School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Hi

We are currently looking into which additional vaccinations our daughter will need to start school. She has had chickenpox already but at the time we didn't take her to the doctors so the only evidence we have are some photos- it looks like she will have to have the vaccination, 2 x doses (8 weeks apart). The 8 weeks apart might mean that she can't start school for a month once we get to the US.

Pre-school boosters- she has had those but at 3 and a half years old and the state we are moving to says that one dose of the vaccinations must have been given ON or AFTER the 4th birthday. I am trying to contact the Schools District nurse but from what I heard they are pretty inflexible about the vaccinations.

Obviously we would like to avoid any unnecessary vaccinations, especially ones that she has already had!

Has anyone come across this problem or has some advice?

We are going to pay privately for the chickenpox vaccination.

Thanks :-)

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Usually if it is a course of two shots as long as you have proof of the 1st one in the series and a scheduled date for the second then they will let her attend school. Not sure about the 4yr old rule, I just know that booster shots are not given here until the child's 4th birthday. It will be up to the school nurse to decide if they accept it. Hope that helps.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Our doctors marked on the immunisation records that they had chickenpox from us verbally telling them and that has been ok. They have the scars to show for it. We also had the problem with the boosters being done on a different schedule. 2/3 kids had to get them again.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Our younger son had recorded chicken pox, our elder son had shown no sign of it. Our UK GP sent off a blood sample for testing free of charge and it showed he was immune, so neither boy needed those immunisations for our school district. We started the hep B before leaving the UK and completed the course after arriving in the USA.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

I just had the literally the exact same problem. My UK GP wrote an email (with very careful wording because I also had no medical record that my kids had chicken pox), stating that from the information and photos I had provided, it is most likely my children have been exposed to Varicella and therefore he recommends that they are exempt from the vaccination. This was totally adequate for my health care provider in the USA and they waivered the vaccine on the forms which thankfully neither of my children's schools questioned. No way was I happy for my kids to have unnecessary extra vaccines or traumatic blood tests to prove immunity.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

I actually find the schools' hard line attitude to immunizations reassuring. Once you realise that there are many parents coming from outside the USA that have not adequately vaccinated their kids, I am happy that they are keeping a strict eye on it all. I reference in particular the current measles epidemic in EU. American parents take great care to ensure medical records are accurate and the doctor's record everything, why should foreigners be exempt from this? Even for my kids, who had gone through 2 different countrie's health systems ( UK and France) had all their medical records and vaccinations properly recorded. Honestly, taking a prick of blood to test for varicella immunity, is hardly traumatic.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

well thats just a matter of your opinion and to be honest, just because u don't find it traumatic, doesn't mean a young child won't (my son for example has an anxiety disorder and every vaccine is an ordeal yet I have NEVER missed one!!) thus I completely agree about the necessity of vaccinations but I think your implications that its somewhat negligent that chicken pox hasn't been formally recorded is ridiculous. UK doesn't routinely vaccinate against chicken pox, and the advise given to parents is NOT to bring children into the GP surgery (because of infection risks). Most parents in UK , including myself and im pretty sure the OP, go and buy some calamine, administer some calpol, wait for the pox to scab over and then get on with our lives!

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Funny that, I went to the scottish GP and was told to use anti-histamine to relieve itching and use an emollient cream to STOP drying out. No scars!! Calamine drying it out is why you end up with scabs and scars. It also meant the kids had a record of having had chicken pox.
Just because your experience is one thing, it doesn't mean that other countries should accept without question what you say. In their eyes, your child is a possible unvaccinated threat to others until you prove otherwise. Just wait til you have to go through the GC medical!!

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Its a moot point because they DID accept it. Will happily cross GC medical bridge when I get to it (pox vaccine is least of my concerns regarding that). thanks!

ps the pox need to scab over before they are considered to be not contagious anymore

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

I have sympathy for your son on the needle stick phobia as our younger son is the same, largely as a result of a series of hospital visits including blood draws at all hours of the day and night and an anaesthetist that did not believe he could feel the anaesthetic "burning" as it went into his arm. He actually finds blood samples being taken much more traumatic than injections and was prescribed valium to get him through the GC medical by the very approachable civil surgeon over here. Individual states and school districts all have their own burden of proof and ours would take a parent's word on chicken pox, but all other vaccinations had to be properly documented in their medical records. I think as chicken pox has such a distinctive rash and is so widespread in the UK if the case is mild, as many are, and does not need a GP's intervention many parents do not take their infectious child to the surgery for a diagnosis so it does not get formally recorded. This then only becomes an issue for the small minority of us that end up moving internationally with school age children.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

