Friday, April 10, 2009

Delayed vaccine schedule

Because a few people have asked, here is the delayed vaccine schedule we developed. We tried to minimize the mercury Sadie gets, eliminate ones that we felt were too new, too risky, or unnecessary, and still meet all of her kindergarten entry requirements. Obviously, this is somewhat contentious and not everyone will agree with us. But for what it's worth, here's our schedule in all its glory.

Here's my schedule:

2 months – DtaP
4 months – DtaP
5 months – HIB/Pc
6 months – DtaP
7 months – HIB/Pc
9 months – HIB/Pc
12 months – DtaP
15 months – Polio
18 months – HIB/Pc
24 months – Polio
36 months – Hep B, Polio (Can be done at the same visit, or Hep B can be given earlier to avoid two-at-a-time)
39 months – Hep B
48 months – Varicella AND Hep B, Polio, DTaP (These three are all boosters – do them one-at-a-time over the course of the year so they’re all complete before kindergarten entry.)

What’s not listed here is MMR. Currently, Merck is not producing them separately. IF they do not resume production, I will do MMR at 42 months and a booster at 5 years old. My reasoning is that autism is always diagnosed by age 3, so if I wait until my child is 3-1/2, I’ll be less concerned about that. IF Merck does go back to producing them separately, I will do the following:
Mumps – 12 months (separate visit from the DTaP)
Measles – 27 months
Rubella – 42 months

I used a few things as references - Dr. Sears' Vaccine Book, the AAP's delayed vaccine schedule, and a great blog I found. If you have questions about how or why we did what we did, please email me or leave a comment and I will answer as best I can.

If you use a delayed schedule, you have to be completely responsible for staying on top of it! My doctor's office didn't double check one of my appointment dates and we got a Hep B shot two weeks too early - now Josh has to repeat that one :(

I learned my lesson, and now I keep my printed schedule in my diaper bag and set up reminders on my Google Calendar w/ each vax date and what we need.

Good luck!

6 comments:

Kendra Lynn said...

We decided early on not to vaccinate our girls...however, we are re-thinking some of them, and may start re-evaluating in the near future. Time to break out our books and do some more studying!

Hope you have a happy Easter!

Kendra

k@lakly said...

They do make a MMR that is seperate. You should check with your docs office, it is manufactured by another company, if not Mer.ck. Also, babies do not need the Hep B. vaccine. It is primarily an STD or blood transmitted disease. There is tallk of eliminating it altogether from the vaccine schedule as ther reports of advers events from vaccines far exceeds the incidence of transmission.

Also, I see you left out Rota and Prevnar, I also opted out of Rota, too new but did go with Prevnar as it has been on the market for over 7 years now without 'incident'.(which I am now an incident, unfortunately).
I wholeheaartedly agree with breaking up the vaccines as we now have to figure out the reaction not to one but to 4 vaccines eventhough the DTAP is the likely culprit as it is the only vaccine that lists anaphylaxis as a possible side effect, in one in one million cases.
Also FWIW the specialist we saw said that the egg allergy/MMR reaction has been widely rejected by the med community as they believe the allergen/compnent that is most guilty for adverse events is gelatin, surprise surprise.
And yes, be your own advocate when it comes to shots. I think opting out completely is the wrong way to go. MAny of these diseases have HORRIBLE outcomes and have been mostly eliminated because of vaccines. I am actually upset that we have to face an entirely vaccine free future for now until we are confident that Cason can tolerate the shots. I hate the idea of him contracting a disease because of this. It's another worry I don't need.
When he can tolerate them, he will get them likely in an ER and be monitored for two days inpatient to be sure he doesn't react the way he did again.
I encourage everyone to wait at the doctors for at least 30 minutes after shots to watch for an immedaite adverse reaction and then to monitor closely at home for two days afterwards. In our case it is unlikely seperating the shots would have made a difference, he was reacting to something he was sensitized to in the first round of shots and that would have happened no matter how we split them up.
You can also ask to have your childs titers checked for immunity(blood test) because many children are actually several thousand times over where they need to be to be 'immune' becasue the dosages of the vaccines are so strong. IF the titers are high, skip the vaccine.
Stepping down off the box now:)
xxoo

k@lakly said...

Sorry for all the typos!!! Egads I write as if I am drunk....but I'm not. Sadly.

Sarah said...

I read that in December 2008 they stopped making the separate one? I'll have to do some more research - that was just the last I heard. In any case, my doc also refuses to administer it separately (WTF?!) so I need to find it AND find a doc who will do it for us.

I agree w/ you about Hep B. It's required for public school entry but I think fairly ridiculous. We did it to start preschool, not as an infant. I was conflicted about it and ultimately did it. I did chicken pox after Josh was exposed in his preschool class. I don't know that I would have chosen that route, except that Sadie was a newborn and I freaked.

And yes, I am planning to check titers before all the boosters.

No soapbox - I like the input here. I was really unsure - started out heartily pro-vax, my husband was anti-vax, and we've come to an agreement we both feel fairly good about. But more input is always good.

Meagan Vanover, CWP said...

Working in a school left me fairly certain that Hep B was a necessity. Here's some info-

The likelihood depends upon the age at which someone becomes infected. The younger a person is when infected with hepatitis B virus, the greater his or her chance of developing chronic hepatitis B. Approximately 90% of infected infants will develop chronic infection. The risk goes down as a child gets older. Approximately 25%–50% of children infected between the ages of 1 and 5 years will develop chronic hepatitis. The risk drops to 6%–10% when a person is infected over 5 years of age. Worldwide, most people with chronic hepatitis B were infected at birth or during early childhood.

Real life scenarios- nose bleeds, touching each-others booboo's, toilet seats, sharing straws, spoons, sippy cups...

If your baby is home and can wait, sure, but if they're heading off to the germy world of daycare and school, I'd re-think it.

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

Thanks for the info, we have been delaying but with no real schedule in mind. I just was fearful this time, had a really bad feeling. I have immunized all the rest with no issues...