Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

Anyone do this? Curious to hear reasons why.

Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

We did it for both...debated on the second, but then i thought....how could i ever explain that we did it for one and not the other if it meant only one could be saved etc. we did it for both.

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

I did a ton a research on it before our first was born and in the end decided against banking all together. At the time we only planned on one kid, now we have 2, so maybe I would have changed my mind if I had known we were having more than one kid.

I can understand if you already banked your 1st child's cord blood, you probably would want to make it fair and bank the second child's. Lol it sounds silly, but as 1 of 5 kids, being fair is important to me lol. I mean it could potentially benefit either one of them too. It's just a lot of money and chances are super high that you would never even need it. I don't know if being "fair" is worth the thousands it costs.

If it helps, here are the reasons we decided against it. I'm pasting this from one of my previous posts but just elaborating a little more to make it more relevant to a sibling.

1st - Chances are a transplant will never be needed. I think the chances right now of a child needing their stem cells are .06% So not even near a 1 percent chance.

2nd - In the off chance someone does need a transplant, their own cord blood is very rarely used for transplant because the stem cells can carry the same genes.

So, if you banked your first child's blood, it's more likely that it would be used if a sibling gets sick (if they are a match). If they share the same father, they still only have about a 30% chance at being a match. Also, it's pretty likely that even with siblings, you'd never need the cord blood because if they are a match, direct donation is a more preferred method.

3rd reason we decided against it: according to Be the Match registry (since our children are white) there is a 97% chance of finding a donor match if a transplant was ever needed. Look up what the chances of finding a donor are (depending on your child's ethnicity) and take that into consideration as well.

If public banking is an option, I would 100% donate it to the public bank. Chances are if it was ever needed, there is a very high chance (I don't have the exact % in front of me) that it would still be in the public bank waiting for you, even years later. Unfortunately, the hospital I delivered at doesn't participate in that, but you can go to the Be the Match website to see which ones do.

This link has a lot of information that explains why private banking isn't recommended:
http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org/donation/public_vs_private_donation.html

Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

I have twins and decided at the last minute to do it. Like I’m talking my kit from viacord arrived in a snow storm the morning before I had my twins last minute. It was an expense but they gave me 1k off the total cost of both kids and I did a 12 month payment plan and now it’s the yearly storage. I did it knowing yes it’s a very small chance they will need it, but in the grand scheme of things $2500 wasn’t much money for both kids. I would absolutely do it for a 3rd if we have one. I think the price to pay is small if god forbid you ever need it and I wouldn’t want to have to look my 3rd child in the eye and try and find an explanation why their brothers have it but that 3rd child doesn’t. See if you can get a second time discount, most places do offer one

Message edited 9/28/2018 4:06:30 PM.

Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

I have done extensive research on hematologic cancers and disorders. I did not bank DD’s cord blood, nor do any of my colleagues for their own children. The chances of needing it are almost nonexistent.

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

I'm banking for every kid. Lifetime storage. I like knowing it's available if they ever need it. Who knows what the medical advances will be over the next 50+ years and beyond.. it could be used for themselves, their children, etc. It's something I hope they'll never need but since we can afford it I'm doing it.

Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

I did public cord blood banking. The chances of my daughter needing it are very small. There is a possibility that someone else could benefit from it. I did a ton of research and decided public banking was the best route for me. Some of the information the private cordblood banks provide try to capitalize on fear.
This said I feel like if you banked the cordblood from one you may as well bank the cordblood from your second child.

Re: Cord blood banking for 1st kid and not 2nd?

We banked for our DD (first born) and not for our son. From our understanding, they'd be a pretty close match if they ever needed the cord blood so we didn't bother banking them both.