I was kinda surprised that we had to ask the doctor. Our son is 11, and looks 13 or 14. It’s always in the back of my head that someone might try to victimize him, because of an incident that happened to me, when I got hit on by an older guy when I was 15 who actually may have had a reasonable belief I was a college freshman. Or he may have been really skeevy, I just don’t know.
Anyway. I don’t know when he’ll have his first serious girlfriend. I don’t think he’s had a wet dream yet, and he still plays with Trackmaster Thomas, and Pokemon cards, but I know puberty can hit like a ton of bricks. Better to be prepared than not.
He also goes to camp, and he will be in intermediate school before his next well-child visit, so I got his meningococcal meningitis vaccine. I had a friend in college die of this before the vaccine was developed.
These are the very last of his childhood vaccines. All he will ever need now are flu shots, and 10-year adult boosters on his DTP (or it may be called DPT for adults). And one day, shingles, because as I understand it, kids who had the chickenpox vaccine still need the shingles shot.
Anyway, I’m curious how many people got HPV for their sons.
One - the vaccine works better when given younger. Doing it at the standard 11 years old and he’ll need just two shots to get adequate protection. Wait until 15 and he’ll need three.
My own experience is that peds are better at promoting and encouraging the teen vaccines than the FPs are so I’d say no. But I am of course biased. Generally we peds do fine until they go off to college.
I don’t yet have a son that old, but our daughters’ high school (which hopefully the Small Boy can go to too) gives it to both boys and girls in Year 7. So that’s sorted.
I’m interested that you can get it younger, but I probably wouldn’t care enough about one year’s difference to explicitly seek it out from a doctor.
I got it for myself at age 23 - the recommendation is for gay men up to age 26 to get it. My doctor didn’t suggest it to me, but when I asked about it she was fully supportive.
We got it for our son. I’m pretty sure the doctors recommended it, but if they hadn’t, we would have asked for it. There’s a definite sexist tinge to they way it’s encouraged for girls but not for boys.
I’ve been curious for a while – why don’t they recommend it for adults? Is it because they assume you already have HPV? Is it not effective? Couldn’t they check for HPV and, if you don’t have it, give you the shot?
My son is 10. When he got whatever childhood vaccines one gets at age 4, his pediatrician said that was the last shot until age 11. I assume that the age 11 shots are for HPV, but I will ask about that.
Hmm. My son didn’t get that. Maybe because there was some confusion when he moved about whether he’d had a booster-- we knew he had, but the school didn’t have the records, so we just got him another, and he ended up with the extra on his record at the doctor’s; the doctor remarked on it. Maybe that bought him a year or two until he needs another.
Both kids (daughter, now 22, and son, now 19) got the HPV sequence when they were early in high school. I seem to recall that it was fairly new when our daughter got it. If your son goes to college, you will not forget the meningitis one–both kids were required to provide vaccination records for that before attending their respective schools.
In recent years, the meningitis vaccine has been recommended for younger kids. My sons had it before they started high school.
Which caused me some surprise when we had to get the older one re-immunized in a hurry before starting college, after I had assumed that the earlier vaccination would count. Turns out it’s good for only three or four years.