Question About Being Sick and Getting Vaccinations

I think I'd wait until they are better. It probably won't take long for them to feel better and I know I Wouldn't want to get a shot if I felt bad to begin with. (I sometimes postpone the flu shot if I'm sick when they begin giving them out).

Every time my kids have been sick around vaccination time their doctor has postponed.... everytime! Hope that helps!

My son's pediatrician won't give him his vaccines if he is running a fever. Otherwise, he says it is fine.

Dear A.,
I am a Grandmother who has for many years been educating myself on what is best to eat and to put into our bodies.

I originally wrote you a very lengthy email, but somehow it got lost. So I will ask you to educate yourself as much as possible on the non-medical research done and being done on the effects of immunizations and all food products that are poisoning our bodies and causing neurological, psychological and physical problems for both our children and those who care for them.

I rarely go into this site, so I am asking you to pass any information that you find to be helpful along to others. In this way we can keep ourselves and our children from experiencing the affects of all the poisons from drugs, our food and our environment.

I highly suggest that you check out this web site. Even though it is from a particular denomination, it is very insightful and helpful. These people place a high value on educating themselves and others, so that life is more enjoyable and healthy.

By the way, recent laws have been changed. You have rights when it comes to your child having immunizations. Even schools can no longer force you to have your child immunizated. They may do their best to scare you into doing it, but they do have a waiver that you can sign. Find out all you can in this area. Ask different medical personal and school personal. And call MANY PLACES before you decide. This is what I do and it has produces great results for me.

The web site is: MPWHI.COM

God bless you and yours.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=47
Mothering Magazine (natural family living magazine) has a very knowledgeable and active anti-vax board. Post your question there and see what those moms say. I would definitely not give any shot during any illness. Simply wait a week or 2 if you are going to do it. I am of the delayed/selective camp. That's the best I can do to minimize vaccine injury/reactions. This is the Gov't. website for vaccine reactions: http://vaers.hhs.gov/
I stopped giving my son vaxxes at 6 months (there were lots of mercury back in 2000 and it was never officially recalled off the shelf.) He got his last DTaP at age 5 and that's it. My 3 yr old only got 1 shot at age 2 (Hep A, I was planning on traveling abroad) and then postponed the trip. She'll get DTaP before we go. I am a believer in spacing out the shots (instead of overwhelming their small bodies with Lord knows what ingredients http://www.nvic.org/excipients.htm
and waiting until they are older and stronger. Dr. Jay Gordon has a vaccination DVD to watch. www.drjaygordon.com And one of Dr. Robert Sears (the son) has a new vaccination book coming out. http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/59/0316017507/i...

I just had my son's 6 month appt and he also had a cough/congestion and the doc said he was ok. He checked him before giving him the shots. The doc was mainly concerened about having a fever. I would go ahead and take son and have the doc make the final decision.

No, you are not supposed to get a child vaccinations when he or she is sick. Vaccinations depress your child's immune system, and if it's already "busy" fighting off a cold or something else, then it's a strain on the system.
We don't vaccinate at all, aside from the Hib vaccine. When you get a child shots, you are giving the child 6 diseases at once, injected directly into the bloodstream, thus bypassing the respiratory system, which is the first line of defense against disease. Furthermore, the vaccines themselves contain ingredients that have no place in the body: formaldehyde, aluminum, ammonium sulfate, and more.
If you're going to get the shots, then my opinion is that the child should get one at a time, spaced out, so that he/she gets 1 or 2 per month.
As the amount of vaccines has risen, so has the rate of asthma, allergies, arthritis, diabetes, and other auto-immune diseases in children. If you look at the diseases themselves, virtually none are fatal, nor are they generally a threat to those living in the Western world. The exception is Hib, a type of meningitis, which is why we chose to get that vaccine. However, the vaccine has helped decrease the cases of Hib, but other types of meningitis are on the rise. This is called "serotype replacement" - other bacteria come in to take the place of the bacteria targeted by the vaccine.
I hope this helps!

You are right I was always told that if your baby is sick you should not give them there vaccinations.

Whatever you do, DON'T give your child any Tylenol on the day of the shots. Tylenol depletes glutethione in the liver which is nature's only detoxing chelator to flush out the toxic vaccine additives which can accumulate.
I know a lot of moms that went ahead and had their babies vaccinated while sick and they ended up with autism. Please wait til your child is well. There a lot of websites that can help you with this issue, and thousands of parents now better educated... too late. Safeminds.com 909shot.com autismspeaks.com also spread the shots out, ask for mercury free, and avoid the HEP B. Hep B is NOT a common childhood disease, it is a disease aquired by IV drug abusers or unsafe sex with an infected person. Not many baby's shoot up drugs with shared needles or have unprotected sex. In fact the odds are almost zero of this happening. But odds of adverse reaction to the shot are high. Definitely NOT worth the risk.

