Gone to DC for the "Green Our Vaccines" Rally!

I will not be posting until next Thursday because we will be in DC for the Rally! I assume there will be news coverage, so be watching. The rally is on Wednesday June 4th and will be led by Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. It should be pretty interesting..

This is Why I am going...... And for ALL the little children who's parents will be taking them into their doctors for their vaccines! They should not be getting so many! They should not be given so soon! They Should not be given together! Okay, I am done now.

Isn't he cute?

Here is a press release regarding the Rally

Green Our Vaccines Rally
With Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey

News Release

NEW YORK, May 27, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey will lead the Green Our Vaccines march, rally and press conference on Wednesday June, 4th at the Capitol Building, West Capitol Grounds in Washington, DC. The sponsored event has been organized by Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), Generation Rescue, Healing Every Autistic Life, and Moms Against Mercury.

McCarthy, author of the best-selling book Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, and Carrey have joined forces with national advocacy organizations in the battle to eliminate toxins from children's vaccines and to encourage national health agencies to reassess mandatory vaccine schedules. While they do support immunization, like many parents and experts in the medical community, McCarthy, Carrey and their many allies feel that children are receiving too many vaccines, too soon, many of which are toxic. Their goal is to demand a safer vaccine supply and schedule for children.

"This day will go down in history as a time when parents' voices and their message to change the vaccine program was finally heard and acted upon," said Jenny McCarthy.

Families from across the U.S. are already committed to marching for safe vaccines and the numbers are growing. "Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are heroes to hundreds of thousands of families who love a person with autism and for all families who want safe vaccines that are toxin free. Their desire to help and be a vocal instrument of change are warranted and greatly appreciated," said Lisa Ackerman, TACA Executive Director.

Participants will gather at 9 am at the Capitol Building, West Capitol Grounds. The march will promptly begin at 10 am with a Press Conference immediately following.

Sponsors & volunteers of the rally include: Generation Rescue, Healing Every Autistic Life, Moms Against Mercury & TACA. Over 39 other autism and environmental groups have signed on showing their support for the Green our Vaccines march & rally.

About TACA

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides support, education and information, and resources to more almost 9,000 families across the United States who are touched by autism. One in every 150 children in the United States has autism. TACA provides the largest national telephone and email response team for parents who have a child affected by autism. 95 percent of TACA's programs and services are provided at no charge and include education and support meetings, parent mentoring, and the Autism Journey Guide. TACA helps to strengthen the autism community by connecting families with professional assistance and serves to bridge the gap between diagnosis and effective treatment.

http://www.tacanow.org

Hopefully a lot will change after this rally and SOON!
Tammy

Questions:

Okay, so since no one usually reads follow up comments, I have decided that when people ask me questions, I will just do a post answering them to the best of my ability. Please note that I do NOT know the perfect answer for anything. I can tell you what I have read, what my doctors have told me, and what I have learned from other parents like me. I also went to a DAN conference in California last year where Doctors and others lectured for 3 days with actual medical information regarding Autism and autism treatments. Many people think that Autism, ADHD, Aspergers, etc. are just neurological disorders, but that is not the case. All of these children also have medical conditions that contributed to their neurological conditions. We will get into this at a later date.

So these are the questions I have been asked:

Question #1: Do you know at what age it is safe to give a child vaccines? Many people have given their children all of their vaccines, yet now in light of new information (not without controversy) are afraid to give them anymore. Some haven't given their children any and wonder when it is okay to start doing it. This is the information I have on the subject. It is only information, so you must do with it what you feel is best:

• If you have a new baby, there are lots of ways you can go about vaccines. Here are your choices:

1. Some doctor's suggest not doing any vaccines until your baby is at least 2 and their brain has finished developing. At that point, you can do some vaccines if you choose, but with a revised schedule (I will post more below)
2. If you don't feel comfortable eliminating ALL vaccines, I would definitely go by a revised schedule and some strict guidelines. I will post an article here that I think is really good. It gives a lot of good information and is really worth reading. This is the very short summary, but I think you should all read the whole thing...