I completely agree with you! and yes your totally right re blood samples

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Not to derail the OPs post but I'm in for fun and games with my GC medical. I have no records of childhood vaccinations at all and can't prove any of them. In my case, vaccinations were not recorded in the GPs medical notes but rather on a separate card that Mum kept hold of. That's long gone and when we moved over here I got a print out of my medical records from the GP. No childhood vaccinations noted. In addition, I did not need the TB vaccination when a teenager at school so I don't have that either so that's going to be a whole thing. I'm not looking forward to it at all so I sympathize with you parents having to go through it with kids.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

When we had our GC medicals over here younger son was able to just have the standard TB skin test as he had never had a TB vaccination nor been exposed to it. Steveq & I had to have a TB blood test as we had both had the TB jab as teenagers at school in the UK.
https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/testing/tbtesttypes.htm

Son also had a print out of vaccinations form his UK GP, we had no such records. As an adult the other required vaccinations are as per this table. We had both had chicken pox as children and our verbal statements were OK for that, we went outside of flu season so that was not a requirement and chose to get Td and MMR shots at the physical - these were covered by our health insurance. Check out the table and get any you need in advance if that is more convenient for you and keep the records to hand.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Our doctor did the same. Just marked on the records that my son had chicken pox already. I registered my son for school last week and as we went over the records, I just told them the UK doesn't give immunizations for chicken pox. Since his doctor had already marked that he had the chicken pox, they were fine.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

No chest x-rays required for your son?

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

No chest x-rays for any of us over here in the US. Just the skin/blood tests, which were all negative. If they had been positive there would have been x-rays and follow-up tests. Our son who had his medical in the UK had no blood tests but did have the x-ray, probably because so many UK citizens/residents have had the BCG vaccination which makes the blood work more expensive than the chest x-ray.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Hi

Thank you for all the very helpful comments. I agree that the blood test is more traumatic than the actual injection (for our little one anyway) so decided to have the Chickenpox vaccinations done. We pay for this privately, i think it was about £92. She will need another dose.

I am waiting to hear back from the District nurse regarding the pre-school booster but from the sounds of it she will have to have these again. We were hoping to avoid this but looks like that is not an option.

I noticed that someone mentioned Hep B- that wasn't mentioned to us or stated on the immunization schedule the school provided. Is this normally done for kids or later on?

Thanks

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Hi ignore the Hep B comment- our kids have had those!

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Actually, you don't need the proof as an adult. The medical vaccination form that is used / needed to be completed by the doctor states which vaccinations are normally given at certain ages to children who have grown up in countries such as the UK, Canada, etc. and it is taken as a given that you have received the proper immunizations as a child growing up in those countries. They will require vaccinations for such things as Hep b, Flu, etc. You can go to your primary physician and be tested for immunizations to chicken pox, and some other childhood diseases if you feel better for having 'proof'. Remember this is for the adult. Not speaking of child.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Good old NHS scotland destroyed mine and my husbands medical records once we had been out of the UK for 10 years.
We had no proof of any vaccines/immunity and for the GC medical we had a selection of being vaccinated again and some blood tests to check immunity. Insurance covered it all thank heavens. We had lived our whole childhoods in the UK, following the vaccination schedule for the time but we were still required to provide proof of those required vaccines.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Both my kids had chickenpox in the UK, and based on photos this was recorded on their California record and allowed to go to school.However our medical provider still lists Varicella as a needed injection for both kids and we have not been able to get that removed. The older kid ended up getting a varicella injection recently as when he had his injections for middle school the nurse just did all outstanding ones.

Like others I found very little flexibility in the immunizations, if you did not have exactly what is required and at the time required, then you need to have it again. My poor little ones had so many injections in their first week here despite being up-to-date when leaving the UK.

Re: School vaccinations- potential problem!
 

Spoke to the district school nurse who confirmed that our daughter will need the Tdap and Polio again prior to starting school. She did say that they have a walk in immunization clinic where you can just turn up and pay $20 per shot. Much cheaper than having it done privately here.

thanks for all your help!