mobile: Modified Immunization Schedule?
So I was hanging out with a few girlfriends last night and one of them, whose daughter is 10 months old, mentioned that she had been kicked out of her pediatrician's practise for wanting to follow a modified immunization schedule. I guess there is a certain schedule that infants are supposed to follow in terms of getting all their shots, and my friend (for whatever reason) chose to immunize her daughter later than the norm.
I didn't want to ask her too many questions about it because she's quite opinionated and I just didn't feel like getting into it. But has anyone ever heard of this "modified immunization schedule"? To me it wouldn't make a lot of sense to immunize your child differently than what Public Health and your doctor recommend, but wondering what you all think, especially STM's?
Re: Modified Immunization Schedule?
I have heard of it and if you want your children to be unprotected longer, then go ahead. The studies do not back up the delayed schedule.
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What "personal experiences" could you possibly have for using an outdated vaccine schedule to eliminate roughly half the vaccines your child needs? And your anecdotal evidence of your friends' kids turning out "fine" w/o all their vaccines is ridiculous.
You and your friends are putting your whole community at risk of getting meningitis (that vax wasn't created til the mid-2000's), pneumonia (the Hib vax protects against that and other dangerous diseases), rotavirus, and many others. And these diseases actually kill people, like other kids who can't have them or elderly members of your community whose immune systems are compromised.
OP, the "modified"/Dr Sears schedule is a bunch of bunk. Dr. Sears is not an immunologist or epidemiologist and he created the schedule as a way to make mommies feel better about giving their kids lots of shots. It is not founded in any sort of science and actually has shown to create problems with thousands of kids not receiving full courses of several vaccines (and thereby reducing their immunity and increasing the likelihood that they or a family member or someone in their community will catch something from them).
THIS!!!!
We will be following the current vaccination schedule. We are also requesting our family and any friends who can to get a flu shot and the tDap shot if they want to spend any time with our daughter. Minnesota during flu season is no joke.
I don't owe you any sort of explanation for my choices regarding MY child. Also you jumped to conclusions. I nor my friends are putting my community into danger.. no vaccines are being skipped, simply delayed by a couple months. What I meant by stating that their children are fine IS they have not contracted any disease just because the shot was put off by a couple months. By the 1980s scheldule I meant the time frame. Instead of pumping the vaccines into my baby at once.. Example the ones that are doubled up. they will be spread out. She will not be missing any, including the newer ones, added since 1980. And my personal reasons really isn't any of your business, but it involves my DD who is 4 years old. Are you in the medical field? Because I am. I have studied this.. Not everyone shares the same views that I do, and that's fine. You will always find different opinions within the medical field. You seem very educated on the topic and thats great, If you want to vaccinate your baby on the recommended scheldule, good for you, It's your child and your choice. Please do not criticize my choices because they are not the same as yours. Like I wrote in my pp, I am not getting into the details because it is such a controversial topic. And I am not the debating it via Internet with a stranger. It will just get all sorts of frustrating. Espically on a board where we will have to quote each other to respond turning it into a huge long post. At this point I am just going to agree to disagree and settle with the fact that Your child will be fully vaccinated by a year and a half and mine by 2 and a half.
Edit.. on mobile. Had to fix a couple auto correct errors, because that just annoys the hell out of me when things are misspelled or not used correctly.
This. Is exactly what I agree with. She stated it alot better.. Which I clearly didn't.
I will be vaccinating DS2 like I did with DS1, on schedule and with all the recommended vaccines. I have done my research and taken advice from my family members that are doctors (including a pediatrician who is department chair of general pediatrics at one of the best hospitals in the US) and know that this is the best course of action in protecting not only my child and family, but the community as a whole.
I think that people that do not vaccinate their children are idiots.
For the PP in this thread that are saying they are going to delay vaccinations, what is your reason for doing so? It's funny how no one ever states a valid reason. It's always some BS reason like "for personal reasons that I'm not going to discuss" or "I've done my research". Why not share that research with the rest of us?
Here is a link showing the CDC suggested schedule:
https://www.oprah.com/health/DrSearsAlternativeandCDCsChildhoodVaccineSchedules/4
Here is a link showing a Modified schedule:
https://www.oprah.com/health/DrSearsAlternativeandCDCsChildhoodVaccineSchedules/5
Sorry they aren't clicky, I'm mobile.
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No offense but if you are trying to provide medical evidence for using a delayed vaccination schedule you might not want to link Oprah.com
How about AAP, WHO, etc.
ETA: Also, why are you choosing to not use the recommended schedule? I'm very curious. I too am a SAHM.
I'll admit my bias as a family doc, but I go with the evidence of the general medical community with the standard immunization schedule, the ACIP and CDC are not for profit organizations-- bear in mind I am a military doc so am certainly not getting paid to use a certain company's product. There is no evidence that a delayed schedule is beneficial to anyone. Honestly, we are exposed to so many antigens every day that the few we actually use in immunzations is minimal. Also, I'd rather get shots over with and not have to keep bringing my kids back to get poked- though honestly it's not a big deal for the shot more to bring them into the clinic (during the H flu shortage a few years ago I had to wait for a shipment to arrive and brought it home to give DD1).
"The capacity of the immune system to respond to antigens is vast and far greater than most people realize. Experts estimate that humans can generate about 10 billion different antibodies [3] and that, due to exposures to germs and other foreign material, people make between 1 million and 100 million different antibodies during our lifetime [4]. The vaccine schedule produces a total of about 30 antibodies. It is also estimated that (a) each infant has the theoretical capacity to respond to about 10,000 vaccines at any one time and (b) if the 11 routinely recommended vaccines were administered together, the immune system would need to use only about 0.1% of its capacity to process them [5]."
This. I am just very curious!
I wasn't providing medical evidence, but examples of both schedules. I've chosen to go with a modified schedule because my child will get the same vaccinations in the same time frames as a child on a recommended schedule. By the time she is ready for kindergarten, she will have had all the same vaccinations as your child. I have a history of sensitivity to vaccinations and medications. Rather than getting 4 shots at once, every two months, she will get 2 shots every month. Not only will it be less traumatic for her, but we will be able to better pin point any adverse reactions she may have, given my history of adverse reactions.
ETA: We are only modifying the schedule, not delaying it. At 4, 6, 8 months she will have the same vaccinations as other infants her age. She isn't going to be "unvaccinated". We are just splitting the vaccinations up to be monthly rather than bimonthly. She will have the same level of protection as other infants and will have the same risks of contracting or spreading disease as other infants. I do not agree with not vaccinating a child, or waiting until they are school age.
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Agreed. But anyone who tries to find support of the Sears schedule will be hard-pressed to find anything legitimate. That's because there's no medical basis for the delayed schedule, and pediatricians aren't vaccine or virus specialists.
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/e164.full
Beyond that, SAHMs still travel through parks and airports, grocery stores, and restaurants. Coincidentally, the cases of measles that are in Seattle right now were transmitted in a park and in an airport. In 2008, four kids caught it in their pediatricians office from an unvaccinated child who was contagious.
Also, Dr Sears said HIMSELF that he wrote his schedule so that people who otherwise wouldn't vaccinate their kids would feel more comfortable vaccinating:
?A lot of parents don?t really trust the vaccine system,? Sears says. ?I felt that if I could give parents a better understanding of vaccines -- as well as an alternative way to approach giving vaccines -- then these families who otherwise might not vaccinate could go ahead and feel comfortable with vaccinating.? In regard to MMR, he specifically says that parents who are "uncomfortable" with the regular schedule can feel better about delaying that vaccine til school, since you're "unlikely" to come into contact with anyone who has any of those three illnesses. Two years after he wrote the schedule, the largest outbreak of measles hit the US in decades - and 92% of the people who caught it were unvaccinated young children.
It's all about fuzzy feelings, and it's bunk.
(cut down the quote tree so it doesn't get crazy)
I agree with this 100%.
