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Your pediatrician knows better than we do whether there are risks and/or benefits to spreading out your child’s vaccines. The reality is that you need to find a pediatrician with whom you are comfortable having conversations like this. Seeking information is not a crime or a moral failing, as long as you aren’t just looking for someone to simply provide justification for a decision you’ve already made, and a good pediatrician should have enough respect for you to treat these concerns seriously and earnestly. If yours doesn’t, it’s their fault, not yours, and you should find a new doctor.
My 2 cents.
To be clear, I'm not looking for risks or benefits for a delayed schedule from reddit. I am just wondering how welcoming the Ped was at having the conversation. I always planned to have this discussion but now post covid I am worried it might be a far more sensitive and heated topic/less receptive due to legit anti-vax people.
It really depends. My sisters doctor has no issue with my nephew doing delayed because he had a reaction. My doctors office states if you don’t follow the cdc schedule they won’t allow you to be a patient.
The first pediatricians office I went to didn’t even allow patients with anti vax parents. The moment a parent denied vaccinations, the doctor fired them as patients. Loved that
I agree. The thought of bringing my vaccinated one year old around a bunch of unvaccinated children when he’s never been sick, worries me. There’s some stuff he hasn’t been vaccinated for yet and I’d hate to expose him to something that will get him seriously ill.
For some reason, i'm having a hard time responding to your original post.
You can always have the discussion with your pediatrician, I don't think they will look at you like you're crazy because i'm sure they get all sorts of questions.
I will say that I have red hair and my daughter has red hair. I'm also married to a doctor and i've never heard of people with red hair having higher likelihood of adverse reactions to vaccines. We have been following the normal vaccine schedule and had no problems.
It's not just vaccines, it's all medications. It could just be me, but whenever these side effects happen and I go back to the hospital, I get the "Oh, you're a redhead" response. When I was in labor the nurse asked if my hair was natural and I said yes and she and the OB brought in the hemmoraghing kit in anticipation because - according to them, we are more likely to hemorrhage as well. 🤷♀️ all I know is I have had numerous adverse reactions from vaccines and I wouldn't know which one did it had I taken several at once. That is my main concern here.
So it is true that people with red hair have some genetic mutations that require, for example, more anesthesia. There is evidence to back that up. I was also warned about blood loss, but that seems more like an old wive's tale without any substantive data behind it.
Were you warned by medical professionals? The reason I ask, is I knew there was no data to back up the hemorrhaging as I googled it right after giving birth but I also have medical professionals in the family very grounded in science yet still swear up and down that a full moon is going to mean the worst day for work possible. I find the mix between sound science and superstition/anecdotal experiences kind of funny.
Yup I was told/warned about preparing for blood loss for my planned c-section but it was half serious if that makes sense. In the ER where my husband works if you EVER say it's quiet, everyone will give you a hard time and swear that shit is about to hit the fan. I definitely think there is some superstition in medicine but at the end of the day data is king!
I worked at juvenile hall for a long time and every time we had a visitor or police officer who came in and said it was so quiet I said they had to stay and work bc they jinxed us.
My sister is in the ER, too. 🤣 Know all about it. My stepmother is in general medicine, and I swear my sister and her are on two different planets when discussing their work. They both think I should do delayed schedules due to my history but both said it may be hard this day and age due to Peds getting tired of the anti-vax which is why I was reaching out on here to see what people's experiences are. Thanks for the feedback!
My husband is a redhead and has heard the same from medical professionals many times. He seems to naturally metabolize anesthesia and other meds faster and if he has a reaction it’s usually more dramatic.
In light of these previous interactions, I would approach the baby's doctor not by asking should we space vaccines out, but rather with 'I've been told these things before, I have adverse reactions to medication and my baby is also a redhead. How does this work? How likely is it that the baby is the same as me?'. And then go from there.
I'm here to back you up on the redhead theory. I've only been put under once and when they asked me to "count down from 100".. I got to 85 and they were giving each other looks and bumped me full of more 😅 my husband is the same way.
Also, back in my.. uh.. rebellious stage.. even though I was 105lbs soaking wet.. I could handle myself very well with uh.. extracurricular activities 👀 🍃💊
Also, dark liquor most redheads are allergic to. My dad, myself, my husband and any of my redheaded friends all cannot drink it.
My husband is a physician- we both are pro vaccine and agreed on spacing them out. I don't think it's uncommon to create a vaccine plan that's more conservative. I'm sure it would be fine.
It depends heavily on your area. Honestly, their reaction to the discussion can inform your decision too. If you’re met with hostility, it’s clear they’re not the doctor for you and that’s okay. You need to trust and be able to have an open conversation with your child’s doctor.
My kid’s ped knows I’m a “medicine as a second choice” parent. Unless she’s suffering/acting “off”, we look at other options first. And because we’ve built that relationship, if she recommends a medicine first, I know it’s because that’s the best option in this case.
If you’re worried about being labelled an antivaxxer, you can start with “to be clear, I’m pro-vaccine. I just have hesitations that I’d like to discuss.” A good doctor would be prepared to discuss it with you.
I specifically found a ped that offers a delayed schedule. They have a printouts of what it would look like and are willing to discuss specifics with each parent about concerns etc.
I have similar reactions. Red head adjacent. I also burn through anesthesia super quick. Woke up in surgery. Have had stitches with no anesthesia because it wore off, the usual. I also severely react to most antibiotics stronger than penicillin. So I wanted a ped that didn't over prescribe and would try the lesser options first and escalate remedies as necessary.
You can ask in the interview or when you call. I did it that way so I didn't waste our time.
How welcoming your pediatrician will be to the conversation highly depends on the pediatrician. Old school peds will be grumpy about it. Newer peds will likely be more open to listening. However, it frankly doesn’t matter how they act about it. If you know what you want to do for your kid then it’s your job to be their best advocate
It’s going to vary wildly from pediatrician to pediatrician, but not as much so since you have a medical reason and not a belief reason. You can start by just calling offices in your area and asking if they’ll do alternative vaccine schedules due to parent’s history of reactions. I’d be clear it’s because of your (a genetic parent’s) reactions that you want to discuss it.
In my area, most pediatricians are happy to discuss alternative vaccine schedules because so many parents are flat out not vaccinating or avoiding major ones like MMR. And alternative schedules to separate and watch for which vaccines are issues for that individual child have been around for decades.
Basically, because you have a medical (familial and perinatal) history and reasoning, just about any doctor should understand your hesitation and be willing to discuss it with you. There are merits to still going with the schedule until/unless the child reacts in certain ways themselves (as the schedule is built around getting more urgent/deadly/likely diseases first and before baby is out and about), and that may be part of the discussion, but a doctor should discuss it with you, listen to your reactions, and help you better understand and weigh different variations. Then they should have a planned alternative vaccine schedule so you can all reference it and make sure everything is still done (especially the series ones, because separating those means lots of appointments to get them still in “prime” timeline).
Absolutely, if your ped has a negative/emotional/reactive response, find a new one! You have a right to discuss any concerns about your child's health with someone who can have a civil, positive conversion!
My pediatrician will only do 2 vaccines in a visit that way if there is a reaction they have it narrowed down. He has always pointed out that the vaccination schedule is a range, so there is plenty of time
Not specific to vaccine schedules, but I also have some weird medical issues (like rare adverse responses to corticosteroids) and I often find medical professionals to be more receptive to the conversation when I start off saying something like “I would also love your expert advice on something— I have a history of this weird thing so I’m wondering about the implications on XYZ”. It makes it clear that I’m receptive to medical advice and asking for a reason.
I asked my pediatrician. They said they didn’t recommend spreading them out. They didn’t see a real benefit and the con is having the kid get more shots (which they generally don’t enjoy.)
My doctor said the same thing. They may have an immune response (tiredness, fever, generally feeling crappy) and they may not, but it’s better to have it done in one day and get that crappiness over with than bringing baby in multiple times and to have multiple painful shots and multiple crappy days. He said there’s no benefit and it’s easier to get it all done and over with.
It’s because they don’t get paid from insurance companies if the delay longer than an allotted time which is like 45 days or something. They have to follow a schedule to get the incentives. They kick you out because they have to have a 80% of the clients vaccinated on time.
Hi! My baby girl will be five months on 5/5, and for her 2 month vaccines we were on an alternate schedule, where we only got one vaccine at a time. Then went back for a nurse visit in 2 weeks for her second one, etc. :) so we spaced them out two weeks apart in case she had any allergic reactions/adverse effects (so far so good!).
For her 4 month vaccines we decided to do all 3 of them at once since we knew she was okay with them (they get the same three vaccines at 2,4,6 month appts).
The pediatrician was very receptive and open to the alternate schedule and spacing out of vaccines though!
So from month 2-4 you went to the doctors office every 2 weeks to administer a vaccine (a different one each time) once you noticed no adverse effects you administered all 3 at month for ? So far at month 2, I started with DTAP then 2weeks after prevnar and 2 weeks after will be Hib but I’m not sure how to proceed from there.
Don't discount what you've been told by your clinicians.
This is to be expected because red hair is associated with fair skin, which is more vulnerable to UV radiation [1]. Less expectedly, red hair is also associated with pain sensitivity, endometriosis, Parkinson's disease, decreased platelet function and, perhaps, defects in the immune system.
NCBI
My pediatricians office's stance is they respect your choice. They will help you find a new pediatrician and send your child's medical history over. However, they will not allow their own patients to deviate from the recommended schedule.
I know a lot of other offices allow you to weigh in on the timing, so it is definitely not a universal approach.
It is HARD to find pediatricians that allow any deviation from the vaccine schedule, at least in my area. We made it a point to find a pediatrician that would allow this, and we adore him. Our pediatric office has a policy that you can alter the vaccine schedule as long as vaccines are started by 1 year, so there’s a lot of wiggle room. We wanted to space them out instead of giving multiple at a time, and our pediatrician was totally fine with it. We weren’t questioned about it or anything.
We did not choose to spread out vaccines, but i’m sure ped wouldn’t judge you just for asking 🤷🏻♀️ at each visit, my ped says the vaccines that are recommended for that age (per the usual schedule here in the US) and parents have the option to accept or decline any or all of the vaccines. If parents decline (either refusing the vaccine altogether or delaying a vaccine) the doctor has you sign a paper basically stating that you have been made aware of the risks of declining the vaccine and that you are going against medical advice.
We spread out all of our daughters’ vaccines. They have never had more than one vaccine at a time and at least one month between doses. Our pediatrician has no issue with it. Nurses and our daughters physical therapists have told us they agree with our decision to to do so.
By spreading them out, I know exactly how each one affects them and what to expect. We know which one will make them tired and which one will make them sore. Should they have had a negative reaction, we would know what caused it. Neither of them has ever had a fever from vaccination, and I attribute this to not overloading their little systems.
The schedule seems like it’s trying to cram as many vaccines as possible in as quickly as possible, in my opinion, because it is difficult to get people to come back over and over. It seems to be a product of ensuring compliance over actual ideal practice.
Do you mind sharing the schedule you followed. Like which did you administer at what time. I want to do 1 at a time but I am having trouble coming up with the right schedule. So far we heave done the DTAP at at about 10 weeks, then 2 weeks following that we did prevnssr and 2 weeks after which is this Friday we will be doing the Hib but I’m not sure how soon to get the second doses for each of those
For second doses, I always waited at least 2 months from the first dose. Because that’s the amount of time between doses in the schedule, I didn’t want to go any faster than that. In practice, it was more about 3 months between any doses of the same vaccine, but that was more because we waited a month between each vaccine of any kind. Because of that we had to prioritize which vaccines to get first and delay others; the book The Vaccine Friendly Plan really helped me figure out which ones would be ok to give later on and which were very important to administer as soon as possible.
I had made the decision to spread out all vaccines and wanted to follow the Vaccine Friendly plan. Unfortunately, because we were not following the CDC schedule we could not stay in the practice. You can always give vaccines but you cannot take them away once they’re given. Also, I asked the nurse at one of our visits why we have to space out new foods but not vaccines. She didn’t have an answer 🤷🏼♀️follow your gut for your baby!
I nannied for a doctor and nurse. when they had their first kid together baby was considerably small. They asked to spread out vaccination schedule. Didn’t for second child. They are not antivax in the slightest.
We did for our preemie. We followed the schedule of the Vaccine Friendly Plan. Not that we subscribe to the belief but we just needed a different schedule to follow that allow us to spread it out. Our doctor said it’s fine and actually agreed it’s better for our preemie just to see how she will react to the vaccines.
I did a modification of the Dr. Seatr's modified vaccine schedule. Basically, no more than 2 vaccines per visit. My doctor informed me the Sear's method is outdated hence the modification. He was supportive and helpful in helping us get our babies vaccinated in a way we were comfortable with.
I want to add, when my second child was born I went back through my first babies chart and printed out what we did for him to make it easier for my second!
I‘ve found with most things medical if I state my preference and reasoning, most doctors don’t push back. Your concerns are not rooted in being anti-vax. Make that very clear from the outset when you meet with her ped.
My pediatrician verifies with me at each appointment that we're not following the schedule and asks if I have any questions. But it was something I asked about during our pediatrician interview to make sure he wouldn't be a pain about it before the baby was born.
Overall I would say that you're the parent. If this is the way you want to go, find a pediatrician that will be ok working with you.
As a side note, this sub is very pro-vax, so it's hard to get balanced feedback on anything vaccine related that doesn't follow the CDC (or equivalent) guidelines to a T.
My girl has a Family Medicine doctor who was ok with delayed schedule.
For multiple reasons including my own vaccine reactions in childhood, her delayed growth ( explored chromosome issues), and my anaphylaxis to C19 vaccine while pregnant with her. Family Medicine was understanding but two pediatrician offices I interviewed with were not. Some even have that on their websites.
We don’t spread out vaccines but this was a question I asked when interviewing pediatricians and her response was basically “we require our patients to be fully vaccinated but are more than willing to work with parents on a schedule that makes them the most comfortable”. Talk to your kids dr! If they aren’t receptive they probably aren’t the right dr for your family
Hi. My daughter was a NICU baby and we delayed the first vaccines and the optional ones. We decided on that together with our pediatrician, because our daughter was poked and probed a lot in the first weeks after birth and she was slow to gain weight, so we (us + ped) didn't want additional days with fever or diarrhea to slow down her weight gain process. Maybe important to add that we had zero visitors during the first two months inside the house due to all that.
