Did your children get these and if so then what age? Did they get a tetanus booster before leaving for college?
Yes to all. Both D and S. Both started HPV series at 14.
My D and S started HPV at 13. D, who will be off to college in the fall, also just received her pre-college meningococcal booster.
In addition to all mentioned above, please also see the new recommendations for the Meningitis B vaccine (NOT to be confused with a regular meningococcal booster).
The two vaccines are Bexsero and/or Trumenba. They have a specific schedule with time in between doses so if you have a 2017’er you need to start planning ASAP to get these started. Call ahead to make sure your Dr’s office is stocked.
A LOT of colleges are requiring these for enrollment for Fall 2017 so you need to check with your specific college.
Previous discussions on this within our group show some Dr’s offices aren’t keeping up with the guidelines (i.e. office staff telling parents their kids are up to date on all their meningitis vaccines when they have not even started the Meningitis B series)…Inform yourself, read about them and start planning.
Yes to all. Tetanus booster is every 10 years, see if they are due before college.
Yes to all.
Yes to all.
Mine got whatever they needed. The each got a bunch at around age 16 and I don’t recall them needing anything just before college.
HPV early in high school. Gardasil began to be sold when I was 15 and I got the shots pretty quickly after they hit market.
Yes to the others.
Re: #4
Regarding the Td booster, substitution with Tdap one time is recommended if not previously gotten. Tdap adds acellular pertussis vaccine to the Td (tetanus and diptheria) vaccine.
And if you do get boosters or new vaccines, make sure you keep an updated copy of your records. We moved a few times when the kids were in high school, and Florida requires a record on its super special form, so we had to go to the health department and get all their old records transferred to the super special form. I then learned all vaccinations were free if we got them at the health department, so we did and then they were added to the form. I had the super special form to hand to both colleges. Each college had different requirements for vaccines to move into the dorm, but my kids had had them all. Documented on the form.
My high school senior’s swim team practices at a local college so she started getting those shots when she was about 15. Her brother was starting college that fall, so he got them too. There was a mumps outbreak recently, so both my children got boosters.
Young people aren’t the only ones who need them. I just had to get a titer done to test my immunity after signing up for classes to start my master’s, and I ended up needing boosters too.
Of course. Started HPV series at age 11, as per CDC schedule.
Meningococcal B vaccine (brand names Bexsero or Trumenba) is extremely important, as noted above. It protects against the B strain of the disease. This is a different vaccine from the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (brand names Menactra or Menveo), which protects agains strains A, C, W, and Y.
The meningococcal B vaccine is NOT on the regular vaccine schedule. If your doctor doesn’t mention it—horrifically, many don’t know about its existence—you have to ask for it. Insist. If he/she says he can’t order it, get a written prescription and bring it to a pharmacy. The pharmacy will order it, you can pick it up, and bring it to the doctor to administer.
D started with HPV at 16, a year after it came out, because our doctor wanted to wait for reports of problems, When there were none, she got the series. All 4 boys have had them as well. Oldest boy was about 20 when he finished the set but S17 was done before age 14.
NYS just began requiring meningitis vaccines for HS seniors. It took me 3 months to find a place to get it for S17. If I could have waited till he turned 18, I could have taken him anywhere but the school said he’d be excluded if he didn’t have it by a certain date.
D is now applying for SEIT positions and has to have a TDap, which she never had as she had the older DPT shots. She also needs a TB test. She might also need a meningitis but when they read her immunization records, they should be able to tell.
Looking at her records reminded me that I had had to fill out a special form to explain why she never got the varicella shot - she had chicken pox at age 1 1/2. Oldest son was not quite 3 and his case was SO awful that the middle boys got the shot. I am still angry at the person who brought an infected child to D’s 8th birthday party and infected S17 with chicken pox. He was under 1 and too young for the shot. His case was so bad that I had to stop nursing him because he had blisters in and outside of his mouth and nursing was too painful. I had to submit an affidavit as to why he didn’t have the shot when he entered school.
Definitely ask for the Meningitis B vaccine and leave enough time for the 2 shots one month apart. There have been deaths from this in recent years and should not be ignored. I swear the dorms are like giant Petri dishes.
When my son went to college last year the doctor did not suggest this. I found out about it in August and scrambled for the first shot. We are still waiting for the second shot since the manufacturer does not have the supply now. I hope to finish his shots soon.
The meningitis B vaccine is required now for a lot of schools. There are two vaccines now. Trumenba is now on a 2 dose regimen but they are SIX months apart and not one. I believe Bexsero is the one that is one month between doses.
You need to call your kids Dr.'s office to find out which one they keep in stock so you can plan the dosing schedule.