My daughter is 18 months old and her doctor has refused to give her shots if she has the slightest cold. I always keep my appt. so that he can make the decision if she is to sick or not. He always does her check up and has us come back in 10 days for her shots. Hope this helps

Hi
When my girls have been sick around shot time, our pediatrician never gave the vaccines until they were better. they are giving you live viruses and when your immune system is suppressed it is possible that something else can evolve. i am not in the medical field, this is information that was told to me. i would ask friends who have children or call other pediatricians offices and see how they handle it. But, more importantly it seems your intuition is telling you there is something wrong with giving vaccines when your child is sick because you are posting this request. Go with your instinct and gutt feeling as it is your child not anyone elses. and, your child depends on you!!!! let us know what you decide to do.

My sons doctor told me that if he doesn't have a fever it is medically ok for him to get his shots (though I believe flu shots are a little different, you may have to check more on that if it's planned for your baby this time). He also said that if I was uncomfortable with him getting his shots while he was a little sick than I could schedule a time to come back for them.

Hi!
I work in a family practice office. We can give vaccines if the child has minor illness. We do not give shots if the child has an ear infection, fever, rash, or respiritory illness. I would say keep the appt and let the doctor at least evaluate your baby. If he is too sick for a shot on that particular day, they may have you return in a week or so just for the shots.

DEfinitly wait to give the shots till your little one is healthy. The shots are hard enough on thier little bodies, let him have a strong immune system to start with!! The DR wants to give him his shots while he has you in the office. Otherwise they don't think you'll come back in. If we give our little one shots, they will be one at a time on our time line.
L.

My children have always gotten shots with a cold and the drs explanation is that the cold doesn't affect the vaccination.

My daughter had a little bit of a cold when she received her shots. What they will not give is a flu shot, but my Dr. told me the vaccinations were okay and my daughter seemed to do fine.

Hi A.,
i have 3 kids and with the three of them i had the same answer from any doc that if they are sick you can't give them the vaccination .
it is ok to miss it for few days nothing will change it is not like they are not having it at all.

good luck for you and hope ur son will feel better soon.

Hi- We went in for my son's four month checkup/shots and the Dr. asked if he was sick and I said he had a bit of a cold. She wouldn't do the shots and said they don't like to when they have even a cold because the shots can then sometimes trigger a bigger reaction making them more sick and/or sickness lasting longer. My other son was also due for a flu shot but they wouldn't do him either because of a slight cold. I also was told this from a couple other people who are doctors. I guess this varies among drs.

- From a stay at home mom of two boys as well- 20 mos and 4 1/2 mos and not trying for a third for a while. :-)

My doc told me that if they have had a fever within the last 48 hours of the vaccination, then they have to wait. I don't think a cold will affect it. I'm pretty sure your Ped. would know if it's ok or not (I hope!)

I think another consideration, beyond whether they have a temperature, is that babies often have reactions to the vacines. They may develop swelling, a low fever, soreness and discomfort, and irritibility. Would you want to add this on top of your baby's already existing fussiness and discomfort due to being sick?

Generally the way it works with infants is that one visit the reaction is mild, and on the next it is very intense, then mild the time after that. With the occasional REALLY hard to manage reaction (crying and irritibility). But it depends on the shots given, and of course each child is unique.

In any event, delaying a week or 2 s not going to through off your child's schedule of shots that much. And it may save you and your child a lot of stress.

A.,

My daughter had a simple cold when she was due to get vaccinations and the nurse said not to absolutely wait... Vaccinations are so controversial as it is that I think it's important for your baby to be as strong as can be before introducing anything new into his system!

All the Best,
K.

Hi A., there are two schools of thought. Some people say not to and some say it is ok. I personally would wait a week if possible, but do what feels right to you. He's your baby and just like everything else you have to live with your decision so if you are uncomfortable wait. A week won't make much difference anyway because it is virtually impossible to get the shots exactly to the day! Good luck and remember whatever you choose, it is the right decision for you and your baby.

A.,
This is the first time i have felt compelled to respond to a question. I have three very healthy children under the age of 11, none of them have been vaccinated. I know it isn't an easy decision but it is and may be the decision that changes your child's life forever. My advice about vaccinations is to be informed before you make the decision to immunize or not to. The magazine Mothering has many years of research on this topic. We chose not to immunize our children because there is no guarantee that our children would not be affected by the drugs that the doctor is putting into their little bodies. Waiting till the children are older is always an option. I am glad to see you are waiting for your child's health to improve before going. I can not stress enough about being informed because if you choose to go forward and something happens to your child you will have to live with this the rest of your life and your child's life. Check out what Jenny McCarthy, the actress, is sharing about her son's life changing experience after being vaccinated one too many times. I don't want to scare you but I want to encourage you to be informed about the possible side effects of vaccinations. Sincerely.