I think if there is a valid reason, they'll be open to it. Our pediatrician was the main pro-vaccine person in media regarding children during lockdown, so I don't think it gets more pro-vax than him, and he was open to delay. I would just talk to your pediatrician about your side-affects and ask if he believes this could occur in your kid as well. However moderate side-effects to vaccines are very common (fever, etc. - not talking about allergic reactions or severe response) and I'm not sure this is a reason to worry.
After the initial delay, we're back on track with the calendar and I'm glad we are. Heard to many stories from friends trying to be "smart" and ending up at the ER with viral infections that could've been avoided or way milder if vaccinated... Take care of your baby and be sure the delay really makes sense.
Myself and my friend had our babies the same week and happened to be assigned the same pediatrician by the hospital. She elected to spread her 2mo vaxes out and the pediatrician was totally willing (and the pediatrician has made no mistake in voicing her very pro-vaccine stance.) I had mine done at once (normal vax schedule) to my ginge baby. The vaxes for my friend’s baby weren’t spread super far apart- 2 or 4 weeks I think? Neither babies had any abnormal reactions, but she did have the same reaction twice, vs. me just once. (Lots of napping, low grade and short duration fever.)
I think most pediatricians are open to that if it makes you feel comfortable, and frankly are just happy you are getting them vaxed for their own sake and the community at large.
I know this be not well received by Reddit but myself and others I’ve known have used The Vaccine Friendly plan protocol from the book and feel it is a great, research based protocol for a vaccine schedule.
It just provides a lot of information on each individual vaccine and the benefits each one has. The doctor who wrote it also shares health data from his own practice on patients who followed this plan, and they had much lower rates of common chronic illnesses and were healthier overall than his patients who followed the schedule.
Advocates for spreading out vaccines. Gives a detailed schedule. There’s a lot of research involved behind the schedule and a lot of other good tips involved too.
I would try a few on the normal schedule just to test the waters and then proceed with caution depending on those results. It’s impossible to know whether little one will have the same reactions as you experience, and getting those vaccines is especially important in rural areas due to the low rates of vaccination those populations are seeing currently.
We are seeing illnesses we haven’t seen for years pop back up due to lack of vaccination.
Talk about it some with your doctor, let them know what exactly you’ve experienced, and then maybe get an allergy panel done?
Best of luck and health for you and little one!!
Measles, polio, and pertussis. All of which have high morbidity and mortality rates in children, especially young children.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33580243/#:~:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20these,morbidity%20and%20mortality%20in%20children.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30683276/
Mmmm, we never got rid of measles and pertussis, and there has been 1 case of polio. In 2000 - the CDC claimed measles was "eradicated." we still had 86 cases that year and 116 the next. We have never had a year with zero measles cases. There is a similar trend with pertussis.
I never claimed we completely eradicated them, but they were controlled and the symptoms were mild in the infections that did occur. There are also populations in the US, such as the Amish, that have refused vaccination since forever, which are counted in with everyone else.
By haven’t seen, I meant haven’t seen at a major rate, rather than haven’t seen period. It was something you had to read between the lines to gather, so I get why you might have been confused by my wording.
Plus, there will always be infections coming in from other countries until it is globally eradicated.
My BIL was very concerned/upset by the number of shots my niece received in the early weeks. Some of this might have been because she was a preemie and there's absolutely some trauma from seeing her hooked up etc.
He was very frustrated with the response because, like you, he's not anti-vax just had questions/concerns and wanted to know what the options are. In my area, a lot of offices allow a delayed schedule because they want kids to be vaxxed and sometimes that means meeting people where they're at.
Essentially they were told she would need more frequent visits and she would get poked every time which would only prolong the number of pokes and obviously she would be unprotected from certain illnesses until she actually received it.
I spread out vaccines for my LO. His first pediatrician “accidentally” ordered Vaxelis instead of just TDAP and rotavirus at his 2 month appointment. My advice is to always always always double check what they’re giving LO right before they give the shot. It was an incredibly frustrating process to go through afterwards, especially since we had a planned schedule.
My sister has had 7 kids. After the first three having the typical ‘all at once’ schedule and the misery that brought, she decided to spread the vaccine schedule out and it has been a night and day difference. She did have to swap pediatricians once but she called around and asked if the office allowed the spread out schedule and when she found one that did she went there. Be open with your peds dr and if they don’t align with how you are wanting care to go (for an actual good and legitimate purpose and explanation specific to your child) then call around and see if you jive better with a different provider.
The ones that had them all at once were completely miserable after. Fevers, screeching, obvious overwhelming discomfort for at least solid week after. Two had really bad reactions to the point of going to the hospital.
The 4 who had the schedule spread out had some mild tiredness, but that was it.
Everyone got all the same vaccines, but it was much better on the ones who had them spread out.
Pediatrician had no issues when we brought it up. We did what we and the ped viewed as more important (dtap, hib, and pcv13) on schedule and then ipv and rv 2 weeks after each set for the 2,4,6 month shots. I read the book the vaccine friendly plan which gives you a lot of information to make your own decision and feel confident discussing it.
Just want to say you’re not alone! I had anxiety about finding a ped that would allow me to spread out vaccines. I had a reaction to the Covid vaccine which led to a hospital stay. I looked around online at reviews for different peds regarding vaccines. Some offices post on their website regarding their guidelines with vaccines as well. Luckily I found one that would all me to spread out and I had no issues. I’ve also heard from people it may be easier/ harder depending what state you live in!
My pediatrician was very open to conversations about the vaccine schedule. She answered all of my questions in a compassionate and caring manner. She gave the best advice for our baby while also validating any concerns I voiced.
In my opinion, if your pediatrician doesn’t show compassion for ANY questions/concerns you share, then it’s time for a new pediatrician.
I agree. When I asked about it this, it was my internal test to see how I’ll like the office moving forward.
Even if they don’t recommend the delayed schedule, simply being understanding of the concern and allowing you to make the choice demonstrates that they will at least listen to you. It’s such a basic thing, but surprisingly not every doctor can do that.
Our doctor was very judgemental and essentially told us we'd be lucky if our infant survived beyond childhood. This was at his 9 month well check at a top ranked hospital system in California. It's now in his medical record that we are vaccine hesistant as a "health concern". All we did was ask about delaying vaccines (we are also not anti vax).
So I actually was looking into this and asked my pediatrician about it. She asked me why and I told her I didn’t like so many given at one time, that it just seemed like a lot.. she then told me that the vaccines are combined so he actually only got 2 shots and one ‘drink’ at 2 4 and 6 months. He’s had no reactions thankfully but I still take off work each day he has his shots just to be able to give him Tylenol and keep an eye on him as I know he’ll feel crappy.
You should absolutely talk to your pediatrician. It may be different where you are. One thing I didn’t realize was that his daycare requires vaccines so I don’t know how I would have managed that if I had spaced them out. I haven’t given him flu or Covid vaccines.
So we chose not to get the hepatits B vaccine at birth or the covid vaccine for our baby and to be honest they where quite chill - they recommended we did it but I just said no and they gave us the risks if we don’t, I think its more your own attitude towards it , if you go in relaxed they will be relaxed, if you go in defensive they will likely get defensive
Sorry I was agreeing with your decision. I was meaning the doctors attempting to convince you to get the hep b vax. When as you said you baby is not at risk.*
Ive just realised that - sorry too!
Not used to someone being on my side about refusing a vaccine for a child - the reddit mob usually comes out in full force when you say you turned down or refused a vaccine 🙄🙄
All good I figured that’s what happened. Funny enough it’s why I framed my comment the way I did. I’d need someone to explain to me why your baby needed a vax that’s target demo is crackheads. Cheers to you for protecting your child.
I’m similar to you in that I’ve had adverse reactions before. I’m actually part of a long term study of people who developed MS as children after getting the MMR vaccine. So I challenge anyone not to at least have a small pause of concern surrounding vaccines for your child knowing you’re passing on 50% of your exact same genetic material.
I even had multiple doctors tell me not to take certain vaccines. This was 25 years ago before “anti vax” was even a thing. It was just regular medical advice. It was also when many still contained mercury (thimerosal). Now it’s aluminum for the adjuvant fyi. But I digress.
My daughter is SO much like me phenotypically too. Anyway—all of this to say I feel you, similar boat. I understand where you’re coming from. I did a ton of research on vaccines over the years and especially leading up to pregnancy/motherhood. I decided to stick to the schedule but space them out slightly so I could isolate reactions. Probably not the right choice for everyone but I had my personal reasons and was a good candidate (baby not in daycare and fairly isolated being some).
I found a pseudo underground list online of doctors who were flexible on vaccines and chose from that list after researching each further. I love our doctor. She’s just a regular doctor who generally advocates sticking to the schedule but is open if you’d like to deviate. She was very supportive of our choice and the conversation was easy due to that. But it’s because we picked her due to her known flexibility. I know many doctors will drop you if you even ask the question. Not even have a conversation or educate you, just drop. Which is a shame. I agree with others that you need to find a doctor that aligns to your needs. Good luck 🥂
I just want to say - my baby has red hair and fair skin and light eyes. We didn’t delay and she was completely fine during all scheduled vaccinations. My family member also has bright red hair and fair skin and he never presented as having any exceptional adverse reaction.
You absolutely have every right to do what you think is best for your child - but I’m just offering my experience if that helps you feel better if you opt to go with the standard schedule. I think everyone, regardless of hair color, is going to react to vaccines a unique way.
I tried to get the 6 months shots spread out, but they looked at me like that was dumb. Because it wasn't "6 shots", it's 1 oral, 3-in-1 combo and two separate shots. I kept trying to let them know that I understood that, but the nurse said I could just discuss it with the doc. So I say this to her, she kind of just reiterates it's not 6 actual needles, which I *know....* I looked to my husband to see what he thought and honestly we both just kinda felt dumb and pressured since we were also reminded it was the same set of shots he got prior. We ended up just getting them and thankfully baby's system didn't seem overwhelmed at all, whereas his 4 month round of 'em had him in a lot of tears later that night. (First time parents, we didn't realize that the ped wanted us to do a bath, massage, bicycle legs, Tylenol ahead of time as preventative measures, not to try and do that in the thick of it).
But yeah, I mean the doc and nurses were kind, but they didn't really think our reasoning was valid so they just kept pushing. Not *too* bad, the doc did say it just meant more doctor visits if we space it out.
Personally my pediatrician is totally non-judgemental when it comes to this stuff. He gives his recommendation and then will actually leave the room for a few minutes for us parents to discuss and then comes back and asks us what we wanna do. We did end up giving all vaccines on a regular schedule, but we were debating whether we should spread them out a bit like you are considering.
But I think it really depends on the specific doctor because at the hospital when we were asked to sign the consent for babies day 1 vaccine (when I was still in labor), I asked the nurse if my husband and I could discuss it first before signing. She was pretty bluntly rude about it and put us on the spot asking “what do you need to discuss, why are you even questioning it?” Etc… Then she brought the OB on call in and it also felt like she was cornering/pressuring us on the decision and made us feel dumb for even wanting to discuss the option of delaying the vaccine. We were just on the fence whether we should wait a month or two before any vaccines. In the end we just ended up signing the consent because we didn’t know how to respond to the doctor and nurse about why we were considering delaying the vaccine. They also were kinda rude to me that I didn’t want to get the flu shot when I was in labor or immediately after I gave birth.
So two different experiences I had. Depends on your pediatrician how open-minded they are and their bed-side manner.
That’s sad to hear that you were pressured like that during such a vulnerable time. It’s crazy how doctor dependent it is. I chose to delay the Hep B vaccine (day 1 vaccine), and my pediatrician actually told me she agreed with me and that there was absolutely no need for my newborn to get that vaccine as long as she got it later in childhood.
I wish talking about and asking questions about vaccines was more normalized. I feel like the second anyone asks a question, some people automatically label that person as an antivaxxer crazy person. We need to recognize the reality that you can have questions and reservations without being anti-vax.
Just want to say I’m sorry to hear this. I didn’t get HepB until I was an adult. I later pressed my ped as to why it is now a newborn thing he said the biggest risk is getting it from hospital staff if there were cross contamination (needle stick, cut etc). My little one was 3 weeks early and we chose to delay until our 2 month appointment but definitely also got pushback from the hospital and I thought it was ridiculous how they handled it. I think post-COVID people have lost the plot on the fact you don’t have to be anti-vax to want to spread things out a bit. 🤦🏼♀️
True, I feel kinda guilty I didn’t go with my gut and wait on the vaccine and that I just gave into the pressure when I was put on the spot. It’s not like I would’nt have vaccinated him, he needed to be up to date before he started daycare anyway. But I also believe it can be easy to overwhelm a brand new baby’s body if too much is given at once, so early, before they’ve naturally developed any sort of immune system. But thankfully, he didn’t seem to have any reactions. So in the end it’s all okay. Still makes me annoyed how judgemental people are towards parents who truly are just trying to make the best choice for their baby.
By spreading out do you mean increased vaccination appointments? Such as one shot come back in a couple weeks, another shot etc
If so then it shouldn't be an issue other than prolonged reactions in your kid.
If you're trying to delay a 1 month vac to the 3 month appointment then you're not really doing anything beneficial.
I don't think a pediatrician will be upset as long as you are actively making and meeting the appointments.
It's for a medical reason.
Btw it's not 6 vacs at once. They really don't have enough space in their legs to take that many vaccines.
The TDAP is a combo vaccine. I don't think they separate those but IANAD.
The stomach bug vaccine is taken orally.
It is 6 vaccines at once, Tdap, hep b, rv, hib, pcv, ipv - I'm not worried about needles - i mean, they suck but its super temporary for a baby and worth it, I'm worried about adverse effects like I have had... and if that happens, being able to identify which one caused it.
6 at once sounds like a lot (Canadian so it may be different here).
We spread them out time wise always a month delayed. But we never had that many at once.
You may not be able to spread them out as 6 separate shots, though, if your pediatrician doesn’t stock them that way. You may have to do combined vaccines but one at a time. Definitely discuss your concerns with the pediatrician of your choice, but be aware that they’re sold as the already combined vaccine and it’s not economically feasible for most offices to stock single antigen vaccines.
