Chicken pox vaccine

[Belinda]

Hi All

I have heaps of questions for you all and continue to read all past posts with so much interest. So forgive me if you have to repeat things...

My worry at the moment is that Angelina (1) is due for her chicken pox vaccine which contains sucrose. My husband and Sebastian (4) had a horrible response to the vaccine and I'm not sure if it was their immune systems battling the live virus or the sucrose causing a problem. Can you let me know what your experiences/decisions were?

[Tammy]

Hi Belinda
We didn't know what Regina's problem was yet when she had her chicken pox vaccine. So of course we didn't even think about it. I do get her a flu shot every year without a problem. Someone once said that it also contains sucrose, but I have never researched it to see it if contains sucrose or not for sure.

I think I would discuss it with your Dr since both your husband and son had problems with it. No matter which reason caused the problem, I would have the Dr help decide which is the lesser of the evils.
Tammy

[yvonne ruggles]

Hi Belinda,
Both my kids who are HFI had the vaccine. One did have a reaction, the other did not. I would totally leave it up to the Dr's.
Because the vaccine doesn't gaurantee an outbreak, if I were you I probably would do without.
Im a bit old fashion though and do things my parents did for me and my siblings. You know, the Vicks on the chest for colds, the humidifier for coughs etc. etc. etc.

[kerrynz]

Greetings to you all, and the newbies.
Sorry I’m late with this post

Hi Belinda
I am I’m only a few hours from you hear in Australia

I am just wondering where the info for the chicken pox vacc was obtained I have been in contact with the Area Immunisation Coordinator and they have sent me a listing of every ingredient for every vaccine available.

And I thought you might find Chicken Pox ingredients of interest. The only query I have with it, is its dated 03 which means I have to check the latest dated ingredients AND polyalchols. But the ing I have are:

Each 0.5ml dose has pfu of the varicella-zoster virus. The vaccine also contains other inactive ing’ amino acids for injection, human albumin, LACTOSE, neomycin sulphate and polyalchols.

Varilix does not contain sucrose, gluten, tartrazine or any azo dyes.

So keep me posted please with any updated info you come across

I felt like I was reading my own life story with your diet of pumpkin ECT and breast feeding it was a funny thing.

I know BF was a major issue with my daughter until I had her on a truly strict HFI diet only then did her feeding pick up. And it was not the milk/fructose in my diet only Breast milk and other milk seemed to not be accepted until I removed all the triggers.
As for why did she accept celery pumpkin avocado and a wide range of dairy? The poor kid was hungry and wanted to eat I was just supplying the wrong thing. When we went onto basic dairy, protein, and pasta as these loving people on the board suggested then we started to take my B milk regardless of what I ate.

And don’t forget to get a bread machine the Fred’s bread recipe is the only one in the world that will help.

For those that don’t know I have another 5 ½ month old and just recently she was started on solids as you do. Every thing was going great First the rice cereal then two weeks later potato, Then another two weeks with a hearty appetite. One small ½ teaspoon of PEAR. Well she didn’t like the taste but ate it and finished her meal, [something my first never did she just stoped eating for 3 days.]

But within two hrs was for the first time NOT sleeping just crying. Would not accept b/milk only water. We started taking bsl’s and watched them slowly over the next few hours drop. It was scary but I knew she had not eaten much and how to fix it.

1 keep water going in to hydrate, the runny nappies started next morning @ knowing where it was leading I happily made! Her eat rice cereal and kept the water up all day. She didn’t want to eat she kept slowly dropping but the rice smoothed thing out. When her bsl started to climb and she felt better then she took a long and happy b/milk feed again.

It will be a while before the next challenge.

Hope you are all well and not to cold over there, we are a bit hot here.

Any comment or suggestions on how/what to feed a 6 month old would be appreciated. She likes 3 full meals a day already.

Regards Kerryn

[Belinda]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. And Kerryn, lovely to hear from someone with similar problems in NSW (including the tricky issue of breastfeeding a little one). Fred mentioned your name to me the other day and kindly provided some info you'd given him from a dietitian based in Australia. I'd love any info you can offer on the dietitian you saw and any local brands if you are willing.

The manufacturer of the current chicken pox vaccine given here is VARIVAX by Merck - their website lists sucrose as an ingredient of the VARIVAX vaccine: www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/v/varivax/varivax_pi.pdf
however, I just read that the level of sucrose is only 18mg. Other websites describing such low levels of sucrose in vaccinations specifically mention there is no threat to people with HFI. So it looks like we can go ahead with the vaccination. Ouch!

[grandma]

Hello everyone, I am a new member and I was so grateful to find your site. My grandson has a "working diagnosis" of HFI. We have been reluctant to have the liver biopsy because he was so sick and weak, and the DNA blood work was negative. The Dr.'s could not get his bleeding under control and his PT/INR levels were high. He was rapidly loosing weight and was not growing. The hospital did nothing that we were not doing so, we took control(his mom & dad) and began to feed him ground steak, formula and plain yogurt as well as breast feeding. Slowly his blood work began to come down to almost normal levels. He was doing great, gaining weight and growing until last week. Suddenly without any change to his diet, he became jaundice. He began scratching his skin and not sleeping well. He does not have a rash but Dr's told us to apply lotions. Later I discovered lotion contains fructose(the good ones I was told). I wonder if the lotion was absorbed into the skin and caused a new attack on his liver causing his jaundice and do any of you suffer from itchy skin? My grandson is now 15 months old, has been in and out of the hospital his short life. He has blood work every 2-3 weeks and becomes anemic from the blood draws. He now eats ground steak, chicken, formula, eggs, yogurt and some cheese. We were hoping to try some HFI bread but now are afraid. Your replies are appreciated Thanks for this site! Grandma

[guest]

has he had a recent illness of vaccination?

this site mostly deals with straight forward hfi, however there are several more complex forms of fi. there is a group that may be able to help you with those: www.mfipb.com/?mforum=fructoseintoler

[sarahk]

I'm not a doctor, but I don't believe the lotion could do it, because with HFI you are missing the enzyme to digest and break down sugar-so I don't know if absorbing it through the skin, and i guess into the blood stream then would have the same metabolic effect--but he is an infant, so it may be different.

I'd keep up the diet you had him on, and would stay away from breads to be safe-unless you buy from a bakery where you can talk to the baker-sourdough is almost always a safe bet.

[Tammy]

I agree with Sarah on this one. We use many kinds of lotions, and we've never had a problem.
As far as the bleeding / clotting issues, there isn't any evidence of it being connected to HFI at this time, but through this site, we're finding out that it does indeed seem to be really co-incidental. My daughter didn't have the problem until she was older, but with all the different strains of HFI, who knows. I sure wouldn't rule it out.

I think I also would stick with the diet that works. At least until he's old enough and strong enough to find out what's really going on in that little body.

Glad you found us here, and always willing to help, just remember we're not drs, and can only really give true advice based on experiences. Lots of good folks here willing to help with that.