In summary, this is a vaccination schedule that I would recommend:

1. No vaccinations until a child is two years old.
2. No vaccines that contain thimerosal (mercury).
3. No live virus vaccines (except for smallpox, should it recur). (this means NO MMR or chicken pox)
   
4. These vaccines, to be given one at a time, every six months, beginning at age 2:
1. Pertussis (acellular, not whole cell)
2. Diphtheria
3. Tetanus
4. Polio (the Salk vaccine, cultured in human cells)

American children are the most highly vaccinated kids in the world. This schedule is an alternative to the one that rules our "vaccine nation" (as the Village Voice terms it). In contrast to the CDC’s immunization schedule, it is user-friendly.

December 10, 2004

Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness

Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com

Notice that this article was written in 2004. This information is not new. This has been a problem for awhile and is only getting worse.

Here is the link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller15.html

Notice he again says to split the vaccines up. That one will not be easy either, but you can read my earlier post re: splitting up vaccines and that may help.

If you do choose to vaccinate, PLEASE follow these guidelines - (contrary to what your doctor may say...) Not that I know more than doctors, but there is actual medical evidence to support these things....

• Split up the vaccines only done ONE every six months. (Even though your doctor and the CDC may say it is safe to give multiple together). Please read earlier post re: Information from CDC's website...
  
• Don't give vaccines with live viruses (Chicken Pox, MMR, etc)
  
• NEVER, EVER give your child a vaccine when they are sick. I know that people say that if you wait until your child is healthy, they will never get their shots. However, I would keep waiting until they are at least 99% healthy. Even the slightest weakened immune system could cause their body to not be able to handle the vaccines.
• DO NOT give your child the chicken pox vaccine at all! If they are 10 years old and have not gotten chicken pox, then you can vaccinate them at that point, until then, do not do it. Especially in light of the fact that vaccinated children are getting chicken pox anyways....
• DO NOT GIVE YOUR CHILD TYLENOL BEFORE OR AFTER A VACCINATION! (I would wait months...) I HAVE ALSO RECENTLY JUST READ TO NOT GIVE THEM IBUPROFEN EITHER. Your doctor will tell you to do it because of pain/fever, but there are other ways to take care of that. Plus, just recently Tylenol baby products were taken off the market because they were not helping anyways and some children had died from overdoses. There is good reason for this. It is a medical fact:

The body uses glutathione to remove toxins. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) depletes the body of glutathione. Therefore, giving tylenol before and after vaccines limits the body's ability to remove the toxins from the vaccines. Tylenol should never, ever be given before or after vaccines. Ibuprofen (Motrin) should also never be used, as it inhibits the production of glutathione. So, acetaminophen burns it up and ibuprofen prevents the body from making it. Either way, you're left with not enough of what you need to eliminate the toxins from the body.


Part 2 of Question #1:

If a child has already had one or more doses of a certain vaccine (which they get most of them 4 times...) there is a 95% chance that they are already immune. The CDC is now giving these "boosters" which we didn't use to have "just in case" that %5 were not immune after the 1st shot. I don't know about you, but I don't want to inject my child with anymore diseases or toxins if I don't have to. So, you have 3 choices:

1. You can ask your doctor to check your child's titers. (tigh-ters). They will have to do a blood test, but the results will let you know if your child is already immune. If they are, you do not need any more shots. If they are not (which will be rare) you can decide if you want to give them the vaccine or risk getting the disease or virus. I would do that by weighing the likely hood of them getting that disease as well as how serious the disease is. I know that none of us would want our child to get chicken pox, however, we probably all had it as children and we are fine. If you look at the side effects of the chicken pox vaccine, you will see that it is one of the very worst vaccines. I would not risk giving my child such a harmful vaccine to prevent against such a mild disease. I say that especially in light of how many children are being harmed by vaccines. At this point - in my (and MANY other mothers' opinions) you have a much higher chance of your child getting Autism, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, or some other neurological disorder than you do them getting measles, etc. etc.
   
   

Your Doctor will probably think you are being a pain and that this process is not necessary, however, if you feel strongly about this and are as worried as most mothers are, don't let your doctor push you into doing something that you don't feel good about. I have nothing against doctors, however, if they have not seen personally what the vaccines can do, they do not believe it to be true. I have met many doctors who did not believe it until they saw it happen to their own child. They have now changed their views....