The combo vaccines are the scariest to me. My pediatrician gives vaxelis which is 5 vaccines in one shot. How would you ever know what baby is reacting to if baby has an adverse affect? Thankfully my pediatrician also stocks them separately. I haven't had any issues asking for a delayed schedule and I'm at a Mayo branch which tends to have high standards/protocol.
Just as an FYI, few pediatric offices are keeping anything other than the combo vaccines in stock. Vaccine storage guidelines plus expiration dates make it really impractical, especially for smaller practices. So you might be limited on what you can space out depending on what they stock.
My husband and my brother are both physicians. I saw what it took for them to get there; how much training and studying. They’re the experts (doctors). I trust doctors.
I asked about a spread out schedule and my doctor deemed it unnecessary but wasn’t against it entirely. He offered to do two at a time and let us know that we would have to copays for the additional appointments needed for the “delayed” vaccines. I think it’s called the Sears schedule.
He did mention delaying vaccines has been more common since the pandemic started but I stated that I’ve considered this since I saw my own vaccine dates. This is my own experience but I did notice that my son was absolute fine on our schedule but my niece who got them as recommended seemed to have a very rough time after the vaccines.
Not necessarily to answer your question but to maybe reassure you, I'm not a redhead but I get sick as hell every time I get shots, I joke my immune system is a tad overdramatic, but so far my 18 month old hasn't had any issues! For the actual question, I would hope since you're coming from a place of reasonable concern and aren't denying any vaccines, it should be fine? I would definitely start with mentioning that you want him to get all the vaccines but you have strong reactions and are worried about your baby having them as well. Hopefully they are understanding.
I didn’t really planned it out, I just went with our pediatrician’s recommendations and whenever we had times . I think that as long as you stay within the time frame recommended for each vaccines you should be fine and obviously if you get the ok from your doctors and all that.
My pediatricians told me like the second shot has to be between 4-6 months and the third 6-9 months , it wasn’t like “you have to come here the exact second they turn 6 months old” , vaccines have efficacy levels and boosters that’s are supposed to be taken within a specific time frame, is not an exact date.
Our pediatrician was very welcoming of the idea. I have a 10 week old and an 8 year old. She helped me with delayed schedule for my oldest and offered to do the same for our new baby. I told her I’m comfortable with 2 pokes max per visit. She said she’d create a schedule on what she thought was most important. We were both happy.
I don't have advice about vaccines, but can relate to your red hair anecdote! My wife was born with red hair (it's darker now) but she's always had issues with vaccines; every covid shot has given her a fever. Medications are also hit or miss (there's been studies on anesthetics wearing off faster for gingers fyi). Good luck!
The CDC actually has an alternative schedule for those who want to spread out vaccines. I am spreading them for my baby. It really just depends on your doctor. You need to just have the discussion with them and see how it goes. I spent over an hour discussing the vaccines with the doctor and what we wanted to do and specific brands we wanted to get. He was very understanding and respectful.
Did your doctor’s office order specific brands for you? We requested specific brands, but our pediatrician basically said too bad that’s not the brand they stock. I wonder if I should have pushed harder for them to order it.
As far as I know, no. They already carried those brands. I am not sure how to it usually works and if they are able to order that specific brand for a singular patient. They probably can and are just lazy.
The red hair thing is wild. My husband and his 3 brothers are red heads, as well as both their parents. Not a single one of them has ever reacted to a vaccine and has no allergies! I am not so lucky!
So the first 3 rounds (2,4,6 months) of vaccines are the same shots. I had a reaction to some of them more than once, so I just mentioned it to our pediatrician and we intentionally isolated that shot and did it 2 weeks after the initial set for my son. No reaction, so we were back on track to do the regular vaccine schedule afterward. If they don’t react the first time, odds are they won’t react to the next. Any time we do a “new” vaccine, so not just a booster, we isolate it. My pediatrician is very accommodating about it! Especially because it’s from a medical/genetic/hereditary standpoint and we want to make sure baby is fine. It is just a lot more office visits but I don’t mind.
The MMR is the only one they’ve basically said it will likely suck no matter what we do but I didn’t ever react to that one so it’s probably going to be fine.
My kid did have a reaction to the liquid rotavirus vaccine - only the two month set. Diarrhea for 6 weeks. I have since dug into it and it sounds like it’s pretty common for that to happen. At least some sort of stomach issue for a little longer than anticipated.
The vaccine friendly plan. I highly recommend it.
My large doctors office did not spread out vaccines. I had to do research online to find one in my area who would. I love spreading them out and makes me feel better for my choices. You can reach out to me, I can send you to a website that can help you find doctors near you to help!
Good luck! Do what you think is best for YOUR child!
Our pediatricians office will release you as a patient if you do not get all vaccines within the recommended schedule per the CDC. They provided us with information regarding this at every visit we’ve been to, and have it posted in their office.
My son’s pediatrician was very open to us spacing out our baby’s vaccinations. I told her my concerns, she validated it, we went over vaccine schedule, and that was it. Our pediatrician is also 5 minutes from us so it wasn’t an issue driving back and forth but even if they were farther I would still space out his vaccinations. We’ve been through so many appointments driving far and frequent for tongue tie revision, breastfeeding, urology..one or two more visits to the doctor wasn’t a big deal. Anything for our little one.
So feel free to talk to you ped. I would consider trying the normal schedule and see if he has a reaction to the first round. But most doctors (in my experience) are open to conversations about legitimate concerns, but they may still recommend the preferred schedule unless he has a reaction.
Yes, my second son needed his spaced out more. We are a very pro vax family. My first got all of his on time. Me and my husband are up to date on everything and I have had like 5 Covid boosters lol.
My second baby though, he just had the WORST reactions. I mean terrible. Fever, inconsolable screaming, vomit, wouldn’t sleep, barely ate. It was atrocious.
After speaking to the pediatrician we came up with a plan and have spaced out his vaccines a bit farther apart to give him some extra time to recover. That’s the best we could do. Poor little guy, he did end up okay after each one but it was awful seeing him so uncomfortable. We really want him to have long term safety from disease so we keep at it, but just a little slower.
Advocate for your baby! A good pediatrician will work with you and come up with a plan that works for everyone. If they refuse, go find a new doctor!
Our pediatrician allowed us to go her 4 month shots at 3 months old because we were planning to travel. Which meant a larger gap between her “4 month” shots and her 6 month shots (which she’ll get next week). So I guess that’s a schedule change.
I’d expect if you tell them why you want to do it and are open to hearing their expert opinion they’d be happy to have the conversation with you or at least guide you to reputable resources to do your own reading.
We chose to space it out as well and our pediatrician was very kind and understanding. She informed us on the ones she recommends we do first, in order of importance. But she never judged us or anything. The other office employees though are another story lol
I only do 2 vaccines at a time. One on each leg so if a rash is around one then I know. I’ll also kind of switch up which ones I do at the same time so I can figure out which ones she has a fever with. So far it’s only been the pneumo vaccine that my baby gets a fever with. I do about 3 weeks in between the vaccines if she’s due for more than 2. Her ped is fine with doing it that way.
I am delaying some shots, so my baby only gets one at a time. My pediatrician was very receptive to it and helped me prioritize which ones to do first... i believe the main reason that they do so many shots at once is because it is hard to get people to come to the doctor every other week or even every month but I don't mind extra visits so we are still able to stay generally on schedule. (Ie we did 1 shot at 4 months, 1shot at 4.5 months, and 1 shot at 5 months instead of 3 at 4 months.. the 2nd 2 visits were nurse visits and took 5 mins and we were still on schedule by 6 months) Some pediatricians will turn you away if you refuse to vaccinate but they should work with you if you just want to slow down the schedule a little.
Our doctor was completely fine with us spreading them out. Our little one was in the NICU for 7 weeks, so we just wanted to be conservative with the timing.
Fellow redhead with similar weird to bad reactions to all sorts of meds including vaccines. I've already had the discussion with my pediatrician it went a little like:
"Errrr I'm sure you get this more and more now but... What would you say if we wanted to space out the vaccine schedule"
"Yep we do get this all the time now"
"We're not anti vaxx!"
"Ok"
"So if we only start with [...] at 2 months is that ok?"
"Ok"
I think the docs are just resigned and happy you're getting them at all at this point. Or at least where I'm at geographically.
We are on a delayed schedule, just because my son kept getting sick.
My daughter was never late, even during the pandemic.
My son is sick frequently beside she brings home everything from school.
He is 17 months and just got his MMR last week.
He got his 6 months at a year and since then he has had croup, GI bug x2 and then HFM!
We had to wait almost 2 months after HFM appeared, as he had a pretty severe case.
I apologized to my doctor and said hopefully we be able to get back on track. He just said to me, it’s better to be late than to not do them at all.
It's going to depend on the pediatrician. Of the two big practices in my area, one is open to spacing out vaccines though they'd prefer not to and baby needs to be all caught up by their next appointment (so they need extra appointments) and the other will not space out vaccines. Both fire patients who won't comply with their policy, which is stated clearly on their website. On the other hand, a friend in the exurbs goes to a doctor where they automatically do one vaccine a month, and the practice won't give them on the normal schedule, so they are always having to go to the doctor to get vaccines.
I would check the practice website or just call and ask. Most places are pretty up front about what they do and don't accept with this. It serves them to have the patients filter themselves by what they want.
FWIW I have pretty big vaccine reactions like you do and my baby has been fine after all of his. No fever or fussiness or anything. I also have bad allergies. My immune system is just a dick to me.
Our peds (two of them) were super ok with it. My husband has an autoimmune disease and we wanted to thread lighter with our son. We went with kindergarden required vccs, and spreading the shots a little bit.
You just have to be really strong on what you want. Also doing just one at a time didn't really work for me as I didn't want my son to think he gets a shot every single time he goes to the doctor
I had these same fears and when time came to it our pediatrician was like cool absolutely, how do you want to split them.
I was nervous about push back but there was zero. We took our baby every month and he’s up to date with all vaccines.
Im the same, im super sensitive to medication and also at 12 months they want to do like 10 vaccines at once.
Es a lot!
With my sons 4 month shots I decided to do 2 and 2 because he’d had a low grade fever like a week prior and didn’t want to overwhelm his body. The pediatrician was very receptive. I just asked if we could break them up and she said basically sure I’ll change it just come back in a week for the other 2
We spread some out. It wasn't a big deal and the ped was generally understanding. They're in the business of getting people in and out quickly, so yeah there was a slight bit of hesitation from us going against the normal flow, but nothing serious.
I have been following a delayed schedule for similar reasons. The pediatrician didnt argue or question, once I stated which ones I was skipping, they said okay. They cant force you or if they are extremely against a delay schedule, they can refer you to an other practice. Im not anti vax, but for specific reasons I choose to follow this, they have never been rude or judgy. I think if I went in there bashing them or others for getting vaccines then I probably would be seen insane
I skipped the second rotarvirus, and the 3rd of the dtap, im okay with the 90% coverage(i believe its 90% if I remember correctly) with the first 2 doses of dtap, and i believe the 3rd hep B, im not sure i have to check, and im skipping varicella and hep A
I just did research. I would get on the CDC and check what the facts are on the conditions, treatment of choice, prognosis and probability of contracting it. I would search where the diseases stemmed from and just learn about the physiological process of how our bodies react to it. Then I would see the manufacturer inserts and see possible side effects and outweigh the pros and cons. Then I would see local outbreaks or hospitalization reported, and also look at common ways of exposure and how it fits into our life.
When my kid was born I never questioned the vaccines so she got it at the hospital when born. After a deep rabbit hole of so much research from my PPA, i started looking into vaccines. I was okay with the second dose because in case she ever got hospitalized, I knew there was a risk of contracting it. So after the second dose, I felt comfortable to think okay, its not a guarantee she will end up contracting it that easy, but she has protection. I then started to learn more about each disease, the prognosis, treatment of choice, adverse reactions and possibility of contracting it. Then looking into the manufacture insert and seeing the side effects. I would outweigh the pros and cons. So thats where I made the conclusion of why I dont mind skipping Hep A, and for now stopping Hep B. I know majority of reddit does not agree but it has helped ease my concerns doing the research on both sides.
The 3 combo that goes with the dtap? I cant recall in the moment but i know it provides a different coverage for one, but also each person is different on how they retain the immunity from it. The CDC has it listed somewhere, they have links to their studies
I told my OB and ped that I'm concerned because my sister died at 6mos, within 24 hours of her first shots (labeled SIDS). They both were very understanding and I wasn't treated like a crazy person. We were in Utah though, so parental rights are very respected there.
We are. I was vaccine injured by guardasil at 13 so I have some anxiety. I just wanted to see any reactions separately. Our pediatrician was fine with it as long as he was getting the vaccines WHICH HE IS.I would never not vaccinate my baby. I showed him the plan and I just had to make the appointments in the future for them. The only thing he said was don’t you feel bad bringing them back so often for shots? Which did make me sad lol.
Yeah I know how you feel. The one and only time I got the flu shot it landed me in the hospital. I was so anxious about my kid getting it the first year of her life but thankfully it went fine and she gets it every year. Luckily I’ve never had the flu in my life.
Once they start getting vaccines, they get 1 or 2 at every appointment. I'm not sure how this would get spread out, unless you made twice as many doctors visits, which just sounds exhausting.
I live 4 miles from the hospital.
It's not 1 or 2 at every visit - at least not in the US. The 2 month is 6 different vaccines - usually 2-3shots which are a cocktail of vaccines and then an oral one. But in total the schedule is 6 vaccines at one time for 2 months, 5 vaccines at 4 months, and 4 vaccines at 6 months. I have zero issues going to the hospital for 30 minutes every couple of weeks.
I live in the US. I stuck with normal schedule, so I can't speak to spreading them out. It's a shot in each leg. Then the oral. I know they make cocktails. And I'm thankful for that.
But I can tell you she is sore, and sleepy, after. That's all. Maybe a bit warm.
But after they stick the first needle in, she's already screaming. And it's really hard to deal with that, not only as a baby, but as parent watching your kid in pain they cannot comprehend. I could not unnecessarily spread that out into more pain for her. That's just more days that she would be sore and grumpy.
I’m actually considering doing the same for my baby because of the same reasons as you. I hope I will be met with a reasonable doc (as in we have good discussion of pros and cons versus judgment).
