Seeking Kaiser Oakland Pediatrician open to slower vaccinations
Hi! I want to state up front that after living for many years in Africa I am VERY pro-vaccine - but I am alarmed by the intensity of the modern baby vaccination schedule, and would like to slowly give my child all the required vaccinations one at a time, over his first 2-3 years. Can anyone recommend a Kaiser Oakland pediatrician who might be okay about this kind of non-normative vaccine schedule - and who you would highly suggest as a hugely competent, thoughtful pediatrician? I am a global human rights lawyer and am also looking for a kind, thoughtful, relaxed doctor for my future child who will be okay with me asking a million questions and doing my own research and having a lot of strong opinions :) Thank you so much!!
Dec 17, 2021
Parent Replies
My pediatrician, Dr Jennifer Tenney, is open to slow vaccine schedules. I believe her panel is full but you can be added to her wait list. Or try to see her for a sick visit (if any come up) and then ask her if there’s space on her panel.
i didn’t end up doing a slower vaccine schedule because it meant more trips to the clinic during the height of the pandemic. But I had initially asked her and she was very open and non-judgmental. She’s laid back and WONDERFUL!
My experience with Kaiser Oakland starting in 2012 was that they were fine stretching out the vaccine schedule, as long as you were getting all the vaccines. As soon as I mentioned it, a medical assistant pulled out a sheet with the vaccine schedule from "Dr. Bob." (It was some xeroxed notes, not something Kaiser formally endorsed.)
I am the same kind of person you are. I'm not sure many Kaiser doctors will take a lot of time to discuss research with you, since they tend to all follow the same protocols.
We have found all the pediatricians at Kaiser to be very open and non-judgemental about choosing to do a slower/modified vaccine schedule. We debated about doing the same thing and everyone was great about discussing it with us. Our kids started off with Dr. Susan Goddard and then switched over to Dr. Ping Chouw, but we've met with a variety of folks over the years - all at Oakland Kaiser. Good luck!
~Mailisha
I don't have a specific doctor to recommend, but my kids (now teens) were Kaiser babies, and I spoke with their pediatrician initially and communicated that while I wanted them to be fully vaccinated, I didn't want them to receive all of them at once (especially those first few rounds). She (now retired) was very willing to let me space them out. So my advice is to just be open with the provider when you find one, and it's more than likely if you intend to fully vaccinate, they will be ok with you spacing it out.
Hi! We have Dr. Phan Phu at Kaiser as my son's pediatrician and he's been flexible with us around vaccinations. He'll always tell us why we should go with the recommended schedule but I never felt immense pressure, plus I knew we would never go that route. We only just started vaccinating my son who turned 3 years old in November. I created a schedule that aligns with BUSD's requirements for school in a couple of years and provided that to Dr. Phu to sign on off on so my son could enter preschool last month. Happy to share that with you if you'd like. Cheers!
I have Kaiser for my 2 young kids and have found that if you decide your own schedule, which there is info on the CDC website on the spacing between vaccines you can make your own schedule and I have found multiple doctors to be ok with it. Some of the pediatricians I think have been doubtful of me actually going through with the slower schedule. But once they trusted I was making the time and effort they came around. This used to be much easier as you could just drop into the injection clinic and now you need appointments with the pandemic. Good luck! I agree, the slower schedule really makes sense and gives ease of mind and my kids have not had big reactions or fevers related to their vaccines this way and it gives me an eye on if they are reacting to something specific. Reach out directly if you would like to talk more.