Talking to Parents About Alternative Vaccine Schedules

Alternative Schedules

What do you do when a parent comes to your practice asking for an alternative or delayed vaccination schedule? How do you explain that alternative schedules delay immunity and leave children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable disease? Luckily, that IAC has a webpage dedicated to collecting resources to educate parents about why the current schedule is safe and necessary.

The resources gathered by the IAC include videos for parents and providers, handouts, and articles from the CDC, AAP, the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and more. Some resources address the safety of the current schedule (Recommended Immunization Schedule: What You Should Know) while others delve into the safety and science of receiving multiple immunizations at once (Vaccine Safety: Multiple Vaccinations at Once). In addition, there are resources addressing specific alternative schedules parents might request, such as Dr. Bob’s schedule (The Problem with Dr. Bob’s Alternative Vaccine Schedule).

Be sure to bookmark this resource and refer back to it when you face parent questions about alternative schedules.

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