Shoot ‘Em Up – Our Vaccine Dilemma

When I was pregnant with Vincente, I did a lot of research on vaccines, deciding whether or not to vaccinate. I grew up in a family of non-vaccinators, and I believe that my parents had good reasons for not vaccinating. So I decided to learn what I could about all this vaccination nonsense. After a while I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really want to vaccinate Vince for a while. I just wanted to hold off. I talked to some other friends about this and read a few books, and decided that was really the best plan for our family.

Well, now he’s 2, and we’ve got another needs-to-be-vaccinated child, and some of our life plans have changed (i.e. when Vince will start school – we previously wanted to homeschool, but our situation has changed a little, and we think I may be teaching full time, so Vince will probably go to pre-school and kindergarten). So now we want him to have many of the necessary vaccinations before school starts.

But then that raised the question of Joseline being vaccinated. With big brother bringing home all sorts of germs and nastiness from school, we feel like she should have some protection, as well.

But she’s SO little!

Back to the drawing board I went. I have spent several hours in the past week pouring over both sides of the vaccination argument, and reading a LOT from many different doctors – many of whom are middle-of-the-road as far as vaccines are concerned.

I came away from my vaccine-information-hunt with three conclusions:

1.) Vaccines are MUCH safer now than they were when I was vaccine-able age

2.) My children need to be vaccinated – for their own safety, and for the safety of those they interact with

3.) There has got to be a better fit of vaccination schedule for my family than the CDC’s one-size-fits-all schedule.

I found three very good “schedules” for vaccinations (not counting the CDC’s one-size-fits-all schedule), and merged the three along with some other advice into the

Rowley Family Immunization Schedule:

General Info

- only mercury-free vaccines, and aluminum free (where possible)

- check titers for antibodies before administering 2nd + doses

- our children are exclusively breastfed for 6 months, and breastfeed for at least 12 months

- preferred brand for Hib vaccine: HibTITER

-Vaccines-

Hib at 4, 8, 12 mos (check titers at 7 and 11 mos)

DTaP at 6, 10, 15 mos (check titers at 7 and 11 mos)

Rubella at 17 mos, 4 yrs (check titers previous to 4 yr booster)

Polio 2 years

Varicella at 5yrs (check titers)

MMR starting at 12 yrs (check titers)

This is only what works best for our family, based on our family’s lifestyle and personal beliefs about our health and the way our bodies work. I don’t want to convince anyone that our vaccination schedule is the best, just that it is the best for our family – and that you DO have options with how to vaccinate your children.

Basically I would stress two things:

1.) If you don’t want to put in a lot of research to come up with your OWN PERSONALIZED vaccination schedule, then use the CDC’s schedule, or Dr Sears’ schedule

2.) If you are at all uncomfortable with the CDC’s schedule, MAKE YOUR OWN (but PLEASE do the research!)

References:

Dr Robert Sears’ Alternative Immunization Schedule

Dr Stephanie Cave’s Alternative Immunization Schedule

Dr Donald Miller, Jr.’s Alternative Immunization Schedule