Age Them Out

Hello All! It seems I have a few new people following my blog post.  My grand total now must be about four.  Ha-ha, just kidding.  I have not posted in a while because if I am going to say something I hope it is new material, new knowledge or a new perspective that you can not get anywhere else.  I hope to continue to provide value for your eyeball time.  A couple of days ago a new mommy came in to discuss my philosophy regarding vaccines.  She was educating herself and she needed guidance on how to navigate these waters.  She just lit up and found our discussion helpful and informative.  It occurred to me that I have only shared these precious tidbits for parents who ask one-on-one.  Below is a snippet of what I discuss in an interview.

Right off the bat, let me reassure you that vaccines do not cause autism.  Having said that, there are some systems/bodies/patients/kids who are so sensitive/ill/different that they cannot handle the stress load of and may be allergic to a vaccine, any vaccine, or any injectable drug.

Here are a few items we discussed: 1. age them out; 2. vaccine dosages; 3. industry creep (ha…in more ways than one).

1. certain vaccines are recommended at risk ages; for example, rotavirus vaccine is advised to be given at ages 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months.  If a new 9 month old patient came in I would not have to “catch up” the patient.  If you look at the vaccine schedule, link provided below, you can strategize, breastfeed to protect, wait out the risk window and…Age them out – for HIB, for Prevnar; I do have a lot more to say about rotavirus vaccine (its history, it is a winter virus -what if you have a summer baby – hmmmm…)

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html

2. an older child who needs to be “caught up” would be caught up with the same vaccine dose that the infant gets; think about it…a child twice to three times as big gets the same vaccine.  Relatively, the vaccine and its ingredients is a larger dose because of the smaller body.  Why not minimize risks and wait a little?

3.  Hepatitis B started out designed to protect military recruits and college students (and drug users), populations at high risk for a sexually transmitted disease.  When I worked at a medical center that took care of the women’s prison population, you better believe we gave those babies the Hepatitis B vaccine regardless of maternal status.  Now any baby born anywhere has to get it.  Hmmm…can you see the industry creep?

There is a whole lot more to say, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how I think.