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you will get differing opinions on this matter, but my personal opinion is to do what is recommended and get the vaccines as scheduled. There is conflicting evidence regarding a link between vaccines and autism, and if you think about what those vaccines are there to protect your child from, it's not worth the risk. If my child is a rare case that supports the evidence of autism being linked to vaccines, then I will be upset but I'd rather risk him getting autism than pertussis, meningitis, rubella, etc. We can live with autism, but the chances of an infant/toddler surviving these other things is not good.

If you are concerned with the number of shots given at one time, talk to your doctor about doing a delayed immunization schedule. My doctor is doing this for me, I will only let my daughter get two shots in a visit, I think that is plenty for her body to handle. I don't think the vaccines cause Autism, I think parents are led to believe that but it is not the case. Just remember that dieseses like Polio are horrible and last a lifetime, and whooping cough can kill your child. Just some things to think about!

There are so many opinions out there regarding vaccinations. Do your research and question everything you hear or read, especially on the internet. For years people were using a certain study conducted in the UK as evidence that the MMR vaccine caused autism. More recently this study has been FINALLY been completely proven to be incorrect in that it has been shown that the author of the study manipulated the results. The MMR vaccine DOES NOT cause autism. As a result of this "research" many parents in the UK opted to not vaccinate their children. Tragic really because the rates of measles went up and as a result so did the mobidity and mortality rates. Other countries are also experiencing increased rates of measles and other vaccine related disease as a result of reduced vaccination rates. Yes, vaccines do have side effects as do all medications but you wouldn't not give your child an antibiotic if he needed it because you were worried about the minute possibility of a severe reaction. It is not a matter of when your child's "brain and body develop enough to handle...vaccines", it has been scientifically proven that children are able to "handle" vaccines at the set schedule. Your child is exposed to many, many, viruses and bacteria on a daily basis and is able to fight them off. Besides vaccines are introduced to strengthen the immune system and to give your child a "leg up" if he should be exposed to any vaccine related disease. SORRY if I am ranting but I believe very much in vaccinating. Talk to your health care provider and do your research...don't just get people's opinions. HTH.

There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism.

However, I too was concerned about the number of vacines at once. Check the "Green Vaccine" schedule and talk with your doctor.

Boyzmomee is correct. The author who wrote the paper linking autism to vaccines retracted it and I think lost his license. Get your kid vaccinated according to the schedule recommended. (or as soon as possible now that that is past). I agree that it would be horrible to have a baby wake up blank, but the vaccine won't be the cause and will protect against preventable, and more common diseases. The doctors who create the recommendations know a lot more about this than I do (and I have a PhD in nutrition and took many many physiology/immunology courses) so I defer to their opinions.

There was only one study supporting even a possible link between MMR and autism-- the Andrew Wakefield study referred to above, published in 1998 in The Lancet. It has since been shown to be not only wrong, but actually fraudulent-- the author made up the data and changed the clinical histories on the patients to fit what he wanted to prove, while he was taking money from lawyers suing vaccine manufacturers, and while he was trying to patent his own competing vaccine. If you want to read through the details, a good place to start is this blog: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/, or the website of the British investigative journalist who tracked the story down at http://briandeer.com/. At either site search for "wakefield".

RE: getting fewer vaccines at a time, that honestly doesn't make any sense. Getting more vaccines at once doesn't increase a child's chance of a fever or any other reaction. There's really no reason to think fewer vaccines are somehow better. What you will accomplish by one of these "alternative" vaccine schedules is 1) making sure your child is more vulnerable, for longer, to these diseases making a comeback (measles, mumps, pertussis) and 2) making sure your poor child is even more scared of the doctor's office, by making more trips with more ouchies that will be remembered. It makes my job much more difficult while a child is unprotected and also terrified of me, so I can't get a decent exam.

There are no-- zero, none, zilch, zero-- health authorities in any country anywhere in the world that support these oddball, made-up schedules. This isn't a joke, people. The diseases are coming back. Delaying or avoiding or skipping vaccines is exactly like driving with your child out of a safety seat. Why would you take that chance?

Measles is starting to make a comeback in Europe and with more people traveling to and from Europe (over 10k cases in France), you are starting to see more outbreaks in the US. We live here right now and for the 6 month checkup I'm going to talk to the doc about the possibility of DS getting his first dose of the measles vaccine early since we do travel around the continent. i will admit I was a bit nervous when we made our trip to Disneyland Paris recently, but I knew we would mostly be outside and not likely he'd be exposed to it.

SIL's son was diagnosed autistic (very late at almost 4 because of a substandard pedi she replaced) and she never thought to blame vaccines. Upon looking back at his behavior as an infant, she and MIL now realize he was displaying symptoms as young as a few months old, they just didn't know what to look for and they pedi didn't really show much concern on him being behind certain developmental milestones like language. MIL was obsessed with making sure DS was interacting with her when she visited when he was 2 months old for that reason.