Hi A.,

My doctor never gave my daughters shots when they were sick. It was office policy and a good one. He tended to err on the side of caution but I felt he was only doing this for our benefit. They would let me come into the office 5 days later and have a nurse give the child a shot without a formal appointment.

Trust your instinct - you are right,
K. von Raesfeld
Petaluma, CA
www.mybarefootbooks.com/KvonRaesfeld

The main issue is if the child has a temperature.
I've always told the parents that if the child is not feeling well, follow thier instincts and reschedule if they feel it best. Nobody is going to fault you for doing so.

I don't remember how it happened, but we've put off shots when one of ours was sick. It's been years at this point, but I think our doctor recommended waiting until she was feeling better.

If it were me, I'd wait. No point in making them even more miserable.

Hmmmm... well, it has been my experience with both my children, that shots were not given to them if they were sick and/or running a temperature. It seems to be the norm. However, I am not a doctor. Maybe research it online, ask your doctor again... and sometimes, the shots can be delayed a little bit later, when baby is feeling better? That was the case with one of my children at least. The Doc suggested bringing my baby back when the cold was better... although not much later. I think some shots need to be given within a certain time frame? However, I know one Mom, an acquaintance, who was chronically "late" in getting her baby to her well-baby checks and so her child's shots were never on time.
Good luck and take care
~Susan
www.cafepress.com/littlegoogoo

My pediatrician told me that it's OK as long as they do not have a fever. So we went ahead and gave my son's 12 month shots even though he had a runny nose.

Dear A.,
I have four kids and I have gotten immunizations several times when the kids had runny noses or colds. The immunizations are not LIVE viruses. The only one that ever was, was the polio vaccine and that one has been changed to a dead virus. I believe in immunizations because I would not like to see my children go through those diseases. I would trust your doctor. They give a lot of vaccine shots and would know if there is a problem giving them when a child has a cold.

I would have to say that you should NOT give your child immu. shots while sick. I am not a doctor but have recently been doing a lot of reading on the subject. The logic is this: when you immunize your child you are in essence giving them a virus. If the child’s immune system is not well enough to handle the immunization it may cause serious side effects. Once again I am not a doctor. There are plenty of doctors that would disagree with my statement. Understandably, after all they are the doctors. Right? I have had my share of experiences with doctors and let me tell you that a lot of them either are in denial or don't want to admit the truth. I suggest you research immunizing your child while having a lowered immune system. Educate yourself before making the decision of immunizing your child while sick. The internet has a plethora of information. Ultimately it is your decision NOT the doctors.

By the way another great example of some really off the wall docs at work. My son has Tuberculosis so his doc prescribed him a med. I decided to look it up on the internet to make sure there were no major side effects. So happens the doc prescribed way too much and he was also NOT supposed to give this med alone! When I confronted him about it he never made a comment about the over prescribed med. and said "Gee why don't we have him see a pulmonary doctor. I don't have enough experience in this." Why didn't he say that in the first place instead of over prescribing my son? Sadly I am losing trust more and more in doctors as the years pass.

My daughter is 8 months old and hasn't had a vaccine since she was 3 months old due to cronic ear infections. She got the tubes in two weeks ago and is now feeling much better and were going to get her back on her vaccination schedule, however, it was the my Doctor that told me that she shouldn't be exposed to the vacination while she was sick due to an already compromised immune system. I know our case is dramatic, and my daughter got sick each time she got the immunizations by them selves so we could be a special case, but I completely agree with my doctor in not getting the shots when they are sick. A week or a couple months is no big deal.

Hi A.,
I have done a lot of soul searching lately as a parent. I did vaccinate my little girl, but when I had my little boy I got worried, more so than I had with my baby girl. Having a masters degree in Clinical Psychology and having worked with kids with autism and knowing all that I know, I have done some major digging and will not ever put another shot or vaccination into my children. There are some websites available that show the damage that can be done by the shots themselves.............and did you know they are now coming out with vaccines to offset the problems that happen FROM the vaccines.
It's just obscene what is happening............
I could go on.
Please feel free to let me know if you would like to hear more about what I have learned.
I would absolutely NOT procede with vaccinating while your child is sick. If you do decide to move forward with it, I would recommend waiting until your baby is well.
Take care!
S.
____@____.com

I would never do shots while my babies were sick, so I must of heard that or read that too! We have Kaiser insurance and they will not even do it if the child has an earache. I would question the actual doctor, not just the staff that answers the phone and makes the appointments. They should know better, or be more cautious.

Hi A.,

I'm adding this message because I really need to comment on Kathleen's message that precedes this one.