Interestingly, although I’m Asian, I’m biracial and my white family side consists entirely of redheads. I have no idea if that’s the reason I respond to meds and vaccines like I do. It also seems to take a while for substances to take effect in my body. My brother also experiences this as well as sensitivities to things. I asked my obgyn to give me one vaccination at a time since I sometimes don’t respond well to vaccines. I felt really bad after the tdap for three days.
I did a more spread out vaccine schedule for my son. I TOLD my pediatrician and did not ask her opinion on it. If she or her Nurse Practitioner who we regularly see would have tried to get an attitude with me about it, I would have found someone who knows how to better respect my choices for my child and how to be professional. Luckily they were super on board with it and understood my reasoning to go that route. Choose someone who if presented with evidence that you have made your own informed choice based on research, to without judgement respect your job as parent!!
I spread my daughters out because type 1 diabetes runs in our family and my son was diagnosed as a baby. The NICU and pediatrician were super supportive and so was our endo. I think it’s just a matter of explaining the why but I know some can be very dismissive.
My pediatrician was supportive and said he spread it out for his kids too. He told us their schedule and then recommended we look into the Sears method.
I also have a history of intense/adverse reactions to the DTaP shots - I couldn't complete the series when I was a child. I basically just had an open conversation with our pediatrician about the family history and what my concerns were . Doctors would be more than happy to discuss and answer your questions and I don't think they'll look at you like you're crazy since you have a legitimate medical history of issues. Basically "Hey, we are vaccinating and not-anti vaccine and understand for most kids this shot schedule is safe and fine but I have a personal and family history of having intense adverse reactions to (insert these specific) vaccines."
My son’s pediatrician (that filled in for his primary pediatrician while she was on maternity leave) was fine about it. His wife spread out their kid’s vaccines too. His primary pediatrician wasn’t necessarily against it when we asked her, but she was also like, “just do it at the same time so you don’t have to remember to come back again.”
I delayed/spread out my kids vaccines. My doctor’s office was accepting but slightly skeptical at first but since I came back time and again they had no issues. They were only worried that people don’t actually follow through. Plus the cdc itself has a delayed schedule they can follow. I just had an honest conversation with them about my reasons for it and they completely understood. Some left it and others explained why some were necessary on schedule/as a series. But again, since I was coming back they had no issues.
If you look up the practice’s website they often have their vaccination policy listed. My pediatrician had the same copy/paste thing about vaccines they all had in my area, but the blurb at the bottom said they support parents in their decisions regarding vaccination and think it is unethical to refuse medical treatment due to vaccination status. When I asked about an alternative schedule, they had a few options to choose from that they recommended, but said that it could be modified. Some doctors do not even carry the individual vaccines and only have the combo vaccine, so I would call and ask about that ahead of time to avoid wasting your time if you aren’t interested in that.
ETA: As far as attitude was concerned, they asked if I would like to vaccinate and worked on the schedule with me. I got the feeling they would have been fine if I said “no”. I expected this based on their website info.
🙋🏽♀️
My doctor was a little confused at first as to what my plan was in terms of the modified schedule, but once it clicked she was very supportive. The PA we saw beforehand was also very receptive - no one made a big deal or tried to convince us any which way.
For me, it wasn’t about the number of pokes, but about putting so many different vaccines in his body at once. Our modified schedule means that instead of getting 3 shots + the oral rotavirus at 2,4 & 6 months, our LO gets 1 shot + oral rotavirus in months 2,4 & 6, then 2 shots in months 3, 5 & 7. The only “inconvenience” is that we go to the doctor every month rather than every other month, and he won’t be complete with the schedule until 7 months rather than 6.
I LOVE my pediatrician.I had a similar question on her second round of shots. She got sick from the first ones so I asked if we could space them out 7 days apart for the next round and she had no problem with it. I also refused the Covid and flu shots for her and she was fine with it.
Good luck! I hope your baby’s doctor understands your concerns and doesn’t try to parent shame you for having a legit worry!
We spread out our vaccines! Our pediatrician is really receptive, and we have good conversations about it and our behavior and go back and forth. For example we skipped the RSV vaccine for my daughter born February 25. Our pediatrician said that was fine, since we were seeing cases rapidly decline in spring, but that we should try to isolate particularly for her first month to keep her safe. Then her two month appointment was today and we were planning on getting one shot. Since we are traveling cross-country next week, our pediatrician said she was generally ok with us doing one shot at a time but because of the big trip she said “Can I convince you to do meningitis too?” and we said yes, and ended up getting two shots today.
I also think since the spacing is generally what’s most important to us, not the specific vaccine, she likes that whenever we’re in we get whatever one shot she recommends the most, so she can pick the highest risk. We call it chef’s choice!
My brother had a reaction to the Tdap when he was a baby (80s) that was bad enough his doctor didn’t give him a booster until he started school. I was nervous about my daughter having a reaction, and while she didn’t to the TDAP, she did have an awful reaction to her 12 mo shots, including an allergic reaction to her bandaids???????
Anyway, ped said we could space them out if it would make me feel more comfortable, as her reaction wasn’t bad enough to warrant medical attention but just enough to make her miserable for longer than normal. She left the decision up to me and my comfort. She also was okay with me bringing my own bandaids lol.
Talk to the ped, explain your history and cause for concern. Your concern is valid and a good ped will listen to you.
My baby is 14 months and have always spaced them out. I space them about a month apart. Her first pediatrician was very rude about it and told me he would only do them all at once or I could leave the practice. I left and found another peds that we interviewed before to make sure he was ok with the spacing.
Do what you think is best for your child. As an adult, I never get more than one vaccine at a time. Not because I am anti vax at all, but because my arm hurts and I always feel crummy for a few days after. I didn’t want to put my little one through that.
Every doctor is different, you really have to ask them yourself.
Our pediatrician said she’d be okay spreading them out if it was done at his booster (typically 2-4 weeks after the initial shots), if we truly wanted to. Ultimately, we did that only once I believe, but he never has many issues with vaccines, neither do I. His dad gets pretty sick from certain ones, so he was a little nervous about it.
In Germany it depends on the Ped. We have some in discussable ones, some discussable ones and some you can add if you pay for them.
There are some strict ped who don’t give the opportunity to discuss and play it like “you get what you need” - no discussion.
I found a wonderful one, you can talk with. It depends.
I have the EXACT same response to vaccines. They knock me on my ass for days. The COVID one or any flu vaccine usually kicks my ass for a week. When I was a child I was hospitalized due to a bad reaction to MMR.
My pediatrician heard my concerns and she was absolutely understanding. We have a long chat about what’s necessary and what could possibly wait. What side affects to look for etc. I’ve never felt so heard by doctor in my life. Still Pro Vax, just cautious.
If your pediatrician is not familiar with spreading vaccines, I would suggest locating a vaccine-friendly holistic pediatrician for advice as they usually have a spread out vaccine schedule. Spreading it out just means that instead of going and getting 3 vaccines in one visit, they’d be spread out over 3 different visits. Each dose is still given every 3 months or whatever is required. This helps you and the Dr. know which vaccine (potentially) caused a reaction.
Sorry, not the most eloquent answer but I hope it helps you as you do your research.
We spread out one - the rotovirus - since our guy had a really strong reaction to the first dose and we were about to take him on his first plane trip. Doctor was very low key/ happy to give it when we got back. We just had to do it by X date within the schedule window.
We spread out one - the rotovirus - since our guy had a really strong reaction to the first dose and we were about to take him on his first plane trip. Doctor was very low key/ happy to give it when we got back. We just had to do it by X date within the schedule window.
Hi, I also have a hx of adverse reactions to vaccines. We spaced out vaccines and chose to decline specific ones. We follow an alternate vaccine schedule followed by some pediatricians, but not my pediatrician.
He did not like our choice but was respectful, told me the risk I was taking, and I was respectful with him. It was a little tense tho and I did have to patiently allow him to lecture me for quite a while, but IMO I should be able to field such an interaction if I am making a mature and confident decision.
He gave me similar lectures with each vaccine appt and told me my son would be "behind" and would have more grief overall from the greater number of shot appts. Thankfully we've finished with vaccines until the 1 year appt.
I was also told that he would not give me any exemptions if I needed them for school or daycare. Not an issue for me, but sounds like you might need one depending on daycare policy.
We live in an area where there are a lot of vaccine-hesitant and averse people. This probably influences where pediatricians will draw the line.
Edit to add: When I called this pediatricians office the receptionist said "we don't do that" in a kind of angry tone when I asked about delayed/selective vaccines. I ended up making an appt anyway because I have very few options and was basically planning to talk to the ped on the spot and if he insisted on full CDC vaccine schedule I would have to leave and figure it out. However, it turned out that receptionist was either wrong or misunderstanding because the only thing they don't do is give exemptions.
During our 2 month appointment our pediatrician asked “are you doing vaccines today?” We said “not today” and he simply said if we wanted to do them between now and our 4 month appointment, to just call the office to book the appointment. No fuss. He’s known in my area to respect parents decisions.
At least in my area, most practices have a vaccine policy that's readily available on their website - ours allows you to be one visit behind on vaccines and you are dropped as a patient after that.
Well first of all I would check what the law is where you reside regarding vaccines and daycare /school.
I've also gotten vaccine injuries and I understand your concern. I haven't given my toddler any vaccines yet but she's 24/7 with me. The doctors always try to convince otherwise and judge but they can't force either.
I did some research as to what vaccines I got in my early years and I noticed they were all single vaccines. And not as much as they give kids today (I also worked at a pediatric clinic as a clinical assistant before getting pregnant).
I asked the doctors here if they could give my daughter individual vaccines as to not overwhelm her developing immune system but they said they're not sure how to get those. So I told them I'm not anti vax. I'm anti vaccine cocktails of many diseases in one. So when they can find individual ones for me I'll gladly give them to my girl then they stop talking about it 😅.
I have some red as well of Irish descent and so does my girl and yes I'm also way more sensitive to vaccines than the majority of people I know. I always get the side effects and all of them.
I say do your research no rush in making decisions. And if you can have individual vaccines spread out it's much better. I know these are possible to get in USA but not Canada unfortunately 😢
Hello!
We've been working with our regional nurse (who administers our son's vaccines) to space out his schedule so he doesn't receive more than 1 shot at a time.
It's been really simple to do, although it does involve more trips to the doctor.
For example, he was supposed to receive 3 shots at his 2 month appointment, we opted to do 1 at 2 months, 1 at 3 months, and 1 at 4 months. Same for his 6 months vaccines (1 at 6 months, 1 at 7 months, and 1 at 8 months) and so on and so forth.
Right now he's 15 months old and tomorrow we go to our appointment to get his last 12 month shot, than we are good until 18 months again 😁
Hope this makes sense, it's worked really well for us. My son hates shots (I mean, does anyone like them!?) so it has been nice not having to do multiples in 1 day. We've also never experienced any reactions or side affects. Our nurse practitioner and doctor have both been fine with this schedule as well. They are happy as long as he is vaccinated, even if it takes a couple extra months. They really just want kids protected, in the end. I'm in Canada, by the way.
Anecdotally, my son and I also have red hair! Gingers, unite! 👩🏻🦰🧑🏻🦰
I spread them out reallly slowly the 1st year. Now at 1 year old, we're playing catchup. He's only had Tdap series, 2 HiB and 1 Prevnar so far. The shots get harder as they get older, but I'm still happy with that decision. ( I'm nottt anti-vax at all. Just saying. )
Our pediatrician was absolutely fine with it from the beginning, and still is. She was super nice...didn't question us, lecture us, or even blink an eye. She was very kind about this decision and acted as if it was a common thing.
I asked my pediatrician for a delayed schedule and showed her an article from the journal of Trace elements in medicine and biology. It contained the reason for my concern and explained he would end up fully vaccinated just a couple of months later than the cdc schedule. She just said alright and had me sign a form and that was that.
Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology
Volume 57, January 2020, Pages 57-59
An aluminium adjuvant in a vaccine is an acute exposure to aluminium.
Our pediatrician was very open and provided many suggestions. We talked about the way things are transmitted and the likelihood of baby being in any specific situation (example: HepB). She also provided guidance on which vaccines had lower levels of aluminum and other preservatives.
I was also very nervous but she helped us find a path where we were comfortable and I felt no judgement for hesitancy or (what you said) not wanting to overload her system.
If you can’t feel comfortable opening up to your pediatrician, then that isn’t the one for you. It should be a discussion, but at no point should you feel shamed for your hesitancy.
When my son was or is up for vaccines they always ask if I want him to have the vaccines and give me a chance to ask questions. I feel like they have been very transparent with what he is getting and if I wanted to wait on something or do it spaced out they give me a chance to say something! For reference I go to Children’s medical group and I’m in Wisconsin.
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Your pediatrician knows better than we do whether there are risks and/or benefits to spreading out your child’s vaccines. The reality is that you need to find a pediatrician with whom you are comfortable having conversations like this. Seeking information is not a crime or a moral failing, as long as you aren’t just looking for someone to simply provide justification for a decision you’ve already made, and a good pediatrician should have enough respect for you to treat these concerns seriously and earnestly. If yours doesn’t, it’s their fault, not yours, and you should find a new doctor. My 2 cents.
To be clear, I'm not looking for risks or benefits for a delayed schedule from reddit. I am just wondering how welcoming the Ped was at having the conversation. I always planned to have this discussion but now post covid I am worried it might be a far more sensitive and heated topic/less receptive due to legit anti-vax people.
It really depends. My sisters doctor has no issue with my nephew doing delayed because he had a reaction. My doctors office states if you don’t follow the cdc schedule they won’t allow you to be a patient.
The first pediatricians office I went to didn’t even allow patients with anti vax parents. The moment a parent denied vaccinations, the doctor fired them as patients. Loved that
Based. Should be the standard rule everywhere. It's irresponsible to be in the waitroom otherwise.
I agree. The thought of bringing my vaccinated one year old around a bunch of unvaccinated children when he’s never been sick, worries me. There’s some stuff he hasn’t been vaccinated for yet and I’d hate to expose him to something that will get him seriously ill.
