Wed, 23 Aug 1995 16:15:29 -0700
>From:    Linda Pohl <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Vaccines (Again)
>
>Before everyone gets hot and heavy, I am referring to vaccines given to the
>mother.
>
>Mother of 14 month breastfed girl was given MMR and Tetnus vaccines as
>required to work in son's preschool program.  After getting the vaccines she
>tells the Doctor, "Oh, by the way, I'm breastfeeding.  Is this a problem?"
>The doctor says "Well, just wean."!  When the mom asked why she was told
>because the viruses mutate as your body sheds them and she wouldn't want to
>infect her baby (who, incidentally, just got her shots).
>

Wow, Linda.  This is an interesting question.  I have no advice, only a
story.  When Miranda was 10 months old, we were getting ready to go to
Africa to do research, and we all got lots of vaccinations: smallpox for
Miranda (Miranda was one of the last people in the US to get a smallpox
vaccination, and we had to really jump through hoops to get it for her),
yellow fever for all of us, cholera for all of us, tetanus, and several
others (meningitis?) I can't remember.  No one ever asked if we were
breastfeeding.  I also got vaccinations for German measles on the delivery
table after both Miranda and Peter (apparently the one after Miranda didn't
"take"), and in both cases I was planning to (and did) breastfeed, and the
doctors knew that and never raised it as an issue.  I will be very
interested in seeing the responses from doctors.
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
e-mail to [log in to unmask]