There has been an ongoing movement by some to avoid vaccination in their children because of concerns of autism disorder, particularly surrounding the measles-mumps-rubella immunization (MMR). As a medical writing professional specializing in infectious disease, I can tell you that this attitude causes considerable alarm and concern within the medical community. These diseases are NOT innocuous. Before the development of these and other vaccines, tens of thousands of children would suffer grave consequences or die from these illnesses every year (far, far more that the less than 1/1000th% who react unfavorably to the vaccines). Complications of measles can include pneumonia, encephalitis, meningitis, blindness, hearing loss and even death. Complications of mumps include pancreatitis, encephalitis, meningitis, and hearing loss.

Rubella is mild in children, but if a nonimmune pregnant women comes in contact with a contagious child, particularly in the first trimester, 100% of fetuses will be infected and can suffer severe birth defects that include heart and central nervous system damage, cataracts, deafness, and miscarriage (about 20% of the cases). Of these infected individuals, only 1/3 will be able to lead independent adult lives. Another 1/3 will live with their parents and another 1/3 will be so severely disabled that they will require institutionalizaion. The pregnant woman may or may not develop the disease herself, so she may not even know that her child is at risk. Approximately 5 - 10% of pregant women in this country do not have immunity against rubella.

One of the reasons we rarely see the misery that these and other diseases for which we immunize can cause is because their incidence is now very low because of universal immunization programs. This is why developing countries are working so hard to develop cost-effective universal programs to counter high rates of infant and childhood mortality. Both the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the WHO (World Health Organization)emphasize the importance of childhood vaccination programs and adult vaccinations for those who either did not receive vaccinations in childhood, in whom the vaccination didn't "take", or in whom immunity has waned (this is more common with those who have been vaccinated than have become naturally immune).

In addition to the protection vaccinations offer directly, there is also what we call the "herd effect" of vaccination. If the vaccinated percentage of the population is high enough (usually > 90%), this is protective for those individuals who are not or cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, such as those who have had bad reactions to a first vaccine, have childhood cancers, are immune-suppressed (such as patients with HIV and bone marrow or solid organ transplant patients), or are pregnant. As an example, the incidence of Rubella has dropped so low because of successful immunization programs in the US that it was been declared by the CDC in 2005 to no longer be a health threat (see http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050321.htm). There is an goal in the americas of eradicating rubella through immunization by 2010. In 2007, we had reached > 95% immunization in the US, BUT if that trend reverses we run the risk of Rubella resurgence.

Finally, as to the concern of the vaccination itself, I would urge people to not take their information from popular magazines but to get it from reputable sources. I know that most people who are not in the science fields are less likely to be familiar with these resources, but good information can be found on easy to access websites such as emedicine.com, WebMD.com, and even Wikipedia.com. Look for sites that carry the HonCode seal. This indicates that the website meets the standards of the Health on the Net organization. This is a committee composed of 60 health professionals from 11 countries and includes such notables as heart surgeon Michael DeBakey (the doctor who developed the artificial heart). You can learn more about the organization at http://www.hon.ch/Global/. In a search of PubMed, which is the database for the library at the National Institutes of Health, I found the following abstract of an article published in 2006 in the Candian Journal of Neurological Science:

Immunizations and autism: a review of the literature.

Doja A, Roberts W.
Division of Neurology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Because of a temporal correlation between the first notable signs and symptoms of autism and the routine childhood vaccination schedule, many parents have become increasingly concerned regarding the possible etiologic role vaccines may play in the development of autism. In particular, some have suggested an association between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism. Our literature review found very few studies supporting this theory, with the overwhelming majority showing no causal association between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism. The vaccine preservative thimerosal has alternatively been hypothesized to have a possible causal role in autism. Again, no convincing evidence was found to support this claim, nor for the use of chelation therapy in autism. With decreasing uptake of immunizations in children and the inevitable occurrence of measles outbreaks, it is important that clinicians be aware of the literature concerning vaccinations and autism so that they may have informed discussions with parents and caregivers.

PMID: 17168158 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I would love to think that this might put this issue to bed, at least on this website, but I'm not that naive. There will be many who will scorn it as being a statement from someone who is entrenched in the evil medical establishment that exists only to support the pharmaceutical companies. To this I would answer, 1. I don't work for a pharma company, and 2. Before modern medicine, medications and vaccinations, up to one out of every three children died before they were 5 years old, the average life expectancy was 35 years old, debillitating birth defects were common, simple injuries could result in loss of limbs or death, and people suffered through serious diseases for months or years with little or nothing to ease their suffering and that of those who were responsible for their care.

Best regards to all,

R. Levy, MS

please don't vaccinate your baby if he's showing ANY signs of illness. there are a lot of people that will tell you it's safe, but delaying a week or 2 will hurt nothing. vaccinating him while he's sick could hurt him for the rest of his life. it's not worth the risk. even if your dr tells you it's ok, you're the mommy, you get the final say.