Bob Sears might have one of the most popular non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedules that leave kids at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases, but he wasn’t the first to come up with the idea.
His schedule sure did seem to open up the floodgate for others though.
Everyone with a blog now thinks that they can create their own vaccine schedule.
Don’t believe me?
In addition to both versions of the Sears’ schedule, his alternative and his selective versions, we also have:
- a homeopathic immunization schedule – wait until six months and then start giving nosodes every five days
- the Stephanie Cave schedule – starts at 4 months
- the Donald Miller user friendly vaccination schedule – starts at age 2 years
- a vaccine friendly plan
- the Dr Jay schedule – one vaccine at a time and wait until they are ‘developmentally solid’ until they get the MMR
- the chiropractor immunization plan
And now there is even a Paleo vaccine schedule.
Paleo Vaccine Schedule
That there is a Paleo vaccine schedule is probably a big surprise for people, especially those who understand anything about the Paleo diet, but it will also help you understand how most folks pull these immunization schedules out of their hats.
“Proponents of the Paleo diet follow a nutritional plan based on the eating habits of our ancestors in the Paleolithic period, between 2.5 million and 10,000 years ago.”
Ferris Jabr on How to Really Eat Like a Hunter-Gatherer: Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked
So do proponents of the Paleo vaccine schedule follow an immunization plan based on the vaccinating habits of our ancestors in the Paleolithic period, between 2.5 million and 10,000 years ago?
As most folks can guess, that would be hard to do, as there weren’t any vaccines back then. Even variolation against smallpox probably didn’t start until about 1000 CE.
So the Paleo vaccine schedule, which advocates for giving your infant one vaccine at a time starting with the DTaP at six months, really has nothing to do with being Paleo. Unless of course, you consider that it will leave your kids unprotected from vaccine-preventable diseases, just like we were in the Paleolithic period, between 2.5 million and 10,000 years ago.
It is a good reminder that all of these so-called alternative vaccine schedules are really just made up schedules without any evidence to show that they will reduce side effects. And that these schedules have no evidence that they will even protect your kids from vaccine preventable diseases.
“As far back as the Paleolithic age, humans have lived in close proximity with animals, associating not only with those they could domesticate but also with wild and dangerous beasts. Encounters contained an element of risk, for humans were injured or killed as much as nourished or entertained. The enigmatic portrayal of large, wild beasts on the walls and ceiling at Lascaux suggests a complex early relationship that went beyond the necessities of food or fiber. In our time, interaction with animals continues to encompass cohabitation at all levels, including the microbial. Encounters, compounded by increased travel and trade, still involve risks as well as benefits. And even though we are less likely to be injured or killed by animals, the exotic pathogens living and traveling with them counterbalance amusement and companionship with illness and death.”
Polyxeni Potter on Paleolithic Murals and the Global Wildlife Trade
So where do vaccines fit into a Paleo lifestyle? They fit in very well if you want to get protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
What To Know About The Paleo Vaccine Schedule
Like other non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedules, the Paleo vaccine schedule is a made-up alternative to the standard immunization schedule and will leave your kids unprotected from vaccine preventative diseases.
More About the Paleo Vaccine Schedule
- What Paleo diet experts think – and why they’re wrong
- The Problem with Dr. Bob’s Alternative Vaccine Schedule
- Delaying Vaccines Increases Risks—with No Added Benefits
- Cashing In On Fear: The Danger of Dr. Sears
- Delayed Schedules
- Sears and Gordon: Should Misleading Vaccine Advice Have Professional Consequences?
- Altering the Schedule
- Talking about Vaccines : Countering Dr. Sears
- A comprehensive takedown of Dr. Sears’ The Vaccine Book
- Moms Who Vax: What Middle Ground?
- Finding the Silver Lining in Delayed Vaccination
- Delaying Vaccines Not A Good Idea
- Why Delay Vaccines For Your Child?
- An example of how alternate vaccine schedules endanger children
- Getting with the Schedule : Slow-Vax to Pro-Vax
- Inventing your own vaccine schedule? Not a wise idea.