Shots! And Momma-fear
It’s a hotly polarizing parental topic: vaccinations. It’s one thing to make the decision against vaccinations while sheltered within the US, or even to forego them for overseas travel as an educated adult. But it’s a weighty responsibility to make those decisions for your innocent kids. Ultimately, my decision to go ahead with the shots was because I would never forgive myself if they got any one of those preventable diseases of the developing world. All travel vaccinations are legally optional these days and the CDC recommendations are extremely conservative so we had to use our best judgment and weigh it with our past travel know-how.
Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize until late June that shots are no joke. We spent $4500 on shots for our family of five and that’s with the intentional foregoing of malaria meds. None of this is covered by insurance because it’s elective travel. Three shots for each of us, but different ones for Will and me. I’m one of the few moms in North Boulder who vaccinated her kids, so the kids only had to add Typhoid, Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis. The rabies vaccine is crazy-expensive but 40% of travel rabies cases are for kids 15 and under. I think Americans smell especially foreign and they go for the littlest legs. (The vaccine is good for life, so thanks to Peace Corps, I’m off the hook.) The process takes three visits for Rabies and two for Japanese Encephalitis. We had sore arms, some headaches and the first of our adventure stories to bond us.
Getting “stuck” in the private travel clinic, the kids were great and our Irish nurse was jolly but the whole experience gave me pause. Deciding to forego malaria means that we need to be vigilant with mosquito protection in Thailand and maybe helps make the decision not to go to southern Nepal. I started to remember all the random fevers and rashes that were just part of living in Asia, but my anxiety started ramping up when I thought about their little bodies. And I started to plan the med kit I will take with me and wondering what Where There Be Dragons puts in their kits these days.
Travel Immunizations
But fear came up. And fear is a big deal as a mom – way bigger than as a single, young traveler. It’s primal and makes you want to put your “tweeners” back in a five-point harness with a helmet. If Momma-fear and I will be traveling together soon, we need to find that healthy balance between “informed-adventure-mom” and “Nervous-Nelly-mom”. I mean really, we’re talking about the threat of a nuclear war with North Korea, a kid from Boulder got a shark bite standing in the water in Florida last spring – what is safety anyway? Fear is not going to drive this bus.