I also know it will be hard to make your poor child get a blood test. That is never fun. However, because my son is completely deficient in B12, we have to inject him every 3 days with a b12 shot. I am not trying to scare anyone, but until you are on the other side of the situation, you realize that if you could go back, you would do any blood test or anything else you could do to prevent the current situation. The problem is, you just never know if it is going to happen to your child until the damage is done.... It can be undone, but it is very hard, very expensive, etc. etc.


2. You can just risk your child getting the disease and not check to see if they are immune. Again, if they have had at least one round of the particular vaccine, chances are, they are immune. Most all of these diseases are treatable with modern medicine. That being said, if everyone stops vaccinating, these disease could come back. We do NOT want that. We just want to not give our kids more than they need and revise the schedule so we can all go back to the way things were...

3. You can just go ahead and give them the vaccines. This is a choice, but would not be my recommendation. There is just such a small chance that your child is not already immune and such a big chance of the vaccine causing damage. Even if it doesn't trigger Autism or autism like behaviors, it can still do damage to the neurological system. If you go read the side effects in my earlier post, you can see that the main ones almost all say that they can cause fever seizures, brain damage, etc. My 5 year old has what is called "Sensory Processing Disorder" It is a disorder on the same spectrum which I have seen get worse (in retrospect) after each vaccine.

My son is starting kindergarten and I was not about to give him any more shots. My school just required a note from his doctor stating that he wasn't getting his shots for medical reasons. My sister had to go to the health department for her county and fill out a few documents and that was it. You DO NOT have to give your child shots. You are their parent. If you do not want to give them any, or just not anymore, that is your choice. I have a few friends who have never given their kids any shots and they are all healthy as can be. Not to say that they will not ever get sick, but there are huge outbreaks of chicken pox right now where most of the kids have already been vaccinated. Vaccines are not an absolute that your child will not get the disease.

Okay, so I think that was really only 2 main questions, but I answered a lot of little ones in between. I am sorry I can't ever do a short post, but I just have too much information and I just can't stop....

One last tid-bit. A friend of mine has children with a serious blood disorder. After a year of being in the hospital and a surgery (or maybe more than one) they are finally in recovery. I won't name names, but since she posted this comment on my other blog, I am hoping she won't mind that I copied it here....
"The Doctors want to re-introduce vaccinations once the boy's immune systems are strong enough to handle it. We are VERY leery and leaning toward doing some, but not all. Even now, we have to keep the boys away from other kids who have just had the MMR - for 2 months. "

So, these children are not even supposed to be AROUND a child who has received an MMR shot! If a vaccine can hurt a child with a poor immune system just from being in the same room with someone who has had it, should we really be injecting it into our children?

The end.
Please post comments or questions and I will try to answer them.

Thanks!

Head of CDC Admits that Vaccines Trigger Autism

Here is the link to a video on youtube. It was filmed on World Autism Day in April. The maker of the video added some commentary in between frames. It is VERY interesting. The Video is 10 minutes long, but worth watching. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) used to say there was "no link" and now they have changed their statement. They still try to cover themselves, but she actually states that the Vaccines CAN trigger autism.

Again, not saying we shouldn't vaccinate, we just need a new schedule with not so many, not so soon and not so many toxins....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh-nkD5LSIg

Vaccine Information - Straight from CDC's Website

My doctors have always told me that vaccines are safe. I know that most everyone has heard the same thing. They sometimes tell you that there are some risks, but no one had ever explained what kinds of risks. I think we have all just trusted our doctors and our government that if they said something was safe, then it was.

I read information on their website about most of the vaccines that are given. All of them mentioned a few side effects, but the MMR, DTaP and the chicken pox vaccine had the most side effects and the worst side effects. When it came to the Hepatitis B, polio and Hib side effects, there were few and they were not as serious.

This will be a lot of info, but I am going to paste them below so you can read them. I will highlight the bad side effects..

MMR vaccine side-effects
(Measles, Mumps, and Rubella)

A vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. The risk of MMR vaccine causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.


Most people who get MMR vaccine do not have any problems with it.

Mild Problems

* Fever (up to 1 person out of 6)
* Mild rash (about 1 person out of 20)
* Swelling of glands in the cheeks or neck (rare)
If these problems occur, it is usually within 7-12 days after the shot. They occur less often after the second dose.

