Study: More Parents Pushing To Spread Out Their Children's Vaccines
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Doctors under pressure. More and more parents are pushing pediatricians to delay their children's vaccines. Many doctors are going along, against their better judgment.
The risk? That the unvaccinated will spread disease.
Christie Ileto explains why it's such a divisive issue.
By the time a child is six years old, the C.D.C. says they should receive 14 different vaccinations. That's one of the reasons parents are pressuring pediatricians to space out those shots.
Poked and prodded dozens of times in the first few months of life.
"My concern is that their body can't handle the chemicals that are in the vaccinations," one mother said.
A new study shows 93 percent of pediatricians are getting at least one request a month to delay or spread out vaccines for kids under the age of two. It comes at a time when measles is making a comeback in the United States.
The vaccines are meant to prevent outbreaks--like the one that's hit 170 people in 17 states.
"The longer you spread and if you miss certain windows, they won't work," said Dr. Scott Krugman, MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center.
Scott Krugman is the pediatrics chair at MedStar Franklin Square.
"The last resort is don't give any vaccines. The second to last resort is spread them out. But the preference is really to just follow the schedule because the schedule is there for a reason," he said.
Studies show parents are concerned about both short and long term side effects. The most common concern is autism, though research has shown there's no link.
In a candid interview with WJZ, an Annapolis mom decided not to vaccinate her young children. She asked to conceal her identity.
"I didn't understand why a little human had to get so many drugs at one time," she said.
A question some parents are hoping can be solved with simply spacing out the number of vaccines their children receive.
More than 800 pediatricians from across the country were surveyed for the study.