Does your hospital give Hep B vaccines to newborns?

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Sep 14, 2004

We do at our hospital...we have to have informed consent first. I haven't seen a kid with a reaction yet. We give our Vit K in the L/D and the Hep B before D/C. Many of our kids are at risk because of the population we deal with. If the mom is unknown they get the vaccine and the Hbig.

On a personal note, I didn't have my DD get it as a newborn. My DH and I both have been vaccinated, are negative and she wasn't going to daycare or to a sitters. My peds started hers at her 3 month visit.

CHATSDALE · Sep 14, 2004

too often kids are in an unsafe enviorment but ot be effective hep b must be given in three separate injections...at least i know that is true of adults...now a question for those out there...i received a needle stick and was sent to industrial med for followup

they ran tests and found me to be free of hiv, etc including hep b which i had been vaccinated for several years ago....shouldn't some antibodies have shown up in test..how do i know i am now protected

bam_bam · Sep 14, 2004

too often kids are in an unsafe enviorment but ot be effective hep b must be given in three separate injections...at least i know that is true of adults...now a question for those out there...i received a needle stick and was sent to industrial med for followup
they ran tests and found me to be free of hiv, etc including hep b which i had been vaccinated for several years ago....shouldn't some antibodies have shown up in test..how do i know i am now protected

There are two different blood tests, HepBsAG (Antigen) and HepBsAB (antibody). Antigen tells you if you have hepB and antibody tells you if you have antibodies from a vaccine.

RNRose · Sep 14, 2004

We do at our hospital...we have to have informed consent first. I haven't seen a kid with a reaction yet. We give our Vit K in the L/D and the Hep B before D/C. Many of our kids are at risk because of the population we deal with. If the mom is unknown they get the vaccine and the Hbig.
On a personal note, I didn't have my DD get it as a newborn. My DH and I both have been vaccinated, are negative and she wasn't going to daycare or to a sitters. My peds started hers at her 3 month visit.

Hi,

When I was hired at my current place of work, I had titers drawn by employee health. My HEP B levels came back as being nonimmune even though I had the series in 2000. I am currently receivng the series of three vaccinations again. Here is an interesting site... http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/2109hcw.htm I hope it helps you. :)

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Sep 14, 2004

I'm not aware of any side affects for the Hep B vaccine. or at least I've never seen any.

If the mom was Hep B positive or unknown we give it ASAP. We usually give it the day before d/c otherwise. I think the rationale is the possible exchange of body fluids during the birthing process.

BETSRN · Sep 14, 2004

WE OFFER it as an option to all our new parents but it is their choice as to whether they want the baby started on the series in the hospital or they want to wait until they go to the pedictrician. Babies of Hep B positive moms are given the HBig as ell as the vaccine pretty quickly after birth.

RNmommy · Sep 15, 2004

We only give it to babies with HbsAg positive or unknown mothers. All other babies receive it at their 2 month well baby check up.

CTRN1 · Sep 15, 2004

Hello Everyone,

We offer the Heb B vaccine, and moms have to sign consent for baby to get it. It is given after delivery the same time as the Vit K. The rationale for this (as explained to us) is that if the vaccine is given at birth the timing of the next 2 doses will be due at the same time as other childhood vaccines, thus reducing the chance that mom or dr will forget to vaccinate the child. But, there is now the new combined vaccine, I think its called pediatrix or something similar, anyway, this can be used only if the Hep B is not given after birth as it already contains the dose. Thus, several of our Dr's are requesting that their babys not get the Heb B in the hospital.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Sep 15, 2004

We give it often in our NICU. Upon admission, parents sign a consent form that includes a section for vaccination. Recently we have also given them a separate form describing the hep B vax, and they must also initial that they have been given this information.

We give it to babies >2kg as soon as we get consents. For smaller babies, we give it once they hit 2kg or 2 months of age, whichever comes first. We only give the vax to babies

imenid37 · Sep 15, 2004

We offer it to the patients whose doctors order it, the pediatric group and some of the fp's. We have a consent so it is the parents' choice. I haven't really seen a reaction since I first started giving it about 12 years ago in a different hospital. I have given both Engerix and Recombivax w/ pretty much the same frequency over the years and have never seen an adverse reaction. We also give HBIG to high risk babies or whose moms have unk. hep B titre (unless they are born during office hours or we can get their prenatals in a short-time). Some people are immune after one dose, more after two, most are immune after 3 doses. There are people who have all 3 doses and do not have titres in the range considered immune. I think they will sometimes switch brands of vaccine for them to try to produce immunity. This has happened to several other nurses I've known over the years. I had

Heptavax B in 1986 (made from the blood plasma of chronically infected HBV pt's.) and was HepB immune as of 6 months ago.

AlaskaKat · Sep 15, 2004

We give it to most babies along with the vitamin K shot after delivery. Mom has to consent to it, but most of them do. I was told the rationale is because that's what the CDC recommends because some kids may not come back for their immunizations at well child checks.

However lately I've been wondering about the whole pediarix thing. It does contain hep B, and it is a 3 shot series. Therefore the babies that get hep B at birth are actually getting 4 shots of hep B. It's OK, doesn't hurt them and the CDC still recommends the birth dose. (It is not correct that only babies that didn't get the birth dose can receive pediarix, at least not per the manufacturer or the CDC). But it is an extra shot! Now, for a high risk population that is one thing, but to blanket give an extra shot of vaccine to all babies has me wondering a bit.