Moderate Problems

* Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (about 1 out of 3,000 doses)
* Temporary pain and stiffness in the joints, mostly in teenage or adult women (up to 1 out of 4)
* Temporary low platelet count, which can cause a bleeding disorder (about 1 out of 30,000 doses)

Severe Problems (Very Rare)

* Serious allergic reaction (less than 1 out of a million doses)
* Several other severe problems have been known to occur after a child gets MMR vaccine. But this happens so rarely, experts cannot be sure whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. These include:
o Deafness
o Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
o Permanent brain damage

So, notice that it says that these severe problems have been known to occur after child gets MMR. It then says that they believe it is rare (are they calling every parent after there child gets a shot to find out if there was a reaction?). Then it says experts CANNOT BE SURE whether these serious side effects including permanent brain damage are caused by the vaccine or not. So what is all this I hear about there being no link between neurological disorders (Autism, ADHD, Aspergers, etc)? It looks to me like they are NOT SURE.

So then, it has this little note at the bottom:

Note: The first dose of MMRV vaccine - - - (that is MMR + chicken pox)
has been associated with rash and higher
rates of fever than MMR and varicella
vaccines given separately. Rash has been
reported in about 1 person in 20 and fever
in about 1 person in 5.
Seizures caused by a fever are also reported
more often after MMRV. These usually
occur 5-12 days after the first dose.

Okay, so if it states right here that seizures occur more often when MMR and chicken pox are given together and that the rates of fever and rashes are higher when they are given together, why is it that we keep hearing that it doesn't make a difference if you give multiple shots at the same time? I have heard that dozens of times - yet this clearly states that there are worse reactions when they combine these vaccines!

Also notice that it says that the FIRST DOSE of these vaccines are associated with these problems. So the first does is given to our kids at 12 months - where pretty much EVERY doctor in the nation is giving the MMR and chicken pox on the same day. If that is the case, 1 in 5 of those children get a fever after the shots. That is a very high number if you ask me. If you look up information about fevers, it will tell you that if they get too high, they can cause seizures and brain damage.

Now, lets look at the chicken pox vaccine:

Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine side-effects
What are the risks from chickenpox vaccine?

Getting chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting chickenpox disease. Most people who get chickenpox vaccine do not have any problems with it. (How do they know that? Have they done a study on the whole nation?)

However, a vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. The risk of chickenpox vaccine causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.

Mild Problems

* Soreness or swelling where the shot was given (about 1 out of 5 children and up to 1 out of 3 adolescents and adults)
* Fever (1 person out of 10, or less)
* Mild rash, up to a month after vaccination (1 person out of 20, or less). It is possible for these people to infect other members of their household, but this is extremely rare.

Note: MMRV vaccine has been associated with higher rates of fever (up to about 1 person in 5) and measles-like rash (about 1 person in 20) compared with MMR and varicella vaccines given separately. (Here is that same note again.....)

Moderate Problems

* Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (less than 1 person out of 1,000).

Severe Problems

* Pneumonia (very rare)

Other serious problems, including severe neurological problems (brain reactions) and low blood count, have been reported after chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely, however, that experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. If they are, it is extremely rare.

Okay, so let's sum up:

1. MMR vaccine has been known to cause:

• Fever
• Seizures
• bleeding disorder
• Serious allergic reaction
• Deafness
• Long-term seizures
• coma
• lowered consciousness
• Permanent Brain Damage

2. Chicken Pox Vaccine has been known to cause:

• Seizure (Jerking or Staring - caused by fever)
• pneumonia
• Severe neurological problems (brain reactions)
  
• Low blood count
  

3. The first (12 month) dose of these two vaccines if given together has been shown to cause higher rates of children to get a rash (1 in 20), a fever (1 in 5) and seizures CAUSED BY A FEVER. If it increases seizures then that, in turn, can increase brain damage and neurological disorders such as ADHD, Aspergers, Autism and other spectrum disorders.

So, I am wondering why EVERY doctor (there may be a few that don't...) gives EVERY 12-15 month old baby both of these vaccines on the SAME DAY!!!???

Does the CDC and the doctors not even read what they post on their website? Why do so many doctors say that it doesn't matter if you give multiple shots on the same day, when they KNOW that there are worse effects when they are given together? That being said, how many other vaccines have worse effects when given together? We know that Hannah Poling received 9 shots on the same day and the courts have conceded the fact that those vaccines were what "triggered" her autism.

