[samiann]

Hi,

We are home with our wonderful little girl. We are enjoying every minute but I have an important question. We took her to the doctor who performed the titers (she was 6 1/2 months old). It showed that she needs to be revaccinated for everything. I was shocked. Do titers show at 6 1/2 months of age whether or not they need to be revaccinated? I guess she has "some antibodies" but definitely not what she should.

Is this normal? I have always been told that they use the best vaccines from my agency and that they are not watered down.

Advice please!! Thanks!

[dspakowsky]

I hope someone here has an answer for you. I hope it's that this is normal.

[Mindybeth6]

In the past few months I have seen a few people post about this and that they had the same thing happen to them. I hope one of them sees this and has the answers you are looking for.

Hugs

[becky]

You absolutely want to go with what the blood tests show. It should be accurate at that age. My daughter came home at 4.5 months and had the test done right away and it showed that all vaccines were good. I would definite re-vaccinate

What is your doctor saying you should do?

[soon2bemom]

6 1/2 months of age is to early for titers to show immunity. Even in a fully immunized child in the United States I would not necessarily expect they would show immunity.

On children adopted before 6 months of age who have a record of full immunization I simply give the 6 month and 12 month immunizations. There is enough redundancy in the system to cover any gaps. On children adopted after 6 months of age and before 14 months I give the next round of immunizations that are due and check titers at age 14 months. On children adopted after 14 months of age I check titers before giving any further immunizations.

Hope this helps

[P.E.Z.]

Hi We have a GREAT international specialist in Pittsburgh .
She is very familiar with the care in other country's and
when we brought Hayle home 3 years ago , she told us
Guatemala is one of the very few that she feels is very good and doesn't even question the vacination records
from Guatemala
If you want I could get you her phone number.
pm me if you want it.
I wouldn't jump into starting all her shots until I had other
professionals input .

[stepielynn]

I am a pediatric nurse and yes this is normal. The problem with the vaccinations in Guatemala is that they may not be stored properly, the vaccines are not stable unless stored at the right temperatures. In the states, the pedatricians have to check the temperatures on the medication refrigerators sometimes twice a day and if they are off, the vaccines cannot be used. I chose to have my daughter revaccinated as per the pediatricians recommendations, but it is definitely a personal choice. I have seen the effects of unvaccinated children since I work in the hospital in South Florida and we have a lot of immigrant children who are not vaccinated, we had 2 infants in critical condition with pertussis and kids have died from h.flu meningitis. My daughter has had no ill effects from receiving the additional vaccines.

[spidermanteache]

My son, Parker, came home with a very detailed, great looking immunization record. My ped. checked the titers and found that none of them were good except for Chicken Pox. As the last person responded, they don't store them properly or they are expired which makes them poor. I would for sure go with the titers and get re-immunized!

[Niclayson]

We were not even told of a tumor that had developed on my son's back until the day of pick up! (We had visited 3 months before and it wasn't there then). He also required re-vaccination.

Titers are titers...they are accurate whenever taken. Yes there are risks with vaccines...there are also risks with catching the diseases too. Have you heard of the recent outbreak of mumps in this country? They are recommending revaccination of adults if they haven't had a MMR recently.

[riptune2]

We came home at 10 mos of age and after titers was done had to get ALL NEW SHOTS!! Nothing had taken. I would rather be safe than sorry. I know it's painful that they have to go through it all again with the shots but think of the alternative. I'd re do the shots!


Shannon

[cheri25]

We also had really great immunization record, and when my son had his titers checked, I believe he was about 9 months old, he showed no immunity to polio and I believe DPT. We had him re-vaccinated. We went to an international adoption clinic and they are who did the blood tests and recommended re-vaccination.

[jnancynancy]

We just had our titers done at 7months and they came back showing she had full immunity from all the vaccines she received. We didn't have to re do any of them...

[DPline]

I can't speak to the medical side, but I can tell you that I had titers done for both of my kids when they came home, even though they had perfect looking shot records. My daughter was 11 months and my son was 20 months old. My daughter had to have a couple redone and my son a few more. (I would have to go back through their records to figure out which ones anymore.) I suspect it is as others have said and it was probably a storage issue.

[AMEN]

Hey there! We sat next to each other on the plane ride home! Remember me? I'm the one with two boys from Guatemala.

I just wanted to chime in and say that we haven't gotten Samuel's (6.5mos old) titers drawn yet but when Isaac's were tested at 18mos of age, it showed that none of his vac's took either. We are in the process of revaccinating.

I'd be sure to ask though if 6mos is too soon to show immunity in titers.

[Princesa's Mama]

We got Sarah at 12 months and I had her titres checked. She had gotten the MMR shot at 9 months and they are not supposed to get it until 12 months, according to the emassy Dr. I asked my pediatrician about it and she said that it was perhaps given earlier because mumps and measles are more prevailent in some countries and that this would be acceptable. Her titres showed that she did not have enough MMR immunity, although there was some, and we redid that. She showed no immunity to the HIB vaccine and it was unclear whether it had been done ( the record was difficult to read) so we did that one. All the other titres came back fine. Some people can be vaccinated and not show immunity. I have a friend who had a Ruebella vaccine redone after the birth every child, as she showed no immunity to the disease.