I find it interesting how Oran’s pediatrician approaches the vaccine conundrum. When we first interviewed her, we were so new to all of this, we had a ton of questions. Of course, the vaccine conundrum topped our list. You read one article and feel as though you would be putting your child at risk of death if you do not administer 3 or more shots at every visit. Then you read another that scares you into thinking that even one of these shots can put him/her at risk of neurological damage or autism. All of this is difficult to fathom when your child is still in the womb.

So, there we are, sitting in a little room with Jupiter swirling over our heads and stuffed astronauts on the shelf,  all ears to hear what an actual pediatrician–one who is known to be holistic–has to say about all of this. And she takes no stance. She took a very hands-off approach at the time, recommending that we go home and read up on all of the facts ourselves and make our own decision as Oran’s parents. Hmph, a little help?

The literature out there is mind boggling. Some see it as very black-and-white. For me, it was mostly gray, as I see most things.

Because of my middle-of-the-road approach, I leaned toward the Dr. Sears take on vaccines. The Sears family of physicians seem well-trusted by many parents looking for the most holistic nutrition for their children. And Dr. Bob’s book on Vaccines was based on fact instead of the power of persuasion. Like our doc, he does not tell parents exactly what to do—-a quality that I’ve found can be frustrating at times—but actually more valuable in the end. It’s kind of strange, if you buy the paperback, the Dr. Sears alternate vaccine schedule is actually buried .

I really do wish I could just blindly follow the AAP guidelines. It would have made the past year a heck of a lot easier. But my conscience would not allow it.

Dr. Sears’ alternate vaccine schedule offers up an alternative to the schedule set up by the AAP with much more time in between shots, and no more than one or two given at once. Dr. Sears also has one chapter dedicated to each vaccine and each version (brand name, ie. GlaxoSmithKline or Merck) of the vaccine. In each chapter, he weighs the risk of your young child getting the disease with the risk the vaccine’s ingredients pose (based on proven fact).

I have seen too many products on the drugstore shelf that are completely toxic, to trust anything with the FDA stamp of approval. I repeat, NO trust in our government when it comes to food and drug safety.

But I had to trust someone, since this was not research that I could do myself. We decided to give Oran DTAP/Hib for diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae B, and Polio and forego most other vaccines for the time being.  As we read further, we decided to stop the Polio vaccines (We did one in the series of 3).

At his 18-month appointment, I again tried to elicit some sort of vaccine opinion from his pediatrician, who seemed more comfortable leaking her opinion in tiny increments. She said, “Which ones are you doing again? You decided to forego Polio?”  We said “Yes, and we may eventually decide to give him MMR and some others if that is possible after age 2.” She said, “We can revisit that at his 2 year appointment. By then, he can process aluminum. There is aluminum in the Polio vaccine.”

What? Aluminum. Say no more. Why did she not share this tidbit with us when we told her we wanted to alter the vaccine schedule for our baby’s health and safety? Honestly, reading books cannot replace good advice. Is this perhaps because of an allegiance to AAP or other medical associations? It really makes you wonder.