Question:

Can babies take the ImuPro test?

Answer:

Our recommendation in the past was that children more than twelve months old can take the ImuPro test. In most cases this worked fine. But in the last two years we could see more and more high readings with babies doing the ImuPro test shortly after being vaccinated. Some babies overreact to these multiple vaccinations, either due to their genetic setup or due to the vaccines used. I would estimate that about 15% of the children experience these difficulties.

That is why we now recommend waiting at least nine months after the last vaccination before performing an ImuPro test. If you were to follow rigid guidelines, you can apply the recommendation to only test babies at the age of three. If you want a more individual approach – and sometimes this is necessary – you can perform the test by the age of twelve months. In this case I would question the parents whether the baby has experienced problems after vaccinations. If the reply were to be yes, I would not recommend the ImuPro test. If the reply were to be no, I would proceed with the test.

If the child is under twelve months old, we would recommend the mother to be tested as she can inadvertently pass her antibodies on to the child by breast feeding and through the placenta. A baby’s immune system is not developed fully and doesn’t have the same buffering capacity as the mother’s does.
The minimum amount of serum needed per plate is 50 μl (microliter). This means 150 μl in the case of ImuPro Complete. If just the minimum amount of serum were to be sent to the lab, there would be no possibility to repeat the test in case this would be needed.

(Answer is by Dr. Camille Lieners, Scientific Advisor ImuPro)