The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of 66,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists, has long advocated for the health and safety of our children.
“Pediatricians who routinely recommend limiting the numbers of vaccines administered at a single visit such that vaccines are administered late are providing care that deviates from the standard evidence-based schedule recommended by these bodies.”
American Academy of Pediatricians
Their advice to keep kids safe and healthy includes that all children, unless they have a medical exemption, be fully vaccinated on time and on schedule.
Do Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids?
Does that mean that all pediatricians vaccinate their kids on time and on schedule?
Not surprisingly, it does not.
There are enough vaccine friendly and holistic pediatricians out there that push non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedules that you would expect some of them to leave their own kids unvaccinated and unprotected.
Not that many though.
Most pediatricians vaccinate their own kids.
Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids
One study, How Do Physicians Immunize Their Own Children? Differences Among Pediatricians and Nonpediatricians, found that “Ninety-three percent of the surveyed physicians agree with the current official vaccination recommendations and would apply them to their own children.”
The numbers were even higher for some vaccines, like diphtheria (100%), tetanus (100%), pertussis (98.7%), polio (99.2%), measles (97.4%), mumps (95.2%), and rubella (95.7%). It was lower for those vaccines that were newer to the schedule (the study was in Switzerland in 2005), like Hib and hepatitis B.
Up to about 29% of the pediatricians gave their own kids vaccines that weren’t even on the routine schedule in Switzerland yet, including hepatitis A, flu, Prevnar, and the chicken pox vaccine.
Another study, Vaccination practices among physicians and their children, came to similar conclusions. At least 95% of pediatricians said that they followed the recommendations of the ACIP, and the “over-all rates for individual vaccines were considerably high ranging from 97% to 100%.”
That’s right! At least 99% of pediatricians said that they would give their child the MMR, Varicella, Menactra, flu, and Gardasil vaccines.
An even higher percentage would give hepatitis B, polio, Prevnar, Hib, and DTaP!
Fewer would give rotavirus (94%) and hepatitis A (98%) to their own kids, which is not that surprising, as those are among the newest vaccines.
It is a myth that a large number of pediatricians don’t vaccinate their own kids.
What to Know About How Pediatricians Vaccinating Their Own Kids
Almost all pediatricians vaccinate and protect their own kids with all of the recommended vaccines on the CDC immunization schedule.
More on How Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids
- AAP – Countering Vaccine Hesitancy
- Study – How do physicians immunize their own children? Differences among pediatricians and nonpediatricians.
- Study – Vaccination practices among physicians and their children
- Pediatricians’ Conditional Comfort With Alternative Vaccine Schedules
Last Updated on November 28, 2017