Rotovirus Vacine

[MommaRhi]

oh man! Rotavirus is some NASTY nasty stuff!! Very contagious!! Its NASTY SMELLY GREEN WATERY poo. You need to really wrap the diapers up in double trash bags and treat it as a biohazard when they have it.

Andrew had it when he was 9 mos old. Ugh! Nasty rash he got from it too, and you cant use cloth dipes when they have it.

[aschrimp]

I used cloth diapers through the rotovirus and norovirus, there's really absolutely no reason you can't. All poo has nasty bugs in it. Sick poo or healthy poo, if you are washing your diapers correctly, the diapers and machine will be sterilie by the end of the wash cycle.

Diarrhea tends to just run off of sposies and get EVERYWHERE. As awful as the laundry was (we went through all 36 of our prefolds in less than 24 hours for the first few days of rotovirus, and even more than that with the norovirus, because the vomiting was worse), I'd rather deal with poopy pfs than poopy clothes. One way or another, you are going to have poo in the washer.

It's much more important to be fastidious about handwashing and changing area cleanup (where the virus is much more likely to survive than in a diaper through a wash), IMHO, than what diapers you are using.

[akdkwk]

My son did not get the vaccine and i wish he had. My Dr told me that the rotavirus is not as bad in breast fed babies. He was right. What he did not mention was how the rotavirus is very contagious. My husband and i were deathly ill for THREE days. My son was very happy crawling around our near lifeless bodies. I had to call in reinforcements.

[RobinOK]

No, I wouldn't vax against it just because I'm currently not vaxing my youngest.

[iris0110]

akdkwk, I had to kind of laugh at your post cause i have soooo been there. I was looking over ds1's medical files and they say he had rotovirus at 15 months. Now that I look back I do kind of remember it, it was the first time he had a virus in his entire life. He didn't do too baddly, I took him to the dr only because he had had diarheah for 3 days and I was a tad bit worried it might be something else (bacterial or food poisoning or something). Well it came back rotovirus. Within another day he was happy as a clam, and that night I got sick. I was sick for over a week and it was awful. I actually had it worse than him, which is why I remember it. Lucky for me dh never ever ever gets sick so he was there to take care of ds while I layed on the couch wishing I could just die.

[SandyG]

david had roto and it was horrible!! 3 dyas in the hospital and 6 days of misery at home. i dunno if id give him the vax though i just dont know.
shannon

[tararaboomdeea]

Originally Posted by Shannon Knowing how horrible it is would you do the vax? Are the unknowns of the new vax worth the risk to possibly eliminate having the rotovirus?

Noah is just now getting over RV, and I still wouldn't give him the vax for it. His could have been worse, but I'd still not give the vax at all.

[snowbird25ca]

It's not approved in Canada, but if it was I wouldn't do it.

FWIW - The vax is a live virus and you can actually get mild rotavirus if you're not exceptionally careful about handwashing etc. in the 2 weeks following vaccination. Also, some kids develop mild rota symptoms for a few days after each dose.

It's also worth noting that this vax isn't intended to stop rotavirus, the immunity will wear off between the ages of 3 and 5 and kids will then get the disease. The vax isn't really intended to stop it, just to move it from the high risk age group into an older age group that is less likely to have complications or be hospitalized.

And the first vax worked - it just caused some babies to die and others to require emergency surgery. This vax hasn't had as many problems, but there have still been some early reports of similar reactions... So I wouldn't go near it with a 10 foot pole.

That being said, it sounds like your dd is fine and you can just refuse the next dose.

[jls~Kain~Drake]

So is the vax just like the flu shot? It immunizes against the current/last years strain? Like a once a year vax or what?

I'm not sure if I'd get the vax. Both of my boys have been vaxed (I mean on schedule, not with the roto vax) and my oldest has had RV. He got it when he was 14 months old. It lasted 3 weeks and it was AWFUL. He only had vomiting for 3 days, but the diarrhea was awful. He was always an active baby - REAL active..and while he had RV, he was just lifeless. They needed me to collect a stool sample and gave me a vial to bring home and scoop his diapers. There wasn't even enough matter there to collect...it was all fluid - like water. He lost weight, it was just awful. Then, last winter season both the boys got sick with some kind of virus that's very similar to rotovirus, but it wasn't rotovirus. They had diarrhea once, but the vomiting was insane. The baby (who was 6-7m) had to have IV fluids.

So, all of that to say - i'm not sure if I'd do the vax - but I don't think you should feel bad about it. If you have regret, just don't get the rest of them. Which you already answered you weren't...but...just don't want you to feel bad. You're a good mom