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Parents and nannies fall into rift over flu shots Los Angeles Times (MCT)
But nanny "For three weeks I could not work," Duarte said. "After that, I said no more." She also worried about side effects. She said her teenage daughter had heard rumors at For many parents and caregivers, reaching agreement about flu vaccines has proved impossible, even amid initial fears that the H1N1 pandemic could prove more dangerous than seasonal flu. New parents are particularly concerned, because babies younger than 6 months — too young for vaccination — are considered among those most at risk for serious complications. This month is a peak hiring season for nannies nationwide as families return from holiday vacations and new mothers go back to work, according to officials from major nanny placement agencies. Some nannies are trying to get an edge in the tough economy by advertising themselves as having received the H1N1 vaccine. But many others refuse vaccinations, parents and doctors say, because they are concerned about rumored side effects or unable to get access to the vaccine because of shortages. In recent weeks, online message boards have filled as parents struggle to persuade nannies to be vaccinated, fire nannies who refuse and screen new applicants. "Ugh! I am so frustrated right now that I could explode," the mother of a premature baby girl wrote on Babycentercommunity.com. "I have been interviewing potential nannies for the past several weeks. I finally found one that I was feeling confident that I would like to hire, I called to get more info for reference check and also I had forgot to ask if they were OK with getting both flu and swine vaccine this year. The response was no." "I can't make her do it," another parent wrote on Urbanbaby.com. "I offered to pay. If she doesn't want to, she doesn't want to." Mothers are calling agencies to ask how to broach the subject of vaccination with their nannies, said "It's a very touchy discussion, to ask people to get vaccinated," Kahn said. "There's a fine line about medical things, and people are questioning whether they're allowed to ask, if it's prying into their health background." Slattery, a music event coordinator, had heard about other families requiring nannies to get vaccinated and show proof. Instead, Slattery was vaccinated, as were her son and her husband, a visual effects supervisor for movies that have included " "I didn't want to force my nanny," Slattery said. "It's a personal choice. I wasn't going to get heavy-handed about it." Relationships between mothers and nannies can be fraught with unspoken tension about terms of employment and parenting, said The H1N1 flu scare exposed rifts in some families, she said, if the "power of privilege" initially allowed parents to get the vaccine through their doctors while many nannies had a harder time finding it for their families. In other cases, Heller said, she heard from nannies who said they worried vaccines could make them sick or lead to autism in their children. At Diaz said that about half of his Latino patients have refused the vaccine but that the other half "are proponents." "I don't think it's a matter of culture so much as whether they are believing the rumors and bad reports," Diaz said. "Nannies have networks and speak among them, so if one nanny says no and it spreads, then it's all over." Some legal experts say they have been fielding calls from anxious parents and agencies dealing with reluctant nannies. "What I'm hearing from families is there does seem to be some push back from nannies about getting the shot," said Although it is a violation of federal antidiscrimination law for agencies to screen nannies based on their medical histories, including vaccinations, it is not illegal for parents to screen or fire nannies for refusing to get vaccinated, King said.
Kahn, who has been in the nanny business for 28 years, said she assures mothers that they can ask nannies to get vaccinated, and she said most mothers succeed. "Most of them have a pretty close relationship with their nanny," she said. Some parents have paid for nannies' shots, driven them to their own doctor's offices or given them paid time of to get vaccinated, Kahn said. "It's all about respect," Kahn said. "You want to keep your employees happy."
"She was fine with it," said Morales, a marketing director, as the nanny nodded. "Just to keep everybody healthy in the house." When people in the household do fall ill, new concerns arise. "The kids are getting sick, so it's like what do you do with your nanny, do you expose her? That's the dilemma," Kahn said. Kahn has witnessed a range of behavior from parents. She said one family did not get vaccinated or ask their nanny to do so, only to have their baby get the flu during a vacation. Kahn said the nanny, who eventually caught the flu too, had to stay with the ill child while the parents continued their activities. But another client, whom Kahn described as a high-ranking television executive, gave her nanny time off when her 5-year old daughter got seriously will with the flu rather than expose the nanny to the virus. Instead the mother stayed home to care for her daughter who ended up needing to be hospitalized before recovering. In some cases, parents and nannies end up in agreement. Before this fall, "I realized I'm putting my kids and my work kids at risk," said Avalos, 33, who later got herself and her two young daughters vaccinated for seasonal flu and accompanied her employer's children to a county-sponsored H1N1 flu clinic. "For my boss, it's real important. She educated me." ——— (c) 2010, Los Angeles Times. Visit the Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. ————— |
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