with it.

 

QUOTE(ese @ Apr 7 2009, 04:29 PM) [snapback]1263192[/snapback]
yeah i know - i work at Hopkins with a bunch of pediatricians and id folks - it seems that a lot of the community physicians were in CYA mode. her argument to me is that diarrhea in a middle class family with access to healthcare is not life threatening, but intususeption - as rare as it was - is. so it was worth it to her to be cautious and then also she explained that there is a lag time between FDA licensing and having access to enough vaccine to be able to offer it to all her patients, something having to do with the state. i considered changing to the Hopkins clinic - but - while they have access to the up to the minute research - we wouldn't have a ped that we would form a relationship with that would follow the girls long term, since the clinic is staffed by residents who leave every three years. so we opted to stick with our ped. i made sure all other vaccinations were recieved on schedule and they were.


Ugh. She still should have asked you rather than making the decision for you, but with a good relationship with your pedi, I see why you wouldn't have wanted to switch. Probably wanted to call her in the middle of the night to do clean up though!

 

sorry your family has been going through this. Glad we got the vaccine!

 

So sorry to hear everyone is sick and plans had to be canceled. :hug: :hug: :hug:

Dianna

 

I hope everyone feels better soon and I am sorry that your plans had to be cancelled. I am glad that your pedi was willing to talk to you about it.