So, how can anyone say that there is no harm in giving multiple shots on the same day? Also, some effects may not show until later when people notice that their child has regressed, stopped talking, stopped responding or changed or have more health problems than they used to. There are no studies done in the months or years later to see if these children are okay. The studies consist of parents writing down if there child gets a fever, gets a rash, gets red around the injection site, etc. during the 1st month after the vaccine (I know, because Wyatt was in one).... No one except the parents of 1 in 150 kids knows what happens later...

It looks as though the other really bad one is the DTaP (which is given at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months as well as at 4-6 years old...) Each of those times, it is given at the same time as 4-6 other vaccines.

DTaP vaccine side-effects

Getting diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis disease is much riskier than getting DTaP vaccine.

However, a vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. The risk of DTaP vaccine causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.

Mild Problems (Common)

* Fever (up to about 1 child in 4)
* Redness or swelling where the shot was given (up to about 1 child in 4)
* Soreness or tenderness where the shot was given (up to about 1 child in 4)

These problems occur more often after the 4th and 5th doses of the DTaP series than after earlier doses.

Sometimes the 4th or 5th dose of DTaP vaccine is followed by swelling of the entire arm or leg in which the shot was given, for 1 to 7 days (up to about 1 child in 30).

Other mild problems include:

* Fussiness (up to about 1 child in 3)
* Tiredness or poor appetite (up to about 1 child in 10)
* Vomiting (up to about 1 child in 50)

These problems generally occur 1 to 3 days after the shot.

Moderate Problems (Uncommon)

* Seizure (jerking or staring) (about 1 child out of 14,000)
* Non-stop crying, for 3 hours or more (up to about 1 child out of 1,000)
* High fever, 105 degrees Fahrenheit or higher (about 1 child out of 16,000) - that will cause seizures!

Severe Problems (Very Rare)
Serious allergic reaction (less than 1 out of a million doses) Several other severe problems have been reported after DTaP vaccine. These include:

* Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
* Permanent brain damage.

These are so rare it is hard to tell if they are caused by the vaccine.

So - again - lots of bad side effects from a vaccine that is given with multiple other vaccines that cause similar side effects.

So - if we give our little babies anywhere from 4-6 of these "harmless" vaccines with these side effects at the same time at such young ages you are telling me that nothing is going to happen? It is simple math to me. If each of these vaccines causes a fever (which they all d0) and can cause seizures and even permanent brain damage, then wouldn't giving someone 4 vaccines at the same time that can cause all of those things triple the chances of them having some of those bad side effects? And for that matter, wouldn't that cause the side effects to be more harmful as well?

Okay, so I will quickly show a few other vaccines and their side effects:


Hepatitis B vaccine side-effects

Most people who get hepatitis B vaccine do not have any problems with it.

Mild problems

* soreness where the shot was given, lasting a day or two (up to 1 out of 11 children and adolescents, and about 1 out of 4 adults)
* mild to moderate fever (up to 1 out of 14 children and adolescents and 1 out of 100 adults)

Severe problems

* serious allergic reaction (very rare)

Not too bad....

Hib vaccine side-effects


Most people who get Hib vaccine do not have any problems with it.

Mild Problems

* Redness, warmth, or swelling where the shot was given (up to 1 out of 4 children)
* Fever over 101 degrees Fahrenheit (up to 1 out of 20 children) (That is better than 105!)

If these problems happen, they usually start within a day of vaccination. They may last 2 to 3 days.

Again, not so bad...

So, because it is 1:00 in the morning and I still have a lot of work to do, I will stop for now... (I know you are all disappointed....)

But just a few notes to leave with you:

Vaccines still have bad ingredients in them: Chick Embryo Fibroblasts, Human
Serum Albumin, Aluminum Phosphate, Ammonium Sulfate, Formaldehyde, etc. etc. (again, from CDC website..)

Autism and related disorders were almost non -existent 20 years ago, yet now they are everywhere. 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with Autism - but how many kids don't they know about? There is no documentation as to Wyatt's condition and I can bet that there are thousands of children that are undiagnosed - especially all of those children who can't afford to be evaluated in the first place. I know many mothers that have waited for 2 years to even see a doctor that could officially "diagnose" their child. So if that is the case, how many children are on that waiting list? It is safe to assume that there are quite a few (personally I think there are a lot) of undiagnosed children out there. So, what does that make the rate? 1 in 100?

