Vaccinations

Sequoia is 2 months old now and it's time for us to figure out what we're doing in the way of vaccinations. I'm not pro-vaccine nor anti-vaccine.  I'm just wanting to be more informed before making any decisions.  The problem is that there's a boat load of information out there and strong opinions on either side of the divide and that leaves sleep deprived mama's like myself totally confused and overwhelmed.  It's difficult to not want someone to just make the decision for you!  But this is our baby and we owe it to her to be as informed as we can be and make the best choices we know how to based on that information.

I have decided pretty easily that there's no reason to give her a Hep B vaccine until she's older, since that disease is spread through blood, sex and/or sharing needles.  I don't think I have to worry about that with Sequoia quite yet!

I also think we probably WILL get the Polio vaccine because we plan to travel to the Philippines and I know there are still cases of it in Africa and Asia, so I just want to be cautious when traveling to a developing country.

If you have strong opinions on this subject and resources to back it up, please feel free to send us links to information.

Here's what I've been looking at so far:

• http://www.vaccine-tlc.org/ - calculates and compares toxins in differing brands of vaccine
• http://www.nvic.org/Vaccines-and-Diseases.aspx - gives a description of each of the diseases and the occurrence rates in the U.S. as well as the side effects of the vaccines.
• http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5751a5.htm - the federal recommendations for vaccination scheduling

Below are the selective and alternative vaccine schedules recommended in, The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears.

(Note: This comes from a post found on the internet)

Selective schedule:
2 months - DTaP, Rotavirus (Diptheria, Tetnus and Pertussis)

3 months - PC, Hib 

4 months - DTaP, Rotavirus

5 months - PC, Hib

6 months - DTaP, Rotavirus

7 months - PC, Hib

15 months - PC, Hib

5 years - Tetanus booster

10 years - Blood tests for measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and hep A immunity. Consider vaccinating if not immune. Also consider a 3-dose polio series if travel to Africa or Asia is a possibility.

11 years - HPV (3 doses, girls only)

12 years - Hep B (3 doses)

Alternative schedule (if you want child to be fully immunized but spread things out a little):

2 months - DTaP, Rotavirus

3 months - PC, Hib

4 months - DTaP, Rotavirus

5 months - PC, Hib

6 months - DTaP, Rotavirus

7 months - PC, Hib

9 months - polio, flu (2 doses)

12 months - mumps, polio

15 months - Pc, Hib

18 months - DTaP, chickenpox

21 months - flu

2 years - rubella, polio

2 years, 6 months - Hep B, Hep A

3 years - Hep B, measles, flu

3 years, 6 months - Hep B, Hep A

4 years - DTaP, polio, flu

5 years - MMR, flu

6 years - chickenpox

12 years - Tdap, HPV (girls only)

12 years, 2 months - HPV (girls only)

13 years - HPV (girls only), meningococcal