Actually, my pediatrician did just that – upper thigh, I can’t remember if it was on the front or side & the scar is no longer visible. His reasoning was exactly what you are thinking, to keep the scar in a place where it would usually be concealed by clothing.
Most everyone I know over a certain age has a smallpox vaccine scar. They were so common when I was growing up that people hardly ever noticed them. The scar was a pittance to pay for having smallpox immunity.
Back in the 1950s, our family pediatrician gave the smallpox vaccine just above the shoulder blade. He told my mom he placed it there to make it difficult to scratch. (Diabolical.) I remember our entire first grade class going down to the cafeteria to get the oral polio vaccine on sugar cubes in 1961.
I’ve received a TDap booster recently, and am now wondering what other immunizations I should update. I’m 2 months shy of the recommended age for the shingles vaccine, but might not wait that long.
My parents remember the polio, whooping cough, and measles epidemics. They knew children who died from these and children who were crippled by polio. I’m young enough not to have known this so personally. However, I do have a slightly older friend who has been on crutches since childhood because of polio. Years ago, I knew a family with a blind and mentally disabled son – made this way by the measles his mother had while pregnant.
These anti-vaccine people have no clue.
I remember everyone at school lining up and getting the polio vaccine with the sugar cubes in the early 1960s.
My DS and I were talking about the measles outbreak in California… We both ended up having a look at my smallpox vaccine scar (which I hadn’t thought about in years). It is still clearly visible, but I think less so then when I was younger.
I told my DH about this thread and he showed me this Penn & Teller video (has some bad language):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo
Agree. Google smallpox and see photos. Will make you very grateful for that little scar.
The smallpox scar was an important plot device in the book Outlander. Very clever, I thought.
Yes, I remember it being called German measles and only heard the term rubella when I was older. I was much, much sicker with measles than with rubella and remember having to lie in a darkened room for days because the light was painful for my eyes. It was bad.
To volunteer at my kids’ grade school, I had to show a negative TB test, but I didn’t have to show proof of immunity for measles, etc. Maybe they think that showing proof of immunity is too onerous and they wouldn’t have enough volunteers.
I got vaccinated for rubella, but I actually had measles. I remember it so clearly. I got up for school, went into the kitchen for breakfast, feeling fine and my dad said “What is on your FACE!!” I went to a mirror and was surprised to see that I had measles. I didn’t feel sick at all.
This is what I also recall–born in the late '50s. I also remember getting the smallpox vaccination–it was different from other shots, but it wasn’t really that bad. I can’t find my scar any more.
I’m 62 and remember getting the polio vaccine in school (pink stuff on a sugar cube)–this was in the midwest. I also remember getting other vaccines from my pediatrician, especially the small pox vaccination. I remember our pediatrician telling my Mom that she had a technique for administering it so that there wasn’t much of a scar–I didn’t get one. I had measles, mumps, and chicken pox as a kid. I got the shingles vaccine last year–had to pay for it myself because my health insurance didn’t cover it. I’ve known people had shingles and it seems like a miserable experience. It was worth the money.
Oh please don’t misunderstand, I am happy to have my smallpox scar if it means I won’t get smallpox! But when you are a self-conscious kid and your scar is so big and different it always made me wonder why they didn’t give it in the thigh. (Maybe there is a medical reason, who knows)
I traveled to Europe several times between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. I was born in very late 50’s. I do not have a smallpox scar but know I received the vaccine. You couldn’t have traveled without proof.
While returning to the US via Canada in the early in 1960’s my mother was detained by the health authorities. Somehow a certain required health stamp had not been entered on my passport. I assume this was the small pox verification. Mom was under a non-US passport and as such - due to strictly enforced immigration requirements she had been put through, was KNOWN to have had all the needed vaccines. I, on the other hand, was an unknown. So, before they would let her bring me back to the US she needed to authorize an on the spot ‘shot’. At 90 years of age, she doesn’t remember the details, only the fear and anxiety. I’m assuming it was related to small pox.
I remember a sugar cube given at the county health clinic. No memories of immunizations at grammar school. Hey, we didn’t even have a nurse. That’s what parents were for. You got sick or hurt you could get Phisohex and a band aide from the school secretary and a free call to mom for permission to go home. Non of my kids ever had school nurses.
Both H and my parents are of the generation that followed vaccinations schedules for all of their kids. They remembered the diseases. My kids got the standard set but did not chickenpox. The pediatrician recommended the chickenpox vaccine as a convienience - so that no one would have to miss work or school. Since I was a SAHM the time off wasn’t an issue. Both kids had the disease in early or mid childhood. It wasn’t a big deal.
I had heard of adverse reactions to Guardasil (both from friends and from nurse practitioners) and had D wait for a while before deciding. She chose to have the vaccine in her early 20’s.
H is getting the flu shot - he’s 60+. The kids and I don’t. While I think it is irresponsible to not vaccinate against certain diseases, I do thing others are in the optional list.
As far as mandating vaccines or punishing parents due to ‘neglect’. or charging them fees based on the costs other incur…careful what you wish for…arguably having fast food on a regular basis, not using sun screen, feeding your kids pop tarts or sugar pops for meals, not reading to them etc is even more neglectful and abusive than not getting the chickenpox vaccine. And, in the long run, more harmful and costly to society. nDo you really want to support parental punishment for these behaviors?
Actually, not getting vaccinated is more detrimental to society.
You eating a big mac doesn’t put people that can’t eat big macs at risk of having a negative health outcome.
(Not that I’m advocating for feeding our children fast food- quite the opposite, but my point still stands.)
Gardasil is one of the safest vaccines out there. It can make you sore, sure, but other than that it has about the least reported side effects. I didn’t get it until my early 20s because in my teens, our insurance didn’t cover it. I became sexually active before it became widely used, but I wish I would’ve gotten it earlier.
Early measles or mumps vaccine may have been less effective. Consider revaccination if unsure.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr6204a1.htm
Revaccination for polio may also be indicated for higher risk people (e.g. travelers to where polio is endemic).
I contracted rubella as a newborn and was fortunate that I had no serious complications. My grandmother on the other hand was my caregiver and tells the story of how I was sick for a short time but she on the other hand was sick for weeks. I remember being home from school with the measles in first grade - again sick but no other complications. I have a smallpox scar on my arm as well.
Someone up thread mentioned a factor that many of these anti-vaccine parents haven’t considered. What happens when these young girls grow up and potentially contract measles when they are pregnant? I don’t understand their thinking.
That’s a good point. These childhood illnesses can have even more serious complications in adults. I remember suffering through the chicken pox with my BFF, but her mother also caught it from her and it was much worse for her. My H got the varicella vaccine when her realized how vulnerable he was and how many complications there could be if he caught it from our D’s friends when she was small (she was vaccinated, but several friends weren’t).
They can always get caught up when they are older, if they are unsure which vaccines they have had.
Since it is now recommended that adults get booster shots of some vaccines they had as a child, some may want to have titers done first.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/774313
"Demand for measles vaccines has overwhelmed some pediatricians in California — even the doctor best known for treating anti-vaccine activist Jenny McCarthy’s son.
“I’ve given more measles, mumps, rubella vaccines in the past 10 days than I gave in the entire 12 months previously, and I can’t make a strong case against giving it,” says Dr. Jay Gordon of Santa Monica, California. "
Excellent news!