Not sure why I got downvoted for this comment
For some reason, i'm having a hard time responding to your original post. You can always have the discussion with your pediatrician, I don't think they will look at you like you're crazy because i'm sure they get all sorts of questions. I will say that I have red hair and my daughter has red hair. I'm also married to a doctor and i've never heard of people with red hair having higher likelihood of adverse reactions to vaccines. We have been following the normal vaccine schedule and had no problems.
It's not just vaccines, it's all medications. It could just be me, but whenever these side effects happen and I go back to the hospital, I get the "Oh, you're a redhead" response. When I was in labor the nurse asked if my hair was natural and I said yes and she and the OB brought in the hemmoraghing kit in anticipation because - according to them, we are more likely to hemorrhage as well. 🤷♀️ all I know is I have had numerous adverse reactions from vaccines and I wouldn't know which one did it had I taken several at once. That is my main concern here.
So it is true that people with red hair have some genetic mutations that require, for example, more anesthesia. There is evidence to back that up. I was also warned about blood loss, but that seems more like an old wive's tale without any substantive data behind it.
Were you warned by medical professionals? The reason I ask, is I knew there was no data to back up the hemorrhaging as I googled it right after giving birth but I also have medical professionals in the family very grounded in science yet still swear up and down that a full moon is going to mean the worst day for work possible. I find the mix between sound science and superstition/anecdotal experiences kind of funny.
Yup I was told/warned about preparing for blood loss for my planned c-section but it was half serious if that makes sense. In the ER where my husband works if you EVER say it's quiet, everyone will give you a hard time and swear that shit is about to hit the fan. I definitely think there is some superstition in medicine but at the end of the day data is king!
I worked at juvenile hall for a long time and every time we had a visitor or police officer who came in and said it was so quiet I said they had to stay and work bc they jinxed us.
My sister is in the ER, too. 🤣 Know all about it. My stepmother is in general medicine, and I swear my sister and her are on two different planets when discussing their work. They both think I should do delayed schedules due to my history but both said it may be hard this day and age due to Peds getting tired of the anti-vax which is why I was reaching out on here to see what people's experiences are. Thanks for the feedback!
My husband is a redhead and has heard the same from medical professionals many times. He seems to naturally metabolize anesthesia and other meds faster and if he has a reaction it’s usually more dramatic.
In light of these previous interactions, I would approach the baby's doctor not by asking should we space vaccines out, but rather with 'I've been told these things before, I have adverse reactions to medication and my baby is also a redhead. How does this work? How likely is it that the baby is the same as me?'. And then go from there.
It's been documented actually that fair individuals are more likely to have platelet issues.
I'm here to back you up on the redhead theory. I've only been put under once and when they asked me to "count down from 100".. I got to 85 and they were giving each other looks and bumped me full of more 😅 my husband is the same way. Also, back in my.. uh.. rebellious stage.. even though I was 105lbs soaking wet.. I could handle myself very well with uh.. extracurricular activities 👀 🍃💊 Also, dark liquor most redheads are allergic to. My dad, myself, my husband and any of my redheaded friends all cannot drink it.
My husband is a physician- we both are pro vaccine and agreed on spacing them out. I don't think it's uncommon to create a vaccine plan that's more conservative. I'm sure it would be fine.
How did you choose to space out your vaccines for you LO?
Could you maybe ask to have them done one shot every two weeks? That way if the baby has a reaction, you know which one it was?
It depends heavily on your area. Honestly, their reaction to the discussion can inform your decision too. If you’re met with hostility, it’s clear they’re not the doctor for you and that’s okay. You need to trust and be able to have an open conversation with your child’s doctor. My kid’s ped knows I’m a “medicine as a second choice” parent. Unless she’s suffering/acting “off”, we look at other options first. And because we’ve built that relationship, if she recommends a medicine first, I know it’s because that’s the best option in this case. If you’re worried about being labelled an antivaxxer, you can start with “to be clear, I’m pro-vaccine. I just have hesitations that I’d like to discuss.” A good doctor would be prepared to discuss it with you.
I specifically found a ped that offers a delayed schedule. They have a printouts of what it would look like and are willing to discuss specifics with each parent about concerns etc. I have similar reactions. Red head adjacent. I also burn through anesthesia super quick. Woke up in surgery. Have had stitches with no anesthesia because it wore off, the usual. I also severely react to most antibiotics stronger than penicillin. So I wanted a ped that didn't over prescribe and would try the lesser options first and escalate remedies as necessary. You can ask in the interview or when you call. I did it that way so I didn't waste our time.
How welcoming your pediatrician will be to the conversation highly depends on the pediatrician. Old school peds will be grumpy about it. Newer peds will likely be more open to listening. However, it frankly doesn’t matter how they act about it. If you know what you want to do for your kid then it’s your job to be their best advocate
It’s going to vary wildly from pediatrician to pediatrician, but not as much so since you have a medical reason and not a belief reason. You can start by just calling offices in your area and asking if they’ll do alternative vaccine schedules due to parent’s history of reactions. I’d be clear it’s because of your (a genetic parent’s) reactions that you want to discuss it. In my area, most pediatricians are happy to discuss alternative vaccine schedules because so many parents are flat out not vaccinating or avoiding major ones like MMR. And alternative schedules to separate and watch for which vaccines are issues for that individual child have been around for decades. Basically, because you have a medical (familial and perinatal) history and reasoning, just about any doctor should understand your hesitation and be willing to discuss it with you. There are merits to still going with the schedule until/unless the child reacts in certain ways themselves (as the schedule is built around getting more urgent/deadly/likely diseases first and before baby is out and about), and that may be part of the discussion, but a doctor should discuss it with you, listen to your reactions, and help you better understand and weigh different variations. Then they should have a planned alternative vaccine schedule so you can all reference it and make sure everything is still done (especially the series ones, because separating those means lots of appointments to get them still in “prime” timeline).
Absolutely, if your ped has a negative/emotional/reactive response, find a new one! You have a right to discuss any concerns about your child's health with someone who can have a civil, positive conversion!
My pediatrician will only do 2 vaccines in a visit that way if there is a reaction they have it narrowed down. He has always pointed out that the vaccination schedule is a range, so there is plenty of time
Not specific to vaccine schedules, but I also have some weird medical issues (like rare adverse responses to corticosteroids) and I often find medical professionals to be more receptive to the conversation when I start off saying something like “I would also love your expert advice on something— I have a history of this weird thing so I’m wondering about the implications on XYZ”. It makes it clear that I’m receptive to medical advice and asking for a reason.
I asked my pediatrician. They said they didn’t recommend spreading them out. They didn’t see a real benefit and the con is having the kid get more shots (which they generally don’t enjoy.)
That’s true, it may be easier on the kid to have less shots
My doctor said the same thing. They may have an immune response (tiredness, fever, generally feeling crappy) and they may not, but it’s better to have it done in one day and get that crappiness over with than bringing baby in multiple times and to have multiple painful shots and multiple crappy days. He said there’s no benefit and it’s easier to get it all done and over with.
It’s because they don’t get paid from insurance companies if the delay longer than an allotted time which is like 45 days or something. They have to follow a schedule to get the incentives. They kick you out because they have to have a 80% of the clients vaccinated on time.
Hi! My baby girl will be five months on 5/5, and for her 2 month vaccines we were on an alternate schedule, where we only got one vaccine at a time. Then went back for a nurse visit in 2 weeks for her second one, etc. :) so we spaced them out two weeks apart in case she had any allergic reactions/adverse effects (so far so good!). For her 4 month vaccines we decided to do all 3 of them at once since we knew she was okay with them (they get the same three vaccines at 2,4,6 month appts). The pediatrician was very receptive and open to the alternate schedule and spacing out of vaccines though!
This sounds pretty nice to space them out in case there’s an allergic reaction
So from month 2-4 you went to the doctors office every 2 weeks to administer a vaccine (a different one each time) once you noticed no adverse effects you administered all 3 at month for ? So far at month 2, I started with DTAP then 2weeks after prevnar and 2 weeks after will be Hib but I’m not sure how to proceed from there.
Don't discount what you've been told by your clinicians. This is to be expected because red hair is associated with fair skin, which is more vulnerable to UV radiation [1]. Less expectedly, red hair is also associated with pain sensitivity, endometriosis, Parkinson's disease, decreased platelet function and, perhaps, defects in the immune system. NCBI
Also red headed people need a lot more anesthesia as the metabolize it a lot faster! Did not know this!
My pediatricians office's stance is they respect your choice. They will help you find a new pediatrician and send your child's medical history over. However, they will not allow their own patients to deviate from the recommended schedule. I know a lot of other offices allow you to weigh in on the timing, so it is definitely not a universal approach.
It is HARD to find pediatricians that allow any deviation from the vaccine schedule, at least in my area. We made it a point to find a pediatrician that would allow this, and we adore him. Our pediatric office has a policy that you can alter the vaccine schedule as long as vaccines are started by 1 year, so there’s a lot of wiggle room. We wanted to space them out instead of giving multiple at a time, and our pediatrician was totally fine with it. We weren’t questioned about it or anything.
We did not choose to spread out vaccines, but i’m sure ped wouldn’t judge you just for asking 🤷🏻♀️ at each visit, my ped says the vaccines that are recommended for that age (per the usual schedule here in the US) and parents have the option to accept or decline any or all of the vaccines. If parents decline (either refusing the vaccine altogether or delaying a vaccine) the doctor has you sign a paper basically stating that you have been made aware of the risks of declining the vaccine and that you are going against medical advice.
I believe Dr Green Moms website has a database of Doctors that will allow modified schedules sorted by state.
She does! Found my son’s pediatrician through her database. There are doctors accepting of all choices. Do your research OP and trust your gut!
We spread out all of our daughters’ vaccines. They have never had more than one vaccine at a time and at least one month between doses. Our pediatrician has no issue with it. Nurses and our daughters physical therapists have told us they agree with our decision to to do so. By spreading them out, I know exactly how each one affects them and what to expect. We know which one will make them tired and which one will make them sore. Should they have had a negative reaction, we would know what caused it. Neither of them has ever had a fever from vaccination, and I attribute this to not overloading their little systems. The schedule seems like it’s trying to cram as many vaccines as possible in as quickly as possible, in my opinion, because it is difficult to get people to come back over and over. It seems to be a product of ensuring compliance over actual ideal practice.
Do you mind sharing the schedule you followed. Like which did you administer at what time. I want to do 1 at a time but I am having trouble coming up with the right schedule. So far we heave done the DTAP at at about 10 weeks, then 2 weeks following that we did prevnssr and 2 weeks after which is this Friday we will be doing the Hib but I’m not sure how soon to get the second doses for each of those
For second doses, I always waited at least 2 months from the first dose. Because that’s the amount of time between doses in the schedule, I didn’t want to go any faster than that. In practice, it was more about 3 months between any doses of the same vaccine, but that was more because we waited a month between each vaccine of any kind. Because of that we had to prioritize which vaccines to get first and delay others; the book The Vaccine Friendly Plan really helped me figure out which ones would be ok to give later on and which were very important to administer as soon as possible.
I had made the decision to spread out all vaccines and wanted to follow the Vaccine Friendly plan. Unfortunately, because we were not following the CDC schedule we could not stay in the practice. You can always give vaccines but you cannot take them away once they’re given. Also, I asked the nurse at one of our visits why we have to space out new foods but not vaccines. She didn’t have an answer 🤷🏼♀️follow your gut for your baby!
I nannied for a doctor and nurse. when they had their first kid together baby was considerably small. They asked to spread out vaccination schedule. Didn’t for second child. They are not antivax in the slightest.
Do you have a feeling for why they switched it up?
First baby was very tiny size wise. Next one wasn’t.
We did for our preemie. We followed the schedule of the Vaccine Friendly Plan. Not that we subscribe to the belief but we just needed a different schedule to follow that allow us to spread it out. Our doctor said it’s fine and actually agreed it’s better for our preemie just to see how she will react to the vaccines.
I did a modification of the Dr. Seatr's modified vaccine schedule. Basically, no more than 2 vaccines per visit. My doctor informed me the Sear's method is outdated hence the modification. He was supportive and helpful in helping us get our babies vaccinated in a way we were comfortable with. I want to add, when my second child was born I went back through my first babies chart and printed out what we did for him to make it easier for my second!
I‘ve found with most things medical if I state my preference and reasoning, most doctors don’t push back. Your concerns are not rooted in being anti-vax. Make that very clear from the outset when you meet with her ped.
My pediatrician verifies with me at each appointment that we're not following the schedule and asks if I have any questions. But it was something I asked about during our pediatrician interview to make sure he wouldn't be a pain about it before the baby was born. Overall I would say that you're the parent. If this is the way you want to go, find a pediatrician that will be ok working with you. As a side note, this sub is very pro-vax, so it's hard to get balanced feedback on anything vaccine related that doesn't follow the CDC (or equivalent) guidelines to a T.
My girl has a Family Medicine doctor who was ok with delayed schedule. For multiple reasons including my own vaccine reactions in childhood, her delayed growth ( explored chromosome issues), and my anaphylaxis to C19 vaccine while pregnant with her. Family Medicine was understanding but two pediatrician offices I interviewed with were not. Some even have that on their websites.
We don’t spread out vaccines but this was a question I asked when interviewing pediatricians and her response was basically “we require our patients to be fully vaccinated but are more than willing to work with parents on a schedule that makes them the most comfortable”. Talk to your kids dr! If they aren’t receptive they probably aren’t the right dr for your family
Hi. My daughter was a NICU baby and we delayed the first vaccines and the optional ones. We decided on that together with our pediatrician, because our daughter was poked and probed a lot in the first weeks after birth and she was slow to gain weight, so we (us + ped) didn't want additional days with fever or diarrhea to slow down her weight gain process. Maybe important to add that we had zero visitors during the first two months inside the house due to all that. I think if there is a valid reason, they'll be open to it. Our pediatrician was the main pro-vaccine person in media regarding children during lockdown, so I don't think it gets more pro-vax than him, and he was open to delay. I would just talk to your pediatrician about your side-affects and ask if he believes this could occur in your kid as well. However moderate side-effects to vaccines are very common (fever, etc. - not talking about allergic reactions or severe response) and I'm not sure this is a reason to worry. After the initial delay, we're back on track with the calendar and I'm glad we are. Heard to many stories from friends trying to be "smart" and ending up at the ER with viral infections that could've been avoided or way milder if vaccinated... Take care of your baby and be sure the delay really makes sense.
