[MyColony]

We have been trying to get any kind of medical records for Lil J since he was placed with us in March.

When he was removed, the mom was sketchy regarding the records. It turns out that by coincidence, the mom also picked the same HMO that I picked.

Well, after trying to get the info from doctors, etc, I contacted our Health Care Coordintor (think that is the title), and he was able to go through all the claims for Lil J since his birth - again just a major coincidence that it was the same provider.

Turns out that just about every single claim was for a sick visit - to the ER! She was using the ER as her own personal doctor. And nothing ER worthy either, things like vomitting, fever, cough, etc.

He was never seen in the ER for major things like injury, extreme illness, etc.

The only billable "well child visit" was 3 weeks after his birth. So, now at 3 years old, according to the insurance company, they have never paid for any vaccinations except for the one at 3 weeks old.

I can not register him in pre-school and now I really have to be super careful where he goes. Oh yeah, and I am having a baby in the fall that is obviously more prone to getting illnesses because um, it is a newborn with no immunities.

Now, I understand that some people choose not to vaccinate their children - but I don't think this is the case, I just think she never thought it was a big deal.

Ugh - I am just so frustrated. I just put a call in to our Ped's office to find out what we should do.

Anyone deal with this type of situation?

[dachshunds4you]

Never so this age and not being vaccinated, but yes with 'older' babies. They just have to start on them now, and as quickly as possible 'catch' them up on the shots.

I'm surprised your ped didn't check on this before. That's the first thing they ask when I take them to the dr...

Your pedi will know what to do. At the very least they can get some shots under his belt now.

[hrisme]

I've seen this with internationally adopted children all the time. Talk with the pediatrician, they'll just put him on a catch up schedule at his next visit. Personally, having worked with several children who were not vaccinated by choice, I wouldn't worry about taking him out unless there is an outbreak in your area that would require exclusion of non-vaccinated children. Once you have the "catch up" schedule set up you can submit that to register him in preschool, so that shouldn't be a major issue. And babies are born with natural antibodies, and get more if you decide to breast feed, so you'll more likely than not be fine there as well.

[GoddessDanu]

So can you get your foster child vaccinated without bioparent permission?

[In_limbo_for_now]

As a Foster placement, if the child was not vaccinated due to religious beliefs of the parents can you go against the parents wishes? If RU is the plan I mean?

[FostAndAdoptMom]

Bmom wouldn't give records on my son who was placed right after he turned 2... We had to start the vaccines over from scratch - first day he got 6 shots... poor guy.

We're back on schedule now.

[RNFosterMom]

We received an 8 month old in November who had never had any medical care since birth. We were told by CW that we needed to get her caught up on immunizations. It took 4-5 months altogether, but at 15 months old she is now current.

Good question about whether bios can refuse kids' immunizations. I'd be interested to know the answer to that. It sounds like mom of your FC was just lax, so she probably wouldn't care. One a somewhat related note, Bio Mom of our FC was pregnant when FC came into care, and part of her caseplan was to get prenatal care for that pregnancy, so I would think they could require immunizations for the kids too?

[MyColony]

If he did not get shots due to religious resaons or some other legit reason, then I can probably not do them. BUt, in this situation, I just think the mom was not educated about them, or just never cared to schedule well visits for him. We have a visit tomorrow, so the cae worker will be talking to her about it

[mom2fabtwins]

In my state (WI), all vaccinations are reported to the state. You may want to check with the Doctor on record to see if they can access the state database to verify that he didn't get vaccinations at the County health or something like that.

I just got a 3 yo on May 29. They thought he was behind in vaccinations nothing noted since 9 months, but the state database showed he was current. He got some for $2.50 at the county health department.

[mamallama]

I would check to see if there is a state database for shots. Just because insurance didn't pay for them doesnt' mean he didn't get them. If he was on WIC, which seems quite likely, he would have probably gotten shots through them (most have clinics here).

[greenrobin]

Our WIC offices are generally housed with the Dept. of Health, but the shots are exclusively through the Dept. of Health, not WIC.

At any rate, the advice to check the registry is solid. Queenie didn't have any records we could access, but the state registry did. She was a little behind, but not much.

Flower Girl, on the other hand, had no record of immunizations on IMTrac. At 2 and a little bit we had to start from scratch. It was pretty grueiling, but she was caught up by her 3rd birthday.

And the ER thing? Well, lots of folks on Medicaid use the ER like a walk-in clinic. Very few walk-ins accept Medicaid. Doctors want advance notice. I know that when we had the Fab Four, one was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and I took 2 of the others to the ER because it was a weekend and no one would take the insurance and it turns out that their issue was just a mild flu. I hated to do it, too. It raises medical costs for all of us, increases our wait time, and is just a general pain.

Oh--almost forgot--as long as you get the immunizations started, the daycare/school issue is generally covered. Most states only want to know that you're immunizing and will accept a written statement as to why you're behind.

I wonder what they do for the kids whose parents have moral or religious objections?

[GoddessDanu]

Originally Posted by greenrobin

I wonder what they do for the kids whose parents have moral or religious objections?

Here in Oregon all you have to do is sign a form saying your religion prohibits vaccinations and that's it. No other proof is necessary. As a daycare provider I'm supposed to make sure parents give me up-to-date shot records but over the years I've had parents sign the religious exemption form and that's all I could ask for. I have no idea how it works as a foster parent.

[MyColony]

Originally Posted by mom2fabtwins

In my state (WI), all vaccinations are reported to the state. You may want to check with the Doctor on record to see if they can access the state database to verify that he didn't get vaccinations at the County health or something like that.

There is a state database - and the only thing recorded is the ones he got at 3 weeks, nothing else. So, if he was given the shots, they were never entered into the database

[meshsgrl]

he only billable "well child visit" was 3 weeks after his birth. So, now at 3 years old, according to the insurance company, they have never paid for any vaccinations except for the one at 3 weeks old.

I had four ages 3 -5 who had at the most 4 shots each before coming into care. 2 had NONE! Their basic medical records which I FINALLY obtained show only ER visits... Most of them had no prenatal care or if any it was an ER visit!
I have never had a child who was up todate on their shots!
I finally have my 3 oldest caught up... they all got atleast 5 the first round! My youngest has maybe 4 shots total and is PETRIFIED of the dr.
Now they all need bloodwork too!! UGHHHH!!

[Robbin]

If at all possible, I would take the child to the Department of Health for ALL "shots" so the child doesn't have bad associations with the doctor.

We had several foster kids would totally freak at the doctor's office, so I learned to take them to the Dept of Health so that I could truthfully say the doctor will never hurt you.