I'm doing the normal vaccine schedule with DS and did so with DD. Research has shown no reason not to follow it, but if you don't, I do urge you to find a schedule you like to prevent your child from catching some of those horrible diseases.

Please have your son vaccinated, it's for this reason that all these horrible diseases are making a comeback. I don't believe the whole Autism rumor but even if it were true I would much rather my daughter live with Autism then die from some preventable disease.

Dr Benaroch,

I think giving a child 10 or more viruses in one visit is way too many at a time, I am NOT against vaccines at all and believe that they all have their place, my daughter is so young she will never remember going to the doctor more than once for shots. For her 2 month check up she got her DTAP, and the liquid medicine (don't remember this one's name) and we went back 2 weeks later and got her the Hep B and the Pnemunoccal. My Doctor is very happy that I am getting her shots and sees no reason to not do her vaccines this way. I have to say that as a Doctor you are very close minded, Children won't rembember this issue when they get older and a lot of Parents cause their children to be terrified of shots, and they teach them that they are something to be afraid of, however this is not the case, even when my daughter gets older she will be told that while it hurts for a moment to get the shot in the long run it is best for her. Please remember that "fear of " is generally something that is a learned behavior not something that is natural. Maybe the parents that have children that are "afraid" of the doctors office is because their parents have made it more of a punishment. I don't think delaying a shot by 2 weeks is going to give her any greater exposure than waiting 2 months of her life to be able to get the DTaP.

Wow Dr. Benaroch, no judgements on my part but you seem to be a bit angry that people choose to do different things with their children. I talked extensively with my Doctor about a slightly delayed schedule on vaccines on my daughter, for one because I have family that had a horrible reaction to the vaccines, my Doctor is telling me which vaccines to get first and what ones are better to wait for, my daughter isn't fearful of the doctors office and there is no reason for her to be, I will always make it about what is best for my child! Alot of kids are fearful of Doctors offices for many reasons one of them being their parents make them fearful and make it seem like such a bad thing! Going to the doctor is to make sure that they are healthy and if you make it about that then they shouldn't be fearful. Again you never know maybe these children are afraid of you personally for one reason or another, I have a step daughter that was terrified of men in general until she was 7 or 8 so if she saw a male doctor she would have a problem but if she went to a female doctor she was fine! Again like I said and my doctor said as long as my child is getting all of her vaccines then she is fine, and it's not like I am delaying them for months or years it is delayed 14 days... Maybe try NOT to be so judgemental... this is an open forum in which everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Dr. Benaroch,

My youngest son was born at 30 weeks. His physican modifed his vaccine schedule.

I did this at his advice, not mine.

Hm. I re-read what I wrote, I see no anger there at all directed in any way at the OP or at parents making these decisions. My only anger is at the "scientist" who made up his data just to line his own pockets, creating an incredible amount of unnecessary of worry and anxiety, and directly leading to a resurgence of disease in many communities. Parents are caught in the middle of this and need good, reliable, science-based information upon which to make decisions-- not rumors, not made-up theories, not falsehoods, not scare tactics.

More: http://blogs.webmd.com/childrens-health/2011/03/vaccine-concerns-were-on-the-same-side.html

I have to say I disagree. Being afraid of something is not a taught behavior; it's actually a very natural INSTINCT we develop through our experiences in life. I just took my son in for his 15 month check-up and for the first time, when the door opened to go back into the exam area he would not walk in. Not because I taught him to be afraid of the doctor's office, or because I make his experience there "more of a punishment", or because I behave in a nervous or worried manner. I think our children are much smarter than we like to give them credit for. I absolutely believe they remember and know why being at the doctor's office can be scary. I could just see the little light bulb come on above his little head when the nurse called his name, like "Wait a minute... I'm not so sure about this". And there I am, smiling and waving him to "come on back" and the nurse is talking to him and smiling... and there he stood, motionless with a half smile/half worried look on his face.

I mean, lets get real. Getting vaccines isn't the most pleasurable experience... nobody actually WANTS to get poked with a needle, no matter how old you are. You just learn to better cope with the discomfort of it as you get older and you are actually able to rationalize that the sonner you get it over with the better. But if you are able to reason with your young child that the benefits of vaccines outweighs the pain associated with them, then bless you. But I believe children tend to live in the moment and aren't able to rationalize the "bigger picture".

Anyway... back to the issue at hand. I can understand the delayed schedule for certain high risk children, but if your child doesn't have any health issues that might warrant a delayed schedule, I would say to go by the recommended schedule and get your child vaccinated.