Vaccination Alteration - Part 2

I wanted to follow up and share our plan where vaccines are concerned. We have decided to go with an alternative schedule for Abigail. It's not the exact schedule that Dr. Sears recommends in his book, but pretty close. Like I said in my earlier post, I'm still not thrilled with vaccines, but I'm much more comfortable with this choice. Here are just a few highlights from my thoughts:

My precious baby girl

One of the main reasons I opted to use an alternative schedule was to stagger the shots she'd be receiving that contained aluminum. Since I was a sophomore in college (yikes-11 years ago), I have been against most things aluminum. I've been slack lately, drinks from soda cans, not looking for a deodorant that doesn't contain it, etc., but this was really important to me and her little body.

The biggest hindrance we face, which is extremely important to me, is getting the MMR broken into individual doses. I need to contact our local health dept. and see if they offer each single vaccine because our doctor's office cannot.

I personally did not feel comfortable with going unvaccinated. So, this offered a sensible option to me. I feel like her body will be able to process the "nasties" that are in vaccines better and it won't overwhelm her. All while still being protected against some pretty offensive illnesses.

I was surprised at how easily Abigail's pediatrician was in agreeing to an alternative schedule. He even commented that the alternative schedule in The Vaccine Book was one of the best he had seen. He and I tweaked it a bit to fit my family's needs and it was pretty simple.

I will have more co-pays and need to keep track of it, but her health is worth it. She will have shots every month for a while. I fell bad about that, but I think it's better than overloading her body in one sitting.

I do believe we might travel overseas as a family at some point, so better to space them out now than whammy her all at once, if the opportunity does present itself.

There is so much more controversy going on right now than I thought. I read an interesting post by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home and was surprised to learn that some public service announcements will be released soon concerning vaccinations.

I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that the whole public health thing has me concerned to some extent. I don't know what the right answer is though. I guess that's another reason why I like the alternative schedule so much.

When trying to make our decision about vaccinations, I read several different viewpoints from other moms on the subject at Prayer of Hanna. I really appreciated reading what they all shared a while back and their blog is great to get different perspectives on a lot of topics.

I wish the vaccines contained different ingredients and I wish there was no risk of illness. But that's not the real world. Become informed and educated, pray, and make the right decision for your family.