Currently, ASA estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million. WOW - that is crazy! If that is true, how can anyone afford to care for their child? And what about the families that have 3, 4, 5, and even 6 kids with Autism? Also, this says "cost of caring", it does not specifically state that this figure includes actual treatments - behavioral, medical, etc. etc.

How is all of this for depressing?

Again, this is why we are going to D.C. Vaccines are a problem. There are too many. They should not be given together, they should remove harmful ingredients, blah blah blah... you know the rest.

For those of you that don't know, Wyatt was given the "proquad" shot which was MMR and chicken pox in the same needle when he was 14 months old. Shortly after his shots he broke out in a rash all over his body and had a fever. Within 2 months, he stopped waiving and saying "bye", he stopped saying ma ma, he lost eye contact, he stopped responding to his name, he just stopped. He was NOT born with Autism. He was a typically developing little boy who met all of his milestones, had great eye contact, was social, and was learning as he should. His story is the same as tens of thousands of parents that say the same thing happened to their child. This is NOT a coincidence. This did NOT happen 20 years ago. This is NOT okay.

Now, 2 years later, after a lot of treatment (40 hours a week of therapy, 8 or more supplements a day, a VERY restrictive diet, etc. etc.) he can waive and say bye, he has started to respond to his name and he can even give kisses (rarely). He still only has about 3 words - only one of which he uses in the proper context. He should be getting ready to start preschool, he should be potty trained, he should be speaking in sentences.

I know I ramble for hours, but I just can't bare these things happening to even ONE More child or ONE more family. It breaks my heart everyday to think about how many families are out there that don't know what to do to help their child or don't have the money or resources to do so. I want to help every one of them. I will if I can.

I do not know everything, but I have researched, read, attended conferences and medical lectures, etc. etc. etc. I believe the things that I have written to be true. If any of you want more information or need help learning about the treatments and ways to help children with Autism, please ask. I will give you all of the information I have and will continue to research and learn as long as I have to. I will NEVER give up on my child.

Please comment if you read this so that we can all share our information and opinions. (Heaven knows I have already shared mine.....)

Splitting up the MMR....

This is the best information I have found so far regarding how to split up the vaccines. I have not tried any of it yet, but I think they are all worth a shot. Since there is so much controversy and no one really has all the answers, I would rather spend a little extra time - and money if needed- to separate the vaccines. (Article is from Dr. Sears' Vaccine/Autism blog)

Finding MMR Vaccines Separated

6:06 PM PST, January 29, 2008

How can I get separate Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines if my doctor won’t order it for me?

Many parents now want to split up the MMR vaccine into separate components and give them separated each by a year. However, a doctor can’t order just single doses of each shot through the regular channels. They have to get 10 doses of each, and if there are only one or two patients in the office that want them separated, the doctor eats the cost of the unused shots. So most doctors, understandably, won’t do that.

Here are some ways that patients have found they can get the shots separately:

1. Go to a vaccine clinic at a large university hospital. I know one near where I practice that offers them separately.

2. Go to a travel clinic where people usually go to get unusual travel vaccines prior to international travel. Some of these carry the separate M, M, and R.

3. Ask your doctor to write you a prescription for each shot and try to get it filled through a pharmacy. You would bring the shot back to your doctor’s office (making sure you keep it a refrigerator temperature – 36 to 46 degrees F or 2 to 8 degrees Celsius) for the nurse to administer.

4. Ask for a prescription, but get it filled through an online medical supply company or online pharmacy. They can ship it directly to your doctor’s office (shipping isn’t cheap though). One such company that I know of is American Medicine, Inc. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You can find them on Google.

5. Check out our Vaccine-Friendly Doctor’s list to see if there’s anyone within driving distance for you. They typically would need you to become a patient and get checkups there in order to provide you with vaccines.

6. If you can’t find the separate shots anywhere, ask your doctor to start a list of like-minded patients and just skip the full MMR for now. Chances are over the next year or two the list will grow to include 10 patients. Delaying your baby’s protection for a year wouldn’t be too risky since the diseases are very rare.

Cost – I know it costs my office about between 35 and 50 dollars for each vaccine, so you can expect to pay at least this much plus whatever markup your provider deems appropriate.

Dr. Bob Sears

I thought this was good information - what are your thoughts?