[jeavesmom]

Just found out Bio Mom has Hepatitis C ,anyone know what the chance are that my little ones could have it ? WIll be calling Dr. in the morning just worried tonight

[hermommy]

Originally Posted by jeavesmom

Just found out Bio Mom has Hepatitis C ,anyone know what the chance are that my little ones could have it ? WIll be calling Dr. in the morning just worried tonight

Do you know if your little one was born by cicarian section (spelling) or if she gave natural birth. If the baby was taken by cc the baby has about a 5% chance. This is coming straight from my dd's pediatrican. My dd biomom was Hepatits c positive when she gave birth. When my dd was born she tested postive for the antibodies of hep. c. By the time she was 1 she was testing negative for the antibody.
Hope this helps

[ABJones]

I have a friend from school whom's mother had hep C. She had three children (naturally) only one child got hep C at birth. I don't know that stats on this but in the case of my friends family. 1-3 contracted the disease.

[blubutterflies03]

She probably has it from using needles because she is a drug user. She used for both of her kids so I wonder sometimes if it will or did affect her children. I would think maybe the hospital would be able to know when kids are born, but no one ever told me either of my 2 have Hep. C or not. good luck!

[parenting-over-40]

Jeavesmom - I know this sounds scary. I went thru this last year with a foster child. Thru that process I found out from talking with a few pediatricians that the risk is less than 5% as a pp stated.

In addition, you may be interested to know that the baby can carry the mother's antibodies in their system for up to a year. So, if the baby tests positive for HeP-C, they may not have Hep-C. That may just be birth Mom's antibodies showing up in the test. It does not mean you have to wait until the child is a year old to have the baby tested. My FC was fortunate to test negative at 9 months. Had they tested positive, then we would have had to wait until they turned 1 year old.

I hope this information puts your mind somewhat at ease. I hope all works out with the little one and they don't suffer long term effects.

[Mummy_Big_Bird]

Out of 6 placements, 3 were exposed to Hep C in utero. My DCF office actually has doubed me the "expert" and gives me preference for placement when they get a Hep C risk baby.

I highly recomend going to a pediatric infectious disease specialist.

It is 3% risk of actually having Hep C, for a Vaginal Birth. C-Section is slightly lower in risk. The risk level for a child can also vary depending on how high the Hep C levels were in the birth mom.

Being cautious about Hep C is very much like HIV/AIDS. It is a blood transmitted disease. You won't get it from changing a diaper, getting spit up on you, ect. When the child has a cut, nose bleed, injury, ect., use gloves to protect yourself, keep cuts covered, wash your hands well after (even if you had gloves on!) And make sure your doctor's office is using gloves when they give shots (I have to yell at mine all the time).

Like other people said, a baby has the antibodies from the bio mom in there system, which usually goes away at about a year old. The antibodies make it very hard to get an acurate test for Hep C, so you just have to treat the child like they have Hep C, until tests come back negative for antibodies.

If a child does infact have true Hep C, there is no pediatric treatment for it, as of now. They are just monitored. Our specialist told me that most of these kids go into liver failure by their teens, and need a transplant. My AD was one of my placements exposed. It broke my heart when I found out that we don't have matching blood types. If she had ended up with the disease, I couldn't be a live donor match for her.

Of my 3, I know 2 of them didn't end up having Hep C. The 3rd one was a RU that no one ever heard from again, and she was probably the highest risk of the 3. I worry about her every day.

[jllambert]

Our Babies mom has HepC and our baby tested positive for HepC Antibodies, but then tested for negative for HepC Antigens.

The way I was told is that the babies will most likely test postive for the HepC Antibodies because they are born with the mom's antibodies, and that does not mean they will have HepC, but that if they test positive for the HepC antigens & antibodies they will have HepC.

Our daughter was retested at 1 yr and she was Negative for both HepC Antibodies and Antigens!!!