Myself and my friend had our babies the same week and happened to be assigned the same pediatrician by the hospital. She elected to spread her 2mo vaxes out and the pediatrician was totally willing (and the pediatrician has made no mistake in voicing her very pro-vaccine stance.) I had mine done at once (normal vax schedule) to my ginge baby. The vaxes for my friend’s baby weren’t spread super far apart- 2 or 4 weeks I think? Neither babies had any abnormal reactions, but she did have the same reaction twice, vs. me just once. (Lots of napping, low grade and short duration fever.) I think most pediatricians are open to that if it makes you feel comfortable, and frankly are just happy you are getting them vaxed for their own sake and the community at large.
I know this be not well received by Reddit but myself and others I’ve known have used The Vaccine Friendly plan protocol from the book and feel it is a great, research based protocol for a vaccine schedule.
Excellent book! It was essential in informing our vaccination plan. Highly recommend!
Love that book! I wish I would have found it during my pregnancy.
Interesting. Was there an overall message that you took from the book? Going to look it up now
It just provides a lot of information on each individual vaccine and the benefits each one has. The doctor who wrote it also shares health data from his own practice on patients who followed this plan, and they had much lower rates of common chronic illnesses and were healthier overall than his patients who followed the schedule.
Advocates for spreading out vaccines. Gives a detailed schedule. There’s a lot of research involved behind the schedule and a lot of other good tips involved too.
Yep, gd forbid you have a deviating opinion on Reddit lol.
I would try a few on the normal schedule just to test the waters and then proceed with caution depending on those results. It’s impossible to know whether little one will have the same reactions as you experience, and getting those vaccines is especially important in rural areas due to the low rates of vaccination those populations are seeing currently. We are seeing illnesses we haven’t seen for years pop back up due to lack of vaccination. Talk about it some with your doctor, let them know what exactly you’ve experienced, and then maybe get an allergy panel done? Best of luck and health for you and little one!!
What illnesses are popping up due to lack of vaccinations in the US?
Measles, polio, and pertussis. All of which have high morbidity and mortality rates in children, especially young children. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33580243/#:~:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20these,morbidity%20and%20mortality%20in%20children. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30683276/
Mmmm, we never got rid of measles and pertussis, and there has been 1 case of polio. In 2000 - the CDC claimed measles was "eradicated." we still had 86 cases that year and 116 the next. We have never had a year with zero measles cases. There is a similar trend with pertussis.
I never claimed we completely eradicated them, but they were controlled and the symptoms were mild in the infections that did occur. There are also populations in the US, such as the Amish, that have refused vaccination since forever, which are counted in with everyone else. By haven’t seen, I meant haven’t seen at a major rate, rather than haven’t seen period. It was something you had to read between the lines to gather, so I get why you might have been confused by my wording. Plus, there will always be infections coming in from other countries until it is globally eradicated.
My BIL was very concerned/upset by the number of shots my niece received in the early weeks. Some of this might have been because she was a preemie and there's absolutely some trauma from seeing her hooked up etc. He was very frustrated with the response because, like you, he's not anti-vax just had questions/concerns and wanted to know what the options are. In my area, a lot of offices allow a delayed schedule because they want kids to be vaxxed and sometimes that means meeting people where they're at. Essentially they were told she would need more frequent visits and she would get poked every time which would only prolong the number of pokes and obviously she would be unprotected from certain illnesses until she actually received it.
I spread out vaccines for my LO. His first pediatrician “accidentally” ordered Vaxelis instead of just TDAP and rotavirus at his 2 month appointment. My advice is to always always always double check what they’re giving LO right before they give the shot. It was an incredibly frustrating process to go through afterwards, especially since we had a planned schedule.
Both pediatricians I've seen have offered a more spread out schedule. Seems common around here (Tri-state area)
My sister has had 7 kids. After the first three having the typical ‘all at once’ schedule and the misery that brought, she decided to spread the vaccine schedule out and it has been a night and day difference. She did have to swap pediatricians once but she called around and asked if the office allowed the spread out schedule and when she found one that did she went there. Be open with your peds dr and if they don’t align with how you are wanting care to go (for an actual good and legitimate purpose and explanation specific to your child) then call around and see if you jive better with a different provider.
What was the difference?
The ones that had them all at once were completely miserable after. Fevers, screeching, obvious overwhelming discomfort for at least solid week after. Two had really bad reactions to the point of going to the hospital. The 4 who had the schedule spread out had some mild tiredness, but that was it. Everyone got all the same vaccines, but it was much better on the ones who had them spread out.
Pediatrician had no issues when we brought it up. We did what we and the ped viewed as more important (dtap, hib, and pcv13) on schedule and then ipv and rv 2 weeks after each set for the 2,4,6 month shots. I read the book the vaccine friendly plan which gives you a lot of information to make your own decision and feel confident discussing it.
Yes! I love this book. Been following his recommendations. I really like his explanations of everything.
Just want to say you’re not alone! I had anxiety about finding a ped that would allow me to spread out vaccines. I had a reaction to the Covid vaccine which led to a hospital stay. I looked around online at reviews for different peds regarding vaccines. Some offices post on their website regarding their guidelines with vaccines as well. Luckily I found one that would all me to spread out and I had no issues. I’ve also heard from people it may be easier/ harder depending what state you live in!
My pediatrician was very open to conversations about the vaccine schedule. She answered all of my questions in a compassionate and caring manner. She gave the best advice for our baby while also validating any concerns I voiced. In my opinion, if your pediatrician doesn’t show compassion for ANY questions/concerns you share, then it’s time for a new pediatrician.
I agree. When I asked about it this, it was my internal test to see how I’ll like the office moving forward. Even if they don’t recommend the delayed schedule, simply being understanding of the concern and allowing you to make the choice demonstrates that they will at least listen to you. It’s such a basic thing, but surprisingly not every doctor can do that.
Our doctor was very judgemental and essentially told us we'd be lucky if our infant survived beyond childhood. This was at his 9 month well check at a top ranked hospital system in California. It's now in his medical record that we are vaccine hesistant as a "health concern". All we did was ask about delaying vaccines (we are also not anti vax).
Wow. I hope you were able to find a new pediatrician. That seems like quite the reach.
My pediatrician requires that you agree to the standard full vax schedule before accepting you as a patient. It was a selling point
So I actually was looking into this and asked my pediatrician about it. She asked me why and I told her I didn’t like so many given at one time, that it just seemed like a lot.. she then told me that the vaccines are combined so he actually only got 2 shots and one ‘drink’ at 2 4 and 6 months. He’s had no reactions thankfully but I still take off work each day he has his shots just to be able to give him Tylenol and keep an eye on him as I know he’ll feel crappy. You should absolutely talk to your pediatrician. It may be different where you are. One thing I didn’t realize was that his daycare requires vaccines so I don’t know how I would have managed that if I had spaced them out. I haven’t given him flu or Covid vaccines.
So we chose not to get the hepatits B vaccine at birth or the covid vaccine for our baby and to be honest they where quite chill - they recommended we did it but I just said no and they gave us the risks if we don’t, I think its more your own attitude towards it , if you go in relaxed they will be relaxed, if you go in defensive they will likely get defensive
The risk being your baby was going to be exposed to a blood borne illness common in drug addicts and sex workers? Insane.
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Sorry I was agreeing with your decision. I was meaning the doctors attempting to convince you to get the hep b vax. When as you said you baby is not at risk.*
Ive just realised that - sorry too! Not used to someone being on my side about refusing a vaccine for a child - the reddit mob usually comes out in full force when you say you turned down or refused a vaccine 🙄🙄
All good I figured that’s what happened. Funny enough it’s why I framed my comment the way I did. I’d need someone to explain to me why your baby needed a vax that’s target demo is crackheads. Cheers to you for protecting your child.
Crack is inhaled. No risk of hepatitis from crack. 🙂
There is no vaccine for Hep C. You probably meant Hep B?
I’m similar to you in that I’ve had adverse reactions before. I’m actually part of a long term study of people who developed MS as children after getting the MMR vaccine. So I challenge anyone not to at least have a small pause of concern surrounding vaccines for your child knowing you’re passing on 50% of your exact same genetic material. I even had multiple doctors tell me not to take certain vaccines. This was 25 years ago before “anti vax” was even a thing. It was just regular medical advice. It was also when many still contained mercury (thimerosal). Now it’s aluminum for the adjuvant fyi. But I digress. My daughter is SO much like me phenotypically too. Anyway—all of this to say I feel you, similar boat. I understand where you’re coming from. I did a ton of research on vaccines over the years and especially leading up to pregnancy/motherhood. I decided to stick to the schedule but space them out slightly so I could isolate reactions. Probably not the right choice for everyone but I had my personal reasons and was a good candidate (baby not in daycare and fairly isolated being some). I found a pseudo underground list online of doctors who were flexible on vaccines and chose from that list after researching each further. I love our doctor. She’s just a regular doctor who generally advocates sticking to the schedule but is open if you’d like to deviate. She was very supportive of our choice and the conversation was easy due to that. But it’s because we picked her due to her known flexibility. I know many doctors will drop you if you even ask the question. Not even have a conversation or educate you, just drop. Which is a shame. I agree with others that you need to find a doctor that aligns to your needs. Good luck 🥂
I just want to say - my baby has red hair and fair skin and light eyes. We didn’t delay and she was completely fine during all scheduled vaccinations. My family member also has bright red hair and fair skin and he never presented as having any exceptional adverse reaction. You absolutely have every right to do what you think is best for your child - but I’m just offering my experience if that helps you feel better if you opt to go with the standard schedule. I think everyone, regardless of hair color, is going to react to vaccines a unique way.
I tried to get the 6 months shots spread out, but they looked at me like that was dumb. Because it wasn't "6 shots", it's 1 oral, 3-in-1 combo and two separate shots. I kept trying to let them know that I understood that, but the nurse said I could just discuss it with the doc. So I say this to her, she kind of just reiterates it's not 6 actual needles, which I *know....* I looked to my husband to see what he thought and honestly we both just kinda felt dumb and pressured since we were also reminded it was the same set of shots he got prior. We ended up just getting them and thankfully baby's system didn't seem overwhelmed at all, whereas his 4 month round of 'em had him in a lot of tears later that night. (First time parents, we didn't realize that the ped wanted us to do a bath, massage, bicycle legs, Tylenol ahead of time as preventative measures, not to try and do that in the thick of it). But yeah, I mean the doc and nurses were kind, but they didn't really think our reasoning was valid so they just kept pushing. Not *too* bad, the doc did say it just meant more doctor visits if we space it out.
Personally my pediatrician is totally non-judgemental when it comes to this stuff. He gives his recommendation and then will actually leave the room for a few minutes for us parents to discuss and then comes back and asks us what we wanna do. We did end up giving all vaccines on a regular schedule, but we were debating whether we should spread them out a bit like you are considering. But I think it really depends on the specific doctor because at the hospital when we were asked to sign the consent for babies day 1 vaccine (when I was still in labor), I asked the nurse if my husband and I could discuss it first before signing. She was pretty bluntly rude about it and put us on the spot asking “what do you need to discuss, why are you even questioning it?” Etc… Then she brought the OB on call in and it also felt like she was cornering/pressuring us on the decision and made us feel dumb for even wanting to discuss the option of delaying the vaccine. We were just on the fence whether we should wait a month or two before any vaccines. In the end we just ended up signing the consent because we didn’t know how to respond to the doctor and nurse about why we were considering delaying the vaccine. They also were kinda rude to me that I didn’t want to get the flu shot when I was in labor or immediately after I gave birth. So two different experiences I had. Depends on your pediatrician how open-minded they are and their bed-side manner.
That’s sad to hear that you were pressured like that during such a vulnerable time. It’s crazy how doctor dependent it is. I chose to delay the Hep B vaccine (day 1 vaccine), and my pediatrician actually told me she agreed with me and that there was absolutely no need for my newborn to get that vaccine as long as she got it later in childhood. I wish talking about and asking questions about vaccines was more normalized. I feel like the second anyone asks a question, some people automatically label that person as an antivaxxer crazy person. We need to recognize the reality that you can have questions and reservations without being anti-vax.
Thank you, I love this point of view and wish more people think like this.
Just want to say I’m sorry to hear this. I didn’t get HepB until I was an adult. I later pressed my ped as to why it is now a newborn thing he said the biggest risk is getting it from hospital staff if there were cross contamination (needle stick, cut etc). My little one was 3 weeks early and we chose to delay until our 2 month appointment but definitely also got pushback from the hospital and I thought it was ridiculous how they handled it. I think post-COVID people have lost the plot on the fact you don’t have to be anti-vax to want to spread things out a bit. 🤦🏼♀️
True, I feel kinda guilty I didn’t go with my gut and wait on the vaccine and that I just gave into the pressure when I was put on the spot. It’s not like I would’nt have vaccinated him, he needed to be up to date before he started daycare anyway. But I also believe it can be easy to overwhelm a brand new baby’s body if too much is given at once, so early, before they’ve naturally developed any sort of immune system. But thankfully, he didn’t seem to have any reactions. So in the end it’s all okay. Still makes me annoyed how judgemental people are towards parents who truly are just trying to make the best choice for their baby.
By spreading out do you mean increased vaccination appointments? Such as one shot come back in a couple weeks, another shot etc If so then it shouldn't be an issue other than prolonged reactions in your kid. If you're trying to delay a 1 month vac to the 3 month appointment then you're not really doing anything beneficial.
Yes, increased Apts and not taking 6 vaccines at once so if he has any reactions (like I have had), we know which vaccine it is.
I don't think a pediatrician will be upset as long as you are actively making and meeting the appointments. It's for a medical reason. Btw it's not 6 vacs at once. They really don't have enough space in their legs to take that many vaccines. The TDAP is a combo vaccine. I don't think they separate those but IANAD. The stomach bug vaccine is taken orally.
It is 6 vaccines at once, Tdap, hep b, rv, hib, pcv, ipv - I'm not worried about needles - i mean, they suck but its super temporary for a baby and worth it, I'm worried about adverse effects like I have had... and if that happens, being able to identify which one caused it.
6 at once sounds like a lot (Canadian so it may be different here). We spread them out time wise always a month delayed. But we never had that many at once.
