“Delaying the administration of childhood vaccines strengthens long-term immune system development.”

Delaying or spreading out vaccine doses leaves your child unprotected during the time when they need vaccine protection the most. Young children have the highest risk of having a serious case of disease that could cause hospitalization or death. Vaccines do not overload the immune system.

Children whose parents intentionally delayed vaccine administration had significantly lower timely vaccination coverage at 19 months of age (35.4% vs. 60.1%, p<0.05) and continued to have significantly lower coverage at 24 months of age (46.7% vs. 70.7%, p<0.05). Children whose parents delay vaccinations may be at increased risk of not receiving all recommended vaccine doses and are more vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Delays in receiving vaccinations result in an increased risk of vaccine-preventable outbreaks, including measles and pertussis. Lower vaccine confidence index scores, indicating lower confidence in vaccines, were associated with a higher probability of delay in the first MMR vaccine dose. Research does not show any proven long-term benefits to delaying vaccines.

Vaccines allow parents to control the risk of disease by controlling the child's exposure to the germ. During the first few months of life, babies are somewhat protected from infectious diseases by maternal antibodies, but this protection wanes during the first year. Eliciting the infant’s own immune response before the maternal response wanes is the most conservative approach.

There is no medical reason to delay or space out childhood immunizations. Several studies have found that getting multiple combination vaccines do not overwhelm a child's immune system. The current recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedule helps protect children against approximately 20 different infections.

Delay in vaccination increases the susceptibility window for developing vaccine-preventable diseases at individual level and reduces herd immunity at population level. Evidence from previous studies have demonstrated that delayed vaccination may increase the risk of Pertussis, Measles and Haemophilus influenzae B infections up to 6 folds and lead to outbreaks.

Vaccines give us a way to more quickly educate a baby's immune system against several of the most dangerous pathogens early in life. To be most effective, vaccination should occur before most recipients are exposed to the pathogen. This combination of increased risk during infancy and the need to protect before exposure explains why so many vaccines are given in the first few months of life.

Spacing out vaccines beyond the recommended schