Delayed Vaccination Schedule

[Pollyanna]

Just to note Dr. Sears is not for delayed vax. His book actually is a calming presentation of each vax and why it is important to your baby's health. He provides delayed schedules as a way to get parents to vaccinate their children instead of opt out all together. Understanding and calming fears, even irrational ones, is the best way to get parents to move forward with vaccinations.

[Michele]

Yeah, his vax book (it's his sons book right?) isn't anti vax at all. It offers two alternative schedules in the back, but both schedules still have a lot of vaccines in them. He just spreads them out over the first several years instead of cramming them into the well visits. So you end up at the peds office paying your copay every month.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Just to note Dr. Sears is not for delayed vax. His book actually is a calming presentation of each vax and why it is important to your baby's health. He provides delayed schedules as a way to get parents to vaccinate their children instead of opt out all together. Understanding and calming fears, even irrational ones, is the best way to get parents to move forward with vaccinations.

While this might be the intent, I have met several people (including my SIL) who take this schedule as justification to delay vaccines. Totally agree that it's better than not vaccinating at all but the delayed vax schedule he suggests has no scientific proof that it's any better than vaccinating on time. People take it as gospel that it's better to delay them because a doctor who is well respected in parenting circles suggests it.

Really, they should just do some damn research about what the safest vax schedule is and then parents would know what to do.

[ladymoreta]

I thought the same thing about Dr. Sears and vaccinations. My mom saw him on a talk show and tried to convince me to delay vaccinations based on what he was saying, so it sounds like he comes across as recommending the alternative schedule.


Laurie

[ladymoreta]

Really, they should just do some damn research about what the safest vax schedule is and then parents would know what to do.

I think all the research shows that the current vaccination schedule is the safest, right? I haven't heard of any research showing any risks associated with it.


Laurie

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I think all the research shows that the current vaccination schedule is the safest, right? I haven't heard of any research showing any risks associated with it.


Laurie

There hasn't been an research showing that there's risks but because of people supporting/suggesting "alternate schedules" now people think it might be best to do one of those. Really very few people questioned vaccines until the stupid autism guy but now everyone wonders if it's safe to give so many at once on the recommended schedule vs. on the delayed schedule. If they did conclusive research showing that it's not possible to "overwhelm" a baby's immune system with on-schedule vaccines, people would do the recommended schedule but because it's logical to think giving so many shots at once would, theoretically, overwhelm a baby, people delay and then as Michele said, have to take their child to the doctor a million times for spread out vaccines.

Sorry, not meant to be a hijack on vaccines...my only point was that Dr. Sears matches my attitudes on some things but I do not agree with his support of delayed vaccination. In my opinion, it would be more responsible as a respected child-rearing expert to put his weight behind on-schedule vaccination. Nonetheless, I love many of his opinions and will be using a lot of his advice and will use other approaches for the stuff that I don't agree with. The cafeteria method it is!!!

[Michele]

The reasons he proposes for the delayed schedule are because of the additives in the vaccines. Some vaccines need the additives in order to mount an appropriate immune response, some are added as preservatives. So his alternative schedule aims to reduce the one-time exposure to heavy metals, preservatives and other additives. He also describes the various brands. The problem for me was that most peds don't carry more than one brand of a vaccine...and as a veterinarian, we didn't carry more than one brand. You would think that the office or clinic would choose the one with the least potentially harmful additives, but more often than not, the cheapest one is chosen. It used to frustrate me that the clinic I worked at would change brands based on what was on sale at ordering time. I couldn't predict response or reactions. It was very frustrating. Often too we would vaccinate for something that isn't a problem anymore and no longer recommended....but the vaccine company included it and the clinic could brag that we covered your pet for it. It'd be like vaccinating for small pox now and bragging that your ped is better protecting your child.

[poky]

There hasn't been an research showing that there's risks but because of people supporting/suggesting "alternate schedules" now people think it might be best to do one of those. Really very few people questioned vaccines until the stupid autism guy but now everyone wonders if it's safe to give so many at once on the recommended schedule vs. on the delayed schedule. If they did conclusive research showing that it's not possible to "overwhelm" a baby's immune system with on-schedule vaccines, people would do the recommended schedule but because it's logical to think giving so many shots at once would, theoretically, overwhelm a baby, people delay and then as Michele said, have to take their child to the doctor a million times for spread out vaccines.

Sorry, not meant to be a hijack on vaccines...my only point was that Dr. Sears matches my attitudes on some things but I do not agree with his support of delayed vaccination. In my opinion, it would be more responsible as a respected child-rearing expert to put his weight behind on-schedule vaccination. Nonetheless, I love many of his opinions and will be using a lot of his advice and will use other approaches for the stuff that I don't agree with. The cafeteria method it is!!!

I'm a little confused. The only *downside* to delayed vaccination that you've pointed out is having to go to the doctor "a million times for spread-out vaccines". Are there others you're not mentioning? Is your problem mostly that if most people adopt a delayed schedule, and you don't, you might get looked down on for it? Or is it something else? I'm a complete outsider here with ZERO horses in the race, I just don't understand why if some people choose to make more visits to the doctor to spread out their vaccinations, that's a problem.

I completely agree that not vaccinating at all IS a problem, btw, and I'm all about fighting THAT battle. I just don't understand the worry about "regular" vs "delayed" schedules. Just don't seem like a big enough deal to worry about, as long as all of them get done within a reasonable time, right? Or is there something I'm missing?

[Michele]

Some parents, like me, can forget to bring them back and P is way behind. Part of it was when I brought her to FL earlier and our insurance wouldn't cover her here for routine stuff. (another reason I think health insurance should offer national plans not just state plans)

So the kid ends up unvaccinated.

Some of the delayed schedules delay the kid past a risky time. Sears alternative schedule tries to address that concern.

The biggest problem though is compliance.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

What Michele said. My concern is that delayed vax schedules are hard to keep track of and kids end up missing vaccines, etc. The compliance is a factor plus some insurance companies balk at paying for extra visits, plus some parents don't want to pay a million copays, plus some pediatricians have pretty tight schedules so it's hard to get appointments, plus medical records aren't all that great so kids could end up getting fewer/more doses than they're supposed to, etc. It can totally be done but it just seems easier and safer to me to get them all done at well baby visits on the regular schedule.

Also, there's a lot of peds who won't support delayed/non-vax so it can be hard to find a doctor which of course leads to even less compliance with a schedule.

Not to mention that vaccines were designed to be administered on a specific schedule with defined intervals and we don't know the consequences of spreading them out on immunity. Plus there's diminished herd immunity for newborns who are too young to receive vaccines and then may sit in the same waiting room as a child who's only had some of their recommended vaccines, etc.

Anyway, sorry again for the hijack.

[spotty_dog]

Sorry, to clear up confusion, did you read the Vaccine Book? Or is your opinion formed just on disapproving of your sister's vaccination choices?

Oh, darn. I had a really really long post written out, but it's a bit more than I'm comfortable posting in public. Sorry. I'll just say...I haven't read the book, and I'm no immunology expert (and that's one reason I follow the CDC schedule). But I did look into veterinary immunology a bit on a whim back some ten years ago. I seem to recall that vaccine schedules are based on maternal antibody nomographs. It's very interesting stuff. When googling the word "nomograph" to make sure I had it right, I found this 2010 virology text on Google Books (the stuff on page 96 about the optimal age for vaccination sums up what I'd learned away back in the day). http://tinyurl.com/bmkjts7

[SoonerTexan]

I don't know...it wasn't that hard to find a ped that was okay with an alternate vaccination schedule. I came across several in the DFW area with just a little research. There are a couple that support non-vax too, but I didn't go with any of them. One was admittedly a little "out there" but very popular. But hey...they are pediatricians too. They went through the same training. Shouldn't their opinions be valid, too? Most would argue you are making an uneducated decision if you choose to delay, but these ARE the educated experts in the area.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Dr. Sears has multiple books so I'm not sure which one everyone is referring to when they say "the vaccine book", "The Baby Book" is his classic book. He also has a website and I have read about the delayed vax schedule on there as well as in one of his books (I have flipped through several at the library).

Your point is interesting ST. I wonder if the peds are actually supporting the position of delayed vax vs. letting the parents choose vs. serving a niche that they feel still needs care? I would be very interested in speaking with a pediatrician who feels this way since I believe (though I'm not 100% certain) that the American Academy of Pediatrics still supports the CDC-recommended schedule. FWIW, I researched 3 peds in Cleveland and none of them allow non/delayed vax. Maybe it's a regional thing but they were all adamantly against it.

[corn poffi]

My bf's sister is a pediatrician. In residency, she was told by an attending that although he doesn't believe in delayed vax, sometime he'd do them just to get the parents to shut up.

[SoonerTexan]

It's actually called The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert Sears...Dr. Sear's son. They all practice together.

Our ped actually told me not to do the Hep B shot at the hospital before I said anything at our original interview and she is one of the "house peds" for the hospital I delivered at. She was actually the one on when N had her hospital checkups...really convenient. So I do believe she really supports it.