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I have chosen to no longer vaccinate my own children. I have always been told that I can still chose not to vaccinate my own children, while fostering, but the foster children would need to be vaccinated, because they are no my kids. I totally understand that.
Well, i am reading this exciting info, of all the legal mumbo jumbo in our PS-MAPP book and when i got to general requirements, one of the requirements is that all children in the home, have appropriate vaccines.
Now i am confilicted. Is this a case by case thing, or am i really screwed. This is something my husband and I have been talking about for 15years, and now we are ready. Really ready. However, I am not sure i am willing to take my kids in and get them all their vaccines, so i can care for other peoples children. In my mind, that is putting the needs of other kids, in front of the needs of my own.
I have personal, and philosophical reasons for not vaccinating. MY oldest is almost fully vax'd, aside from Chicken pox, because i never will understand that one. LOL My second was vax'd until she had a horrible reaction to vaccines, 3 times in a row, She is about 50% VAX'D. My third has had maybe 5 vaccines, and my son has had none.
This is not a debate about vaccinations. I know this can become a heated topic. I guess I am not understanding how this is going to play in our foster parenting, if we do all that is required for our foster kids. including vaccinating them.
How do i find this out for sure? do i call one of the licensing workers? I feel like this has stopped me dead in my tracks.
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It sounds like you have your answer, but I wanted to add, that we did not have to provide vacc. records for my son (or us for that matter). Just a health form from the doctor, that we were basically healthy and free of disease, etc. I realize that this may vary by area, but that was our experience.
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Our DD was adopted internationally, and we have had to play catch up on her vaccines for the past 4 years. She has also had bad reactions to vaccines in the past. As such, we haven't followed the "approved schedule", and are always a bit behind in order to minimize the number of vaccines she receives at one time. Our Pediatrician has documented this for us, and our CW is fully aware. This has never been an issue for us as a foster-adopt family. I suggest talking to your CW. Best wishes in your journey!
I am in this boat now. We are in Kentucky and the health form here from the state asks if children in the home are up to date on immunizations and if so to attach their records. I have contacted my SW and am hopeful that this will not become an issue if we have an exemption form stating our decision and exemption which has to be religious in the state of KY. There is no way I will be vaccinating my biological kids and I will most defiantly not go down without a fight on this. It is completely devastating and appalling that a homeless child or children would be denied a home and loving family because of vaccines. I guess we would have to contact a lawyer if need be. Has anyone has this issue since this thread and worked through it? Please share as my CW is out for the next few days and I am going to go crazy not knowing what she is going to say. :mad: :mad: :mad:
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There are definitely exceptions. With my agency "philosophical" wouldn't have cut it but my DD's allergic reaction did count. She's on limited vaccines, one at a time, no combo vaccines. The combo vaccines are more likely to trigger severe reactions.She's "behind" by most one size fits all schedules BUT the statement to my agency was basically: child medically requires a custom vaccination schedule and is following the schedule. They didn't require details. Maybe you could work with your Doc for a "custom" medically appropriate schedule and go from there?
I am not going to get into a debate but I do have a few things to add:
A) I think it depends on where you live because we had to prove that our daughter was completely up to date on all vaccinations prior to completing our homestudy. She had a reaction to one set of vaccines so I spaced hers out but in the end she still got them.
B) One of the scariest weekends was one week ago when we received the placements we have now. The boys were dropped off at 8 pm, not fed and I was told little one had lead poisoning. I looked at his paperwork after I got him in bed, no lead poisoning on paper but it did say hepatitis B carrier! All weekend I was freaking out lysoling and bleaching everything. Our daughter thankfully had all vaccinations however it is not 100% effective and it can spread faster then HIV. This is the one time where I was thankful that she was caught up on vaccines. (Thankfully after that weekend the cw finally looked through medical files and said someone made a mistake when typing up the summary- he got a hep b vaccine but is not a carrier-it was still scary.)
aka.mama.k
There are definitely exceptions. With my agency "philosophical" wouldn't have cut it but my DD's allergic reaction did count. She's on limited vaccines, one at a time, no combo vaccines. The combo vaccines are more likely to trigger severe reactions.
She's "behind" by most one size fits all schedules BUT the statement to my agency was basically: child medically requires a custom vaccination schedule and is following the schedule. They didn't require details. Maybe you could work with your Doc for a "custom" medically appropriate schedule and go from there?
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We were not asked about vaccinations and we did not volunteer any of that information. My kids are not caught up, and they all had chicken pox despite the vaccine, so I gave up.
The way I see it the foster kids are going to go to school, daycare, the doctors office, the grocery store, and so on, so my kids are not really a threat to them. ;)
Southernmomma
Same here. I had them seperate her vaccines and then it also helped me recognize which one she was having a reaction to.
Southernmomma
I am not going to get into a debate but I do have a few things to add:
A) I think it depends on where you live because we had to prove that our daughter was completely up to date on all vaccinations prior to completing our homestudy. She had a reaction to one set of vaccines so I spaced hers out but in the end she still got them.
B) One of the scariest weekends was one week ago when we received the placements we have now. The boys were dropped off at 8 pm, not fed and I was told little one had lead poisoning. I looked at his paperwork after I got him in bed, no lead poisoning on paper but it did say hepatitis B carrier! All weekend I was freaking out lysoling and bleaching everything. Our daughter thankfully had all vaccinations however it is not 100% effective and it can spread faster then HIV. This is the one time where I was thankful that she was caught up on vaccines. (Thankfully after that weekend the cw finally looked through medical files and said someone made a mistake when typing up the summary- he got a hep b vaccine but is not a carrier-it was still scary.)
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Mommybell08
I can understand how protecting your daughter would be your main concern. Just for the future, Hep B is spread through sex, blood and body fluids. Also it can be spread from birth mother to baby during birth. So saliva and even sharing eating utensils is not going to spread it. Most cases of HebB are spread through sexual intercourse and sharing drug needles.
Around ten percent of the US population is un-vaccinated, so unless you keep foster-care children in a bubble they are going to be exposed to children who are not vaccinated. If Vaccines are effective and foster-care children are UTD then they should be considered protected.
I have another opinion but really the point of re-visiting this thread was I wanted to hear of others who have made this work and I have. Thanks everyone for your input!
Mommybell08
Around ten percent of the US population is un-vaccinated, so unless you keep foster-care children in a bubble they are going to be exposed to children who are not vaccinated. If Vaccines are effective and foster-care children are UTD then they should be considered protected.