Rage Against The Minivan

An alternative vaccination schedule (modified from Dr. Sears)

As I mentioned last week, tomorrow is the big day where Shot at Life will be offering a free vaccination for comments on my post. I will be posting about my 28th year – which was the hardest year of my life so far. I talked a bit about why I think vaccines are so important in this post. I also mentioned that I still understand the concerns about vaccinating young children and the potential overwhelm of so many shots at once. A few people asked about the alternative schedule I used and I thought I would share it here.  This is the schedule we used on our own kids (with the exception of Kembe, who lived in a place where diseases posed more of a risk and therefore received vaccines earlier.)  This goes without saying, but I am not a doctor. This is a slightly modified version of Dr. Sear’s suggestions – who is a very well-respected pediatrician here in Orange County.  Dr. Sears says his alternative schedule won’t overwhelm young immune systems, but still provides complete vaccine protection.The main difference from his list is that I gave my kids the MMR together, because it’s very difficult to obtain the shots separated as he suggests. As such, I waited to give my kids the MMR until age 3. I think every family needs to look at their individual circumstances as well. Karris did receive some shots earlier because she traveled to Haiti at a very young age.  We go to a main-stream doctor but when I showed her a print-out of this schedule and helped her understand that I had every intent to vaccinate the kids (albeit at a slower pace) she was very supportive. Dr. Sears says his alternative schedule won't overwhelm young immune systems, but still provides complete vaccine protection. 2 months
Rotavirus
DTaP 3 months
PCV
Hib 4 months
Rotavirus (second dose)
DTaP (second dose) 5 months
PCV (second dose)
Hib (second dose) 6 months
Rotavirus (third dose)
DTaP (third dose) 7 months
PCV (third dose)
Hib (third dose) 9 months
Polio 12 months
Polio (second dose) 15 months
PCV (fourth dose)
Hib (fourth dose) 18 months
DTaP (fourth dose)
Varicella 2 years
Polio (third dose) 2 1/2 years
Hep B
Hep A 3 1/2 years
Hep B (second dose)
MMR 4 years
DTaP (fifth dose)
Polio (fourth dose) 5 years
MMR (second dose) 6 years
Varicella (second dose) 12 years
HPV 12 years, 2 months
HPV (second dose)

13 years
HPV (third dose) Do you do an alternative vaccination schedule? How receptive was your pediatrician to the idea?

Comments

  2. Heidi Ball says

    Thank you so much for posting this schedule! My daughter is about to be two months old and I've been stressing about which shots to get her and when. This schedule is perfect aside from the Hep B because she got the first round at birth therefore she will go ahead and receive the others on time but this makes the shot process so much less stressful for me. I refuse to let her get 4-6 shots at once. So so very helpful!!!
    Thanks Again,
    Protective new mom

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