Seeking Vaccinations Answers in Santa Monica, West LA

I think its a very personal decision. My daughter had all of hers - pretty much on time - but after reading more about vaccines and talking with other moms I personally will probably wait until the next one is closer to 2 or 3 and then spread them out - unless he/she goes to daycare. I have one friend that did not give her kids vaccines at all. They are adults now. Finding a doctor who will support you plan is important - good luck!

My kids are 4 and 5 1/2. I have not vaccinated yet. My doctor is Dr. Jay Gordon in Santa Monica. He does not take new patients unless you are pregnant, but you can see his web site at http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/index.asp He believes in starting after a year and giving them slowly. It is a hard decision, but it depends on which your fear. I fear the side effects of the vaccinations (which I believe may is more than the potential autism). Also check http://thinktwice.com/. Also check http://www.drfeder.com/ Dr. Feder is a homeopathic MD who also has not vaccinated and has a lot of information. She you can see more easily. Good luck

hi, i am waiting until my daughter is 3 before i BEGIN any shots. part of the reason is that autism runs on her dads side, but the other is that a child's immune system is still developing until about 3ish, and it is not clear that giving all those shots at once is beneficial. some holistic types are even calling for studies that check to see if the shot schedule has affected the meteoric rise of ADD/ADHD. once she passes 3, then , like you, i will have the shots significantly spaced out.

The three you listed sound like shots to skip until they have a track record. I would even skip the one for chicken pocks as my son had a sudden shift in his learning capabilities after he got that shot with the Hep A--also not necessary unless you live in a crack house...
-A.

Also check out this article
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/pages/the-dang...

It's frightening what we are injecting with routine schedules. The Hep B, for instance is not necessary unless the mother has tested positive... the story behind that one--the vaccine companies could not get the intravenous drug users to consistantly take the vaccine (they are the ones that spread the disease and need it most) so they
decided to recommend it for ALL infants!....what, just in case my infant grow up to be an intravenous drug user???....it also had large amts of mercury(thimerosal) in the beginning.

Another conflict of interest, I believe the guy that invented the Rotavirus vaccine and stands to profit from it, is also on the board that recommends what vaccines should be added to the "schedule". I like www.thinktwice.com and the Mercola website, for some real eye opening information. I hope more mothers will start to question the power of the pharmaceutical companies and how it can negatively affect our babies. I talked to the vaccination expert at Kaiser when I was researching........ and they give 500 vaccines per day at just the West LA facility and she only gets 15 calls per day questioning what is in them and how safe they are! ....not very good odds.

I think feeding breastmilk, building stong immune systems, is way more important than a million vaccines. I've stopped the vaccines at 6 months for my girl...I just began reading "Vaccine Safety Manual" by Neil Miller. It's quiet alarming what we are not told by mainstream media and our typical pediatrician in regards to vaccines. Spread the word.....

Here is a alternative vaccine schedule I found and plan to use. My daughter is already 6 months and so I will start the breaking up process now but better late then never. I completely understand your concerns!
Dr. Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule
2 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
3 months*: Pc, HIB
4 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
5 months*: Pc, HIB
6 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
7 months*: Pc, HIB
9 months: Polio
12 months: Mumps, Polio
15 months: Pc, HIB
18 months: DTaP, Chickenpox
2 years: Rubella, Polio
2 1/2 years*: Hep B, Hep A (start Hep B at birth if any close relatives or caregivers have Hep B)
3 years: Hep B, Measles
3 1/2 years*: Hep B, Hep A
4 years: DTaP, Polio
5 years: MMR
6 years: Chickenpox
12 years: Tdap, HPV
12 years, 2 months*: HPV
13 years: HPV, Meningococcal (once Meningococcal vaccine is approved for age 2, Dr. Sears will move it there and delay Hep B by 6 months)

Hi Li,
Good for you for doing the research and protecting your child! I would say not to do the ones you don't feel comfortable with, you know the statistics on those and why they may be unnecessary. Also, the biggest key to your child's health is a good, strong immune system not so much a shot at the doctors office! I would recommend picking up a couple books on how to attain that to better protect your child from any illness!
Best of Luck to you and your son,
M. A., Redondo Beach

Hello. As a mom and holistic practitioner, I recommend making personal decisions about vaccines, with informed (educated) decisions and basing your decisions on the immune status of your child. I did not vaccinate my son, and he is 3 and super healthy, well-behaved, easy to deal with and quite smart. If you choose to not vaccinate, you must take holistic precautions to build a strong immune system. We use a variety of supplements here that are so pure they are better quality than most of today's food choices. You need to have medicine chest type of holistic remedies and educate yourself on them so you can protect your child if/when need be. In the beginning of life, most vaccinations are not necessary, they are just a Public Health 'thing' that because you go to the doctor, let's just 'do it now' philosophy. If you do want to vaccinate at all, I recommend waiting until your beautiful baby is at least 2 years old and mostly developed. Dr. Lauren Feder has a great book, you can check it out at drfeder.com outlining some of the pros and cons and also the schedule itself for vaccines. She also chose to not vaccinate her kids. Whatever you decide, good luck, but do not do it if your child is sick. There's no hurry.
And if you do, we treat 'vaccination injury' should it occur.

