We now, in our presence and in our home- ever present, have a child. A small crying bundle of wanting love. It is up to us to decide upon a vaccination schedule for this fleshy conglomerate. As a couple of artists we aren’t very good at listening to people, and we like to think of ourselves as rebellious- even in our old age. With our anarchy symbols on we decided to do some research…

The book that we were told to read is called The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child (Sears Parenting Library) (go figure) written by Robert W. Sears- soon to be a major motion picture. Dr. Sears has information and opinions, and boy does he share them with you. The book is great don’t get me wrong- a wee bit on the dull side, but great. My husband used it as a sleep aid but found that it put him into such a deep sleep that he would have a hard time waking up in the morning.

Dr. Sears lays out all the diseases that are currently on the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended vaccine schedule one by one, and tells you about the disease, and about the various vaccines that are made to treat the disease. He even goes into detail of the composition of each vaccine used. I found this book to be the all inclusive bible of vaccinations.

Towards the end of the book there are two suggested vaccination schedules. The first is selective vaccination schedule, and the second is alternative vaccine schedule.

The selective vaccine schedule delivers the most crucial shots for your child and delays or skips the most less critical shots. The alternative vaccination schedule spreads out the pediatrician recommended schedule over time so that only two shots are given at once.

We were leaning towards the selective vaccination schedule but have now decided that we will do the alternative vaccine schedule because we would like to travel with our precious gemstone of a child.