Alaws88 - If you feel so strongly, and believe the decision is best for you and your family I find it odd that you're not prepared to provide more details about your decision. The only reason I can see for holding back is that you haven't done the necessary research and aren't truly confident about it. Otherwise - I'm a big fan of educating myself when it comes to decisions about my children, so I would really really appreciate to hear other (educated, proven by science) opinions. Please share.
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The bottom line is that anything that pharmaceutical companies haven't funded studies on, is unknown making it dangerous or harmful which is a load of crap. Herbs are dangerous because there aren't any huge studies done on them, etc. Anything unknown is dangerous. I won't buy into what the government tells me is safest, they aren't the most trustworthy source. I trust my mom intuition and the advice of my doctor.
LMFAO. So several hundred years of research (you know, since the first smallpox innoculations mandatory as far back as 1777) and EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD supporting the use of vaccines is totally outweighed by mommy intuition. They're all in cahoots with the WHO to infect your children, even those countries that can't be civil to each other and have nuclear weapons pointed at each other. That's logical.
Your feelings about "too many" vaccines are unfounded, too.
https://www.chop.edu/export/download/pdfs/articles/vaccine-education-center/too-many-vaccines.pdf
Do you realize that the actual dosages of individual vaccines was much higher in the 60's-80's? Thanks to the wonders of RESEARCH (you know, the millions and millions of man hours that have been put into vaccines) even the combined vaccines are much smaller than the individual ones were years ago. And guess what? They're still safe.
Do children encounter more immunological components
Example:
2 months old
Rotavirus and DTaP
3 months old
PCV and Hib
4 months old
Rotavirus and DTaP
5 months old
PCV and Hib
6 months old
Rotavirus and DTaP
7 months old
PCV and Hib
I personally, will elect to have the MMR vaccine done, rather than splitting it up into a vaccine for each individual disease. I will also elect to vaccinate for Polio sooner than 9 months. But as shown above, my baby will have the same vaccinations in the same time frames and doses as infants who are immunized under the standard schedule. My family Dr, pediatrician and Midwife all agree this is the best couse of action for us to take, given my history of sensitivity to vaccinations and medications.
MMC 01/26/12
MC 12/25/12, D&C 01/05/13
BFP 03/05/13, EDD 11/12/13. HB 175 @ 9w2d. Its a Girl!
Madeline Lorraine H. Born 11/12/13 @9:10pm, 7lb6oz
DX with EA/TEF Type C & Tracheomalaysia
MC @ 13wks 01/15/15
Clint Kiszonas H. Born 11/21/16 @10:38pm, 9lb11oz
BFP 1/11/18, EDD 9/21/18
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I know I've said this before but I 100% don't lump you in with the vaccine loonies at all. You have legitimate medical reasons for spacing out vaccines for your LO, and even the CDC says to do a modified schedule if family history shows reactions. That, IMO, is a far different situation than someone making assertions that their gut reactions about kiddo being stuck with too many needles or that you're overwhelming their precious immune systems or that the US government is out to get you.
This. All the way!
We did the modified schedule with DD and will do it again this time.
There's no hard scientific proof it helps, but what could it hurt? They get so many shots in one visit. Fevers and other bad reactions had me concerned, so why not space them out a bit if possible? DH is home during the week for appointments, so it isn't big deal to go in for a few more visits.
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Yes, I do trust my intuition over the WHO. I am an expert on my children. I spend 24 hours, 7 days a week with them. My children are vaccinated and there is no harm in modifying a vaccination schedule, with the help of your children's pediatrician.
Debate- take a look at all the ways our government falls short. It is a group of people, nothing more, nothing less. They do not have some special power or God given right. Many are driven by money, corruption, their own interests, etc. Look at all the food additives that are banned in nearly every other developed country, but not in the US. Because of money. Because people are getting paid to keep this crap in our food supply. No, I don't believe in conspiracy theories. But I also don't feel the need to subscribe to whatever the government/media/society tries to force down my throat. I do my own research, ask questions, and make decisions based on what I feel is best for my family.
Furthermore, the only people that become so vehement over someone else's choices are the ones that are questioning/defending their own stance. With the exception of not vaccinating, at all. I do believe that is dangerous and should be considered neglect because they are putting their children at risk.