Good Luck.

Namaste,
J. Eltman, MPH, RD
Preventive & Therapeutic Holistic Health
www.CreativeNutrition.com
1.877.5.EATWELL
Author: The NO DIET Diet: Healthy Meals in 5 Minutes

Our pediatrician is FABULOUS in this department. Dr. Jody Lappin working in Dr. Jay Gordon's office. What I love about her in regards to vaccines is that she does not practice "cookie-cut-out" medicine. Meaning, she will work individually with families to create a vaccine schedule that makes sense for you and your child's particular situation/needs. I would advise you not to do the rotavirus vaccine. It is new, unecessary, and is one of the exact reasons why we left our other doctor. He was pushing it on us big time. Then I found out from my mother, who is a NICU nurse, that many doctors are receiving "incentives" when their patients purchase this vaccine. Besides do we really need to vaccine for DIARREAH?! Unfortunately Dr. Lappin is on maternity leave, but there are a couple of other doctors in the office that are equally wonderful. Jay Gordon also has a fabulous website that has tons of info on vaccines, nutrition, sleep, etc.
Good Luck, and trust your deepest instincts.

I am in the same situation....wondering what to do about vaccinating my soon-to-be coming little girl. I have been asking a lot of questions from a lot of people lately. I happened to meet a doctor at a co-ed baby shower last week, so I asked him. He said absolutely vaccinate. He has 3 kids and vaccinated them all. He said unfortunately autism shows up at the exact same time that the vaccines are given, so they are getting a bad rap. He feels they are completely safe. That's one opinion.
Also, on ABC Network news, there was a report about a measles outbreak in a doctor's office where there was a child who was not vaccinated. Anyhow, that child ended up infecting 13 babies with measles. The report said if a child enters a room with measles, the virus can live 2 hours after the child leaves and infect anyone who enters the room. Pretty scary.
These are just some things/info I have learned or come in contact with. I still haven't made a decision about what to do....Good luck.

These questions and answers are the very reason why there are MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) as well as pertussis (whooping cough) outbreaks in highly educated and high SES (socio-economic status) communities in California...as well as elsewhere in this country.

This really is a public health issue as one commenter suggests here. Meaning, your kids, my kids, immigrants kids...everyone is involved. That's public health! It's actually not kids from other countries that are spreading diseases...they're the kids from highly educated families who are declining vaccinations because of unfounded fears that are spreading these deadly diseases in their own communities.

Fair enough if you want to spread out your vaccines...just be informed and know that the delayed time is potentially exposing your child to morbidity (disease) and mortality (death). If your child is 2 months old and you delay your pertussis vaccine, of your hib vaccine, or your prevnar vaccine, are you willing to accept your child dying at three months because of that very same disease? Or maybe not dying but just getting meningitis and having developmental delays, hearing impairment, motor difficulties, pneumonia, etc etc? But not just that, your selfish decision is exposing your friends, neighboors and school mates to the same. Is that being a good citizen or friend?

Be good to each other, Correctly educate yourself and protect your child, your family and your community. There's a reason why certain diseases aren't as common now (i.e., polio), don't let complacency bring them back because "herd immunity" will only do so much. Are you willing to let your child be the "one" that gets sick...I'm not.

P. D..

In some of my research on the topic, I have learned that the reason there are so many questions regarding immunizations is that there is so much "stuff" being injected to the babies' bodies that it is sometimes too much and the brain is adversely affected. To err on the side of caution without posing great risk to my own daughter and those around her, I chose to only have 2 or 3 boosters at a time, then return a few months later. So, we went to the doctor a handful of times instead of just once or twice in a few months. If you space out the boosters a few months between each set of two or three, your baby should be fine. If my daughter had any reactions at all, I would have slowed the boosters down to one at a time, with at least 2 months between each one. She is now 18 months and has had all her shots. She is fine so far.
The first 18 months is when these poor babies have to have all these vaccinations, then nothing till they're 5. Why not spread it out along that first couple of years??
I think vaccinations are necessary, but not ALL at once, per se. I don't knock any person who decides not to get the vaccinations either, because it's a personal decision. Just think about the fact that schools require the boosters for admission to school.
Again, this is only my opinion on the topic. Good luck with your decision. Don't let anyone badger you about your inquisition or about your later decision either...what the heck do they know if they judge you!??!!

A good pediatrician should explain to you all the pros and cons of each vaccination. Talking to a pediatrician who can really listen and hear your concerns would probably be best.