Dec 11 2008
Compulsory Vaccinations for Pre-School Children
Today (Thursday, 11 December 2008), I took Helen for her third and final hepatitis B vaccination. Before she starts school in January, she needs to have had all of the vaccinations that are compulsory for pre-school children.
If you move to Australia with a pre-school child who has already had vaccinations in another country or countries, it can be a bit difficult to find out which vaccinations they require in Australia. Also, it’s not that easy and straightforward to update your child’s Australian medical record with vaccinations that they have had abroad, so that these will be recognized in Australia. If you don’t take both of these steps in good time, your child will not be allowed to start school in Australia.
When I took my baby son to the local council’s vaccination clinic for his first vaccinations at two months old, I also took along my daughter’s health record and asked them if she had had all of the required pre-school vaccinations. It turned out that she had had all of them except hepatitis B and chickenpox, both of which are routine here. They said that it was OK for her not to have the chickenpox jab as she had already had the disease but that she needed to have the three hepatitis B vaccinations.
The lady at the vaccination clinic was fantastically helpful with the paperwork. She said that her own children had had some vaccinations overseas so she knew first-hand how complicated it is to get credit for these vaccinations in Australia. You basically have to take your child’s health record to a vaccination clinic or GP and ask them to fill and sign a special form which is then sent to Medicare (the Australian public health service). Your child’s record is then updated and you will then receive written confirmation of this in the post.
Subsequent vaccinations in Australia are automatically included in the Medicare records. As usual, it’s complicated to sort out, but necessary. The school asks for the vaccination record when you enroll your child, so you should do it several months in advance, if possible.
Apparently, you can register yourself as a “conscientious objector” if you object to your child having all of the required vaccinations. I was talking to someone who had done this and she said it was an extremely difficult and complicated process for which you have to have the backing of your GP. I guess they don’t make it easy to circumvent the system!
Unfortunately, Helen has got to the age where she dreads vaccinations as she can remember what the last one felt like. I didn’t tell her about it until this morning, as I didn’t want to her to dread it for longer than necessary. I promised her lunch of her choice and a treat afterwards if she was a brave girl. Two nurses helped me to hold her down while the third nurse stuck the needle in. Helen was screaming, David was screaming in sympathy, and I felt the pain when the needle went in!
Afterwards, Helen chose pizza for lunch and she ate all of it! She then chose an iced bun (or finger bun as they are called here) with pink icing for her treat. Then, she was a lot more cheerful! No more vaccinations until she’s 12 – hurray!!!
Wow, interesting that they are so strict about it there…doesn’t seem like the whole debate about the safety and efficacy of vaccinations is taken into account.
Yes, I wonder if it’s because there are so many immigrants from all over the world, so the potential for epidemics of all kinds of diseases is high, if people are not immunised. Also, they seem to be very thorough, healthwise, here - you wouldn’t believe how many tests I had to have in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and most, if not all, were unnecessary and definitely would not have been performed in the UK or Holland (where I also used to live).