I am a firm proponent of vaccinating my child, but after doing tons of research I have decided to follow the alternate schedule developed by Dr. Sears. One of the main reasons I'm doing this is due to the large amounts of aluminum found in vaccines. The FDA states that a healthy child should be exposed to no more than 30 micrograms of aluminum in a day, but if I were to vaccinate Jackson according to the CDC recommendations he would receive approximately 1225 micrograms in one fell swoop each time he's vaccinated! Excessive aluminum intake has been linked with neurological harm and incredibly there have been no studies done to test the effects of this much aluminum on children who are being vaccinated.
Another reason for reducing the number of shots Jackson receives at one time is to isolate any reactions he might have to a vaccination. It was a relief that his pediatrician agreed to the alternate schedule (I've heard horror stories of doctors asking you to leave their practice if you don't follow the regular schedule). So yesterday he got one combo shot for Hib, Hep B, and Polio (the Pediarix) and received his Rotavirus vaccine orally. He barely cried and was over it within minutes, with none of the side effects sometimes seen along with vaccinations (swelling, redness, fever). He'll go in again at 3 months for a shot-only visit and we'll basically be in to the doctor every month for a year in order to stagger his shots while still fully vaccinating him. You can learn more about alternate shot schedules by visiting http://www.thevaccinebook.com/ and if you want to be really educated about all of the different vaccines your child will receive I highly recommend reading The Vaccine Book written by Dr. Sears!
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