Natasha has been sick at home for the past 3 days. And since I generally follow the medical advise on the Children’s Tylenol bottle we went to the doctor today. When Natasha hears the word doctor she starts on her, "I hate shots" mantra.

If sore throat is severe, persists for more then 2 days, is accompanied or followed by fever, headache, rash, nausea or vomiting, consult a doctor promptly.


from: Children's Tylenol bottle

My poor darling has a strong grudge against shots. When she first came home to me, she was 3.5 years old. She had to have blood drawn several times which can be difficult on a child this small. I remember having her tested for anemia, lead levels, hepatitis, hiv, and tuberculosis.


Because of my darling's attachment issues I decided to revisit her immunizations after she had been home a year. I wanted to build trust with her.


Fortunately this didn't turn into a mistake. There was a measles outbreak in 2001 in the United States that started with one child adopted from China. And another measles outbreak in 2004.


So 1 year passes and my darling is firmly attached. I go back to her doctor and reviewing her medical records. With the doctor's input, I decided to redo all her immunizations. One word on her Ukrainian records greatly helped with my decision.


Her medical records starts with:

According to the life anamnesis: ......

anamnesis is from Greek. Ana means "up" and mimnēskein means "to recall". It is a medical term which means the patient shared his entire medical history from his memory.


Now I doubt my daughter at 3.5 years of age told anyone her complete medical history. My daughter's report is actually a heteroanamnesis which means it is potentially a collection of several people's memories.


I could have done titers to check for antibodies but at the time, there didn't seem to be a clear direction. There didn't seem to be a "best" answer. Do the titers (which involves blood draw) and redo just the immunizations that didn't have antibodies. Or just redo all the immunizations. My doctor suggested just redoing all the immunizations.


So over a period of 1.5 years my daughter traveled to the doctor's office to receive her shots. She was almost 6 years old when we finally finished. She would sometimes get 4 shots at a time. I learned to give her Tylenol 20 minutes before the shot. I would bring an ice cube and rub over her arm/leg. And she always brought a bear to hug. And I taught her how to breathe. If you are exhaling as you get the shot, it hurts less.


But still.... I understand why she hates shots. She is proud of herself for finishing them. And she understood why they were important. And she is keeping close track of her immunizations. She knows that her next one is due at 11 years of age.


In 2004 Dr. Jane Aronson an international adoption medical doctor had this to say on the subject.

As immunization becomes more widespread and systematic in orphanages, and vaccines become more effective, health professionals are faced with a new dilemma regarding the recent arrivals: to immunize from the beginning regardless of records or to use antibody titers and available schedules to create a unique immunization plan. This has been an unfolding issue.


......................


It has been the thinking of adoption medicine specialists that vaccines done in Guatemala, South Korea, India, and Thailand are performed most uniformly in keeping with U.S. guidelines and are likely acceptable for younger children. It is this author's recommendation to consider repeating vaccines for children under one year of age, if they are adopted from Russia and China and to use the schedule along with antibody titers per the Redbook, to create an individualized schedule for children over one year of age from these countries.


from: General Medical Issues :: Health and Developmental Issues of Internationally Adopted Children