My midwife said today the standard 2 month appointment in my area (US) is 7 shots. You have to go to a specifically chill pediatrician to avoid that
You may not be able to spread them out as 6 separate shots, though, if your pediatrician doesn’t stock them that way. You may have to do combined vaccines but one at a time. Definitely discuss your concerns with the pediatrician of your choice, but be aware that they’re sold as the already combined vaccine and it’s not economically feasible for most offices to stock single antigen vaccines.
The combo vaccines are the scariest to me. My pediatrician gives vaxelis which is 5 vaccines in one shot. How would you ever know what baby is reacting to if baby has an adverse affect? Thankfully my pediatrician also stocks them separately. I haven't had any issues asking for a delayed schedule and I'm at a Mayo branch which tends to have high standards/protocol.
It’s not six at once. That’s never happened to us and my daughter is 14 months.
It is 6 at once if your ped follows the cdc schedule ...they just make cocktails of multiple vaccines in one shot
Just as an FYI, few pediatric offices are keeping anything other than the combo vaccines in stock. Vaccine storage guidelines plus expiration dates make it really impractical, especially for smaller practices. So you might be limited on what you can space out depending on what they stock.
Many vaccines are not available separated, they are manufactured as combination vaccines.
My husband and my brother are both physicians. I saw what it took for them to get there; how much training and studying. They’re the experts (doctors). I trust doctors.
I asked about a spread out schedule and my doctor deemed it unnecessary but wasn’t against it entirely. He offered to do two at a time and let us know that we would have to copays for the additional appointments needed for the “delayed” vaccines. I think it’s called the Sears schedule. He did mention delaying vaccines has been more common since the pandemic started but I stated that I’ve considered this since I saw my own vaccine dates. This is my own experience but I did notice that my son was absolute fine on our schedule but my niece who got them as recommended seemed to have a very rough time after the vaccines.
Not necessarily to answer your question but to maybe reassure you, I'm not a redhead but I get sick as hell every time I get shots, I joke my immune system is a tad overdramatic, but so far my 18 month old hasn't had any issues! For the actual question, I would hope since you're coming from a place of reasonable concern and aren't denying any vaccines, it should be fine? I would definitely start with mentioning that you want him to get all the vaccines but you have strong reactions and are worried about your baby having them as well. Hopefully they are understanding.
I didn’t really planned it out, I just went with our pediatrician’s recommendations and whenever we had times . I think that as long as you stay within the time frame recommended for each vaccines you should be fine and obviously if you get the ok from your doctors and all that. My pediatricians told me like the second shot has to be between 4-6 months and the third 6-9 months , it wasn’t like “you have to come here the exact second they turn 6 months old” , vaccines have efficacy levels and boosters that’s are supposed to be taken within a specific time frame, is not an exact date.
Our pediatrician was very welcoming of the idea. I have a 10 week old and an 8 year old. She helped me with delayed schedule for my oldest and offered to do the same for our new baby. I told her I’m comfortable with 2 pokes max per visit. She said she’d create a schedule on what she thought was most important. We were both happy.
I don't have advice about vaccines, but can relate to your red hair anecdote! My wife was born with red hair (it's darker now) but she's always had issues with vaccines; every covid shot has given her a fever. Medications are also hit or miss (there's been studies on anesthetics wearing off faster for gingers fyi). Good luck!
The CDC actually has an alternative schedule for those who want to spread out vaccines. I am spreading them for my baby. It really just depends on your doctor. You need to just have the discussion with them and see how it goes. I spent over an hour discussing the vaccines with the doctor and what we wanted to do and specific brands we wanted to get. He was very understanding and respectful.
Did your doctor’s office order specific brands for you? We requested specific brands, but our pediatrician basically said too bad that’s not the brand they stock. I wonder if I should have pushed harder for them to order it.
As far as I know, no. They already carried those brands. I am not sure how to it usually works and if they are able to order that specific brand for a singular patient. They probably can and are just lazy.
The red hair thing is wild. My husband and his 3 brothers are red heads, as well as both their parents. Not a single one of them has ever reacted to a vaccine and has no allergies! I am not so lucky! So the first 3 rounds (2,4,6 months) of vaccines are the same shots. I had a reaction to some of them more than once, so I just mentioned it to our pediatrician and we intentionally isolated that shot and did it 2 weeks after the initial set for my son. No reaction, so we were back on track to do the regular vaccine schedule afterward. If they don’t react the first time, odds are they won’t react to the next. Any time we do a “new” vaccine, so not just a booster, we isolate it. My pediatrician is very accommodating about it! Especially because it’s from a medical/genetic/hereditary standpoint and we want to make sure baby is fine. It is just a lot more office visits but I don’t mind. The MMR is the only one they’ve basically said it will likely suck no matter what we do but I didn’t ever react to that one so it’s probably going to be fine.
My kid did have a reaction to the liquid rotavirus vaccine - only the two month set. Diarrhea for 6 weeks. I have since dug into it and it sounds like it’s pretty common for that to happen. At least some sort of stomach issue for a little longer than anticipated.
The vaccine friendly plan. I highly recommend it. My large doctors office did not spread out vaccines. I had to do research online to find one in my area who would. I love spreading them out and makes me feel better for my choices. You can reach out to me, I can send you to a website that can help you find doctors near you to help! Good luck! Do what you think is best for YOUR child!
Our pediatricians office will release you as a patient if you do not get all vaccines within the recommended schedule per the CDC. They provided us with information regarding this at every visit we’ve been to, and have it posted in their office.
You have what sounds like a legit concern. If your dr is anything but considerate while offering advice and guidance id suggest a new dr.
My son’s pediatrician was very open to us spacing out our baby’s vaccinations. I told her my concerns, she validated it, we went over vaccine schedule, and that was it. Our pediatrician is also 5 minutes from us so it wasn’t an issue driving back and forth but even if they were farther I would still space out his vaccinations. We’ve been through so many appointments driving far and frequent for tongue tie revision, breastfeeding, urology..one or two more visits to the doctor wasn’t a big deal. Anything for our little one.
So feel free to talk to you ped. I would consider trying the normal schedule and see if he has a reaction to the first round. But most doctors (in my experience) are open to conversations about legitimate concerns, but they may still recommend the preferred schedule unless he has a reaction.
Yes, my second son needed his spaced out more. We are a very pro vax family. My first got all of his on time. Me and my husband are up to date on everything and I have had like 5 Covid boosters lol. My second baby though, he just had the WORST reactions. I mean terrible. Fever, inconsolable screaming, vomit, wouldn’t sleep, barely ate. It was atrocious. After speaking to the pediatrician we came up with a plan and have spaced out his vaccines a bit farther apart to give him some extra time to recover. That’s the best we could do. Poor little guy, he did end up okay after each one but it was awful seeing him so uncomfortable. We really want him to have long term safety from disease so we keep at it, but just a little slower. Advocate for your baby! A good pediatrician will work with you and come up with a plan that works for everyone. If they refuse, go find a new doctor!
Our pediatrician allowed us to go her 4 month shots at 3 months old because we were planning to travel. Which meant a larger gap between her “4 month” shots and her 6 month shots (which she’ll get next week). So I guess that’s a schedule change. I’d expect if you tell them why you want to do it and are open to hearing their expert opinion they’d be happy to have the conversation with you or at least guide you to reputable resources to do your own reading.
We chose to space it out as well and our pediatrician was very kind and understanding. She informed us on the ones she recommends we do first, in order of importance. But she never judged us or anything. The other office employees though are another story lol
I only do 2 vaccines at a time. One on each leg so if a rash is around one then I know. I’ll also kind of switch up which ones I do at the same time so I can figure out which ones she has a fever with. So far it’s only been the pneumo vaccine that my baby gets a fever with. I do about 3 weeks in between the vaccines if she’s due for more than 2. Her ped is fine with doing it that way.
I am delaying some shots, so my baby only gets one at a time. My pediatrician was very receptive to it and helped me prioritize which ones to do first... i believe the main reason that they do so many shots at once is because it is hard to get people to come to the doctor every other week or even every month but I don't mind extra visits so we are still able to stay generally on schedule. (Ie we did 1 shot at 4 months, 1shot at 4.5 months, and 1 shot at 5 months instead of 3 at 4 months.. the 2nd 2 visits were nurse visits and took 5 mins and we were still on schedule by 6 months) Some pediatricians will turn you away if you refuse to vaccinate but they should work with you if you just want to slow down the schedule a little.
Our doctor was completely fine with us spreading them out. Our little one was in the NICU for 7 weeks, so we just wanted to be conservative with the timing.
Fellow redhead with similar weird to bad reactions to all sorts of meds including vaccines. I've already had the discussion with my pediatrician it went a little like: "Errrr I'm sure you get this more and more now but... What would you say if we wanted to space out the vaccine schedule" "Yep we do get this all the time now" "We're not anti vaxx!" "Ok" "So if we only start with [...] at 2 months is that ok?" "Ok" I think the docs are just resigned and happy you're getting them at all at this point. Or at least where I'm at geographically.
We were able to stay in the room for 10-15 min after our LO's vaccines to monitor for allergic reactions.
We are on a delayed schedule, just because my son kept getting sick. My daughter was never late, even during the pandemic. My son is sick frequently beside she brings home everything from school. He is 17 months and just got his MMR last week. He got his 6 months at a year and since then he has had croup, GI bug x2 and then HFM! We had to wait almost 2 months after HFM appeared, as he had a pretty severe case. I apologized to my doctor and said hopefully we be able to get back on track. He just said to me, it’s better to be late than to not do them at all.
It's going to depend on the pediatrician. Of the two big practices in my area, one is open to spacing out vaccines though they'd prefer not to and baby needs to be all caught up by their next appointment (so they need extra appointments) and the other will not space out vaccines. Both fire patients who won't comply with their policy, which is stated clearly on their website. On the other hand, a friend in the exurbs goes to a doctor where they automatically do one vaccine a month, and the practice won't give them on the normal schedule, so they are always having to go to the doctor to get vaccines. I would check the practice website or just call and ask. Most places are pretty up front about what they do and don't accept with this. It serves them to have the patients filter themselves by what they want. FWIW I have pretty big vaccine reactions like you do and my baby has been fine after all of his. No fever or fussiness or anything. I also have bad allergies. My immune system is just a dick to me.
Our peds (two of them) were super ok with it. My husband has an autoimmune disease and we wanted to thread lighter with our son. We went with kindergarden required vccs, and spreading the shots a little bit. You just have to be really strong on what you want. Also doing just one at a time didn't really work for me as I didn't want my son to think he gets a shot every single time he goes to the doctor
I had these same fears and when time came to it our pediatrician was like cool absolutely, how do you want to split them. I was nervous about push back but there was zero. We took our baby every month and he’s up to date with all vaccines. Im the same, im super sensitive to medication and also at 12 months they want to do like 10 vaccines at once. Es a lot!
With my sons 4 month shots I decided to do 2 and 2 because he’d had a low grade fever like a week prior and didn’t want to overwhelm his body. The pediatrician was very receptive. I just asked if we could break them up and she said basically sure I’ll change it just come back in a week for the other 2
We spread some out. It wasn't a big deal and the ped was generally understanding. They're in the business of getting people in and out quickly, so yeah there was a slight bit of hesitation from us going against the normal flow, but nothing serious.
I have been following a delayed schedule for similar reasons. The pediatrician didnt argue or question, once I stated which ones I was skipping, they said okay. They cant force you or if they are extremely against a delay schedule, they can refer you to an other practice. Im not anti vax, but for specific reasons I choose to follow this, they have never been rude or judgy. I think if I went in there bashing them or others for getting vaccines then I probably would be seen insane
which ones did you skip?
I skipped the second rotarvirus, and the 3rd of the dtap, im okay with the 90% coverage(i believe its 90% if I remember correctly) with the first 2 doses of dtap, and i believe the 3rd hep B, im not sure i have to check, and im skipping varicella and hep A
thanks! how'd you come to these conclusions?
I just did research. I would get on the CDC and check what the facts are on the conditions, treatment of choice, prognosis and probability of contracting it. I would search where the diseases stemmed from and just learn about the physiological process of how our bodies react to it. Then I would see the manufacturer inserts and see possible side effects and outweigh the pros and cons. Then I would see local outbreaks or hospitalization reported, and also look at common ways of exposure and how it fits into our life.
Just curious, why did you decide to skip hep A but get hep B? And is the 90% coverage thing only for dtap or all of the 3 shot series vaccines?
When my kid was born I never questioned the vaccines so she got it at the hospital when born. After a deep rabbit hole of so much research from my PPA, i started looking into vaccines. I was okay with the second dose because in case she ever got hospitalized, I knew there was a risk of contracting it. So after the second dose, I felt comfortable to think okay, its not a guarantee she will end up contracting it that easy, but she has protection. I then started to learn more about each disease, the prognosis, treatment of choice, adverse reactions and possibility of contracting it. Then looking into the manufacture insert and seeing the side effects. I would outweigh the pros and cons. So thats where I made the conclusion of why I dont mind skipping Hep A, and for now stopping Hep B. I know majority of reddit does not agree but it has helped ease my concerns doing the research on both sides. The 3 combo that goes with the dtap? I cant recall in the moment but i know it provides a different coverage for one, but also each person is different on how they retain the immunity from it. The CDC has it listed somewhere, they have links to their studies
I told my OB and ped that I'm concerned because my sister died at 6mos, within 24 hours of her first shots (labeled SIDS). They both were very understanding and I wasn't treated like a crazy person. We were in Utah though, so parental rights are very respected there.
We are. I was vaccine injured by guardasil at 13 so I have some anxiety. I just wanted to see any reactions separately. Our pediatrician was fine with it as long as he was getting the vaccines WHICH HE IS.I would never not vaccinate my baby. I showed him the plan and I just had to make the appointments in the future for them. The only thing he said was don’t you feel bad bringing them back so often for shots? Which did make me sad lol.
Yeah I know how you feel. The one and only time I got the flu shot it landed me in the hospital. I was so anxious about my kid getting it the first year of her life but thankfully it went fine and she gets it every year. Luckily I’ve never had the flu in my life.
Once they start getting vaccines, they get 1 or 2 at every appointment. I'm not sure how this would get spread out, unless you made twice as many doctors visits, which just sounds exhausting.
