Oh how I wish I had this 6 years ago.  Right before I had my son Caleb I did a 25 page research paper on immunizations.  I knew that immunizations are important, but with a family history with Autism (and the difference we saw in my sister immediately following an immunization) I was terrified about how to approach them.  Taking what I had learned in my research,  I spread out his immunizations, all the while praying I was making the right decisions.  Thankfully we had a wonderful Pediatrician that really believed in mother’s intuition and allowed me set our own schedule. Some will make you sign a form committing to follow their schedule or they won’t treat your child.  You may have to search, but there are still some Pediatricians who are willing to work with you.

Just a disclaimer I do not believe that Immunizations alone cause Autism, but I do believe that it may be a factor in some cases.  Other factors may also include genetic tendencies, and toxins in our environment combined with a individual threshold for toxicity.

Anyways here are some suggestions form the Children’s Biomedical Center of Utah by Bryan Jepson MD.

IMMUNIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS
Please understand that most DAN! Physicians are not against immunizations. They have been
one of the major advances in public health and modern medicine and have led to the eradication
of many infectious diseases resulting in countless lives saved. We do, however, believe that
vaccines could be safer and suggest caution in the administering of immunizations with the
following general guidelines (a more detailed description available on our website
www.cbcutah.org):

• Use only thimerosol-free vaccines

• Avoid all unnecessary combination vaccines

• Use monovalent measles, mumps and rubella in separate injections on different days as
opposed to MMR. (Unfortunately, this is not currently available) DTaP is currently not
available in monovalent form

• Space immunizations by as much time as possible; 6-12 months for live vaccines
(measles, mumps, rubella) is ideal

• Use single dose vials, avoids preservatives

• Use inactivated polio (IM, not oral)

• Do not vaccinate your child if he/she is sick or still recovering from an illness

• Ensure RDA of Vitamin A (1250-5000IU based on age—best source is cod liver oil) for
three days before and the day of a shot.

• Give vitamin C 150 mg twice daily for infants and 300 mg twice daily for toddlers for
three days before and the day of the shot.

• Prioritize vaccines that will be of most value to your child when he/she is most likely to
contract the illness. For example, hepatitis B is contracted through sexual activity and
drug abuse or from maternal infection at birth. There is no need to vaccinate most infants
for Hepatitis B, unless mother falls into a high risk category. Hemophilus B (HiB) is
probably highest priority because it causes meningitis and epiglottitis (a life-threatening
throat infection) often in the first year of life. Next is probably DTaP.

• Get immune titers if possible before repeating doses (these are fairly expensive blood
tests). Many children are fully immunized after the first dose and may not require
subsequent boosters. This is especially helpful for MMR as a positive titer infers livelong
immunity.

• Avoid re-immunization with a vaccine if there is a negative reaction to it.

• Do not immunize newborns.

A. Vaccine schedule
Below is an example of an immunization schedule that provides the required
vaccinations prior to entering school. Please understand that this is just an example
and does not constitute an official recommendation. I think that there are many
modifications that could take place depending on the individual circumstances.
Notice how difficult it is to follow the guidelines about limiting injections to two in
one day if all of the currently recommended vaccinations are included. You could
extend the schedule into to 10th, 11th or 12th month but this also decreases the chance
that they will get all of the necessary immunizations when they are most risk for the
illness, especially in the cases of Hib, DTaP and Prevnar. My feeling is that parents
should research each vaccine individual and decide if and when that vaccine should
be given based off of a risk vs. benefit analysis.

• Birth—Hepatitis B, if mom Hep B positive. If unsure, check titer in mother. If mother
involved in high risk behavior in last 6 months, give vaccine.

• 4 months—Hib, IPV

• 5 months—DtaP

• 6 months—Hib, Prevnar

• 7 months—DtaP

• 8 months—Hib, IPV

• 9 months—DtaP, Prevnar

• 15 months—measles

• 17 months—Hib, IPV

• 18 months—DtaP, Prevnar

• 27 months—Rubella

• 39 months—Mumps

• 4-5 years—Varicella (if not immune already)

• 4-5 years—Hepatitis B series (I would actually delay this until age 10-12 since they are at low risk of contracting the disease before that)

• 4-5 years—DtaP, IPV boosters

• 4-5 years—test titers for MMR and do not give unless low

• 12 years—retest titers, boosters if needed.

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