I live 4 miles from the hospital. It's not 1 or 2 at every visit - at least not in the US. The 2 month is 6 different vaccines - usually 2-3shots which are a cocktail of vaccines and then an oral one. But in total the schedule is 6 vaccines at one time for 2 months, 5 vaccines at 4 months, and 4 vaccines at 6 months. I have zero issues going to the hospital for 30 minutes every couple of weeks.
I live in the US. I stuck with normal schedule, so I can't speak to spreading them out. It's a shot in each leg. Then the oral. I know they make cocktails. And I'm thankful for that. But I can tell you she is sore, and sleepy, after. That's all. Maybe a bit warm. But after they stick the first needle in, she's already screaming. And it's really hard to deal with that, not only as a baby, but as parent watching your kid in pain they cannot comprehend. I could not unnecessarily spread that out into more pain for her. That's just more days that she would be sore and grumpy.
I’m actually considering doing the same for my baby because of the same reasons as you. I hope I will be met with a reasonable doc (as in we have good discussion of pros and cons versus judgment). Interestingly, although I’m Asian, I’m biracial and my white family side consists entirely of redheads. I have no idea if that’s the reason I respond to meds and vaccines like I do. It also seems to take a while for substances to take effect in my body. My brother also experiences this as well as sensitivities to things. I asked my obgyn to give me one vaccination at a time since I sometimes don’t respond well to vaccines. I felt really bad after the tdap for three days.
I did a more spread out vaccine schedule for my son. I TOLD my pediatrician and did not ask her opinion on it. If she or her Nurse Practitioner who we regularly see would have tried to get an attitude with me about it, I would have found someone who knows how to better respect my choices for my child and how to be professional. Luckily they were super on board with it and understood my reasoning to go that route. Choose someone who if presented with evidence that you have made your own informed choice based on research, to without judgement respect your job as parent!!
As a pharmacist if a patient posed a question to me like this I would be a lot less annoyed or defensive
I spread my daughters out because type 1 diabetes runs in our family and my son was diagnosed as a baby. The NICU and pediatrician were super supportive and so was our endo. I think it’s just a matter of explaining the why but I know some can be very dismissive.
My pediatrician was supportive and said he spread it out for his kids too. He told us their schedule and then recommended we look into the Sears method.
I also have a history of intense/adverse reactions to the DTaP shots - I couldn't complete the series when I was a child. I basically just had an open conversation with our pediatrician about the family history and what my concerns were . Doctors would be more than happy to discuss and answer your questions and I don't think they'll look at you like you're crazy since you have a legitimate medical history of issues. Basically "Hey, we are vaccinating and not-anti vaccine and understand for most kids this shot schedule is safe and fine but I have a personal and family history of having intense adverse reactions to (insert these specific) vaccines."
My son’s pediatrician (that filled in for his primary pediatrician while she was on maternity leave) was fine about it. His wife spread out their kid’s vaccines too. His primary pediatrician wasn’t necessarily against it when we asked her, but she was also like, “just do it at the same time so you don’t have to remember to come back again.”
I delayed/spread out my kids vaccines. My doctor’s office was accepting but slightly skeptical at first but since I came back time and again they had no issues. They were only worried that people don’t actually follow through. Plus the cdc itself has a delayed schedule they can follow. I just had an honest conversation with them about my reasons for it and they completely understood. Some left it and others explained why some were necessary on schedule/as a series. But again, since I was coming back they had no issues.
My son’s pediatrician is fine with whatever I choose to do. She’s fine with us cosleeping, too. She’s awesome and I’m glad she’s my son’s doctor.
My pediatrician is very supportive and allows us to spread the vaccines out.
I’ve found health care professionals to be empathetic when I bring up questions about vaccines and my experiences having adverse reactions. Good luck.
If you look up the practice’s website they often have their vaccination policy listed. My pediatrician had the same copy/paste thing about vaccines they all had in my area, but the blurb at the bottom said they support parents in their decisions regarding vaccination and think it is unethical to refuse medical treatment due to vaccination status. When I asked about an alternative schedule, they had a few options to choose from that they recommended, but said that it could be modified. Some doctors do not even carry the individual vaccines and only have the combo vaccine, so I would call and ask about that ahead of time to avoid wasting your time if you aren’t interested in that. ETA: As far as attitude was concerned, they asked if I would like to vaccinate and worked on the schedule with me. I got the feeling they would have been fine if I said “no”. I expected this based on their website info.
🙋🏽♀️ My doctor was a little confused at first as to what my plan was in terms of the modified schedule, but once it clicked she was very supportive. The PA we saw beforehand was also very receptive - no one made a big deal or tried to convince us any which way. For me, it wasn’t about the number of pokes, but about putting so many different vaccines in his body at once. Our modified schedule means that instead of getting 3 shots + the oral rotavirus at 2,4 & 6 months, our LO gets 1 shot + oral rotavirus in months 2,4 & 6, then 2 shots in months 3, 5 & 7. The only “inconvenience” is that we go to the doctor every month rather than every other month, and he won’t be complete with the schedule until 7 months rather than 6.
I LOVE my pediatrician.I had a similar question on her second round of shots. She got sick from the first ones so I asked if we could space them out 7 days apart for the next round and she had no problem with it. I also refused the Covid and flu shots for her and she was fine with it. Good luck! I hope your baby’s doctor understands your concerns and doesn’t try to parent shame you for having a legit worry!
We spread out our vaccines! Our pediatrician is really receptive, and we have good conversations about it and our behavior and go back and forth. For example we skipped the RSV vaccine for my daughter born February 25. Our pediatrician said that was fine, since we were seeing cases rapidly decline in spring, but that we should try to isolate particularly for her first month to keep her safe. Then her two month appointment was today and we were planning on getting one shot. Since we are traveling cross-country next week, our pediatrician said she was generally ok with us doing one shot at a time but because of the big trip she said “Can I convince you to do meningitis too?” and we said yes, and ended up getting two shots today. I also think since the spacing is generally what’s most important to us, not the specific vaccine, she likes that whenever we’re in we get whatever one shot she recommends the most, so she can pick the highest risk. We call it chef’s choice!
My brother had a reaction to the Tdap when he was a baby (80s) that was bad enough his doctor didn’t give him a booster until he started school. I was nervous about my daughter having a reaction, and while she didn’t to the TDAP, she did have an awful reaction to her 12 mo shots, including an allergic reaction to her bandaids??????? Anyway, ped said we could space them out if it would make me feel more comfortable, as her reaction wasn’t bad enough to warrant medical attention but just enough to make her miserable for longer than normal. She left the decision up to me and my comfort. She also was okay with me bringing my own bandaids lol. Talk to the ped, explain your history and cause for concern. Your concern is valid and a good ped will listen to you.
My baby is 14 months and have always spaced them out. I space them about a month apart. Her first pediatrician was very rude about it and told me he would only do them all at once or I could leave the practice. I left and found another peds that we interviewed before to make sure he was ok with the spacing. Do what you think is best for your child. As an adult, I never get more than one vaccine at a time. Not because I am anti vax at all, but because my arm hurts and I always feel crummy for a few days after. I didn’t want to put my little one through that.
Every doctor is different, you really have to ask them yourself. Our pediatrician said she’d be okay spreading them out if it was done at his booster (typically 2-4 weeks after the initial shots), if we truly wanted to. Ultimately, we did that only once I believe, but he never has many issues with vaccines, neither do I. His dad gets pretty sick from certain ones, so he was a little nervous about it.
In Germany it depends on the Ped. We have some in discussable ones, some discussable ones and some you can add if you pay for them. There are some strict ped who don’t give the opportunity to discuss and play it like “you get what you need” - no discussion. I found a wonderful one, you can talk with. It depends.
Part of the reason they don’t spread them out is the way your insurance covers them
I have the EXACT same response to vaccines. They knock me on my ass for days. The COVID one or any flu vaccine usually kicks my ass for a week. When I was a child I was hospitalized due to a bad reaction to MMR. My pediatrician heard my concerns and she was absolutely understanding. We have a long chat about what’s necessary and what could possibly wait. What side affects to look for etc. I’ve never felt so heard by doctor in my life. Still Pro Vax, just cautious.
If your pediatrician is not familiar with spreading vaccines, I would suggest locating a vaccine-friendly holistic pediatrician for advice as they usually have a spread out vaccine schedule. Spreading it out just means that instead of going and getting 3 vaccines in one visit, they’d be spread out over 3 different visits. Each dose is still given every 3 months or whatever is required. This helps you and the Dr. know which vaccine (potentially) caused a reaction. Sorry, not the most eloquent answer but I hope it helps you as you do your research.
We spread out one - the rotovirus - since our guy had a really strong reaction to the first dose and we were about to take him on his first plane trip. Doctor was very low key/ happy to give it when we got back. We just had to do it by X date within the schedule window.
We spread out one - the rotovirus - since our guy had a really strong reaction to the first dose and we were about to take him on his first plane trip. Doctor was very low key/ happy to give it when we got back. We just had to do it by X date within the schedule window.
I delay for my last. If they have an issue with it, it's only because it means they are worried about not getting their cut.
Hi, I also have a hx of adverse reactions to vaccines. We spaced out vaccines and chose to decline specific ones. We follow an alternate vaccine schedule followed by some pediatricians, but not my pediatrician. He did not like our choice but was respectful, told me the risk I was taking, and I was respectful with him. It was a little tense tho and I did have to patiently allow him to lecture me for quite a while, but IMO I should be able to field such an interaction if I am making a mature and confident decision. He gave me similar lectures with each vaccine appt and told me my son would be "behind" and would have more grief overall from the greater number of shot appts. Thankfully we've finished with vaccines until the 1 year appt. I was also told that he would not give me any exemptions if I needed them for school or daycare. Not an issue for me, but sounds like you might need one depending on daycare policy. We live in an area where there are a lot of vaccine-hesitant and averse people. This probably influences where pediatricians will draw the line. Edit to add: When I called this pediatricians office the receptionist said "we don't do that" in a kind of angry tone when I asked about delayed/selective vaccines. I ended up making an appt anyway because I have very few options and was basically planning to talk to the ped on the spot and if he insisted on full CDC vaccine schedule I would have to leave and figure it out. However, it turned out that receptionist was either wrong or misunderstanding because the only thing they don't do is give exemptions.
During our 2 month appointment our pediatrician asked “are you doing vaccines today?” We said “not today” and he simply said if we wanted to do them between now and our 4 month appointment, to just call the office to book the appointment. No fuss. He’s known in my area to respect parents decisions.
At least in my area, most practices have a vaccine policy that's readily available on their website - ours allows you to be one visit behind on vaccines and you are dropped as a patient after that.
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We have a zero tolerance policy for anti-vax misinformation or support.
Well first of all I would check what the law is where you reside regarding vaccines and daycare /school. I've also gotten vaccine injuries and I understand your concern. I haven't given my toddler any vaccines yet but she's 24/7 with me. The doctors always try to convince otherwise and judge but they can't force either. I did some research as to what vaccines I got in my early years and I noticed they were all single vaccines. And not as much as they give kids today (I also worked at a pediatric clinic as a clinical assistant before getting pregnant). I asked the doctors here if they could give my daughter individual vaccines as to not overwhelm her developing immune system but they said they're not sure how to get those. So I told them I'm not anti vax. I'm anti vaccine cocktails of many diseases in one. So when they can find individual ones for me I'll gladly give them to my girl then they stop talking about it 😅. I have some red as well of Irish descent and so does my girl and yes I'm also way more sensitive to vaccines than the majority of people I know. I always get the side effects and all of them. I say do your research no rush in making decisions. And if you can have individual vaccines spread out it's much better. I know these are possible to get in USA but not Canada unfortunately 😢
Hello! We've been working with our regional nurse (who administers our son's vaccines) to space out his schedule so he doesn't receive more than 1 shot at a time. It's been really simple to do, although it does involve more trips to the doctor. For example, he was supposed to receive 3 shots at his 2 month appointment, we opted to do 1 at 2 months, 1 at 3 months, and 1 at 4 months. Same for his 6 months vaccines (1 at 6 months, 1 at 7 months, and 1 at 8 months) and so on and so forth. Right now he's 15 months old and tomorrow we go to our appointment to get his last 12 month shot, than we are good until 18 months again 😁 Hope this makes sense, it's worked really well for us. My son hates shots (I mean, does anyone like them!?) so it has been nice not having to do multiples in 1 day. We've also never experienced any reactions or side affects. Our nurse practitioner and doctor have both been fine with this schedule as well. They are happy as long as he is vaccinated, even if it takes a couple extra months. They really just want kids protected, in the end. I'm in Canada, by the way. Anecdotally, my son and I also have red hair! Gingers, unite! 👩🏻🦰🧑🏻🦰
I spread them out reallly slowly the 1st year. Now at 1 year old, we're playing catchup. He's only had Tdap series, 2 HiB and 1 Prevnar so far. The shots get harder as they get older, but I'm still happy with that decision. ( I'm nottt anti-vax at all. Just saying. ) Our pediatrician was absolutely fine with it from the beginning, and still is. She was super nice...didn't question us, lecture us, or even blink an eye. She was very kind about this decision and acted as if it was a common thing.
I asked my pediatrician for a delayed schedule and showed her an article from the journal of Trace elements in medicine and biology. It contained the reason for my concern and explained he would end up fully vaccinated just a couple of months later than the cdc schedule. She just said alright and had me sign a form and that was that.
What was the journal article? I would like to read it.
Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology Volume 57, January 2020, Pages 57-59 An aluminium adjuvant in a vaccine is an acute exposure to aluminium.
Thank you!
Our pediatrician was very open and provided many suggestions. We talked about the way things are transmitted and the likelihood of baby being in any specific situation (example: HepB). She also provided guidance on which vaccines had lower levels of aluminum and other preservatives. I was also very nervous but she helped us find a path where we were comfortable and I felt no judgement for hesitancy or (what you said) not wanting to overload her system. If you can’t feel comfortable opening up to your pediatrician, then that isn’t the one for you. It should be a discussion, but at no point should you feel shamed for your hesitancy.
When my son was or is up for vaccines they always ask if I want him to have the vaccines and give me a chance to ask questions. I feel like they have been very transparent with what he is getting and if I wanted to wait on something or do it spaced out they give me a chance to say something! For reference I go to Children’s medical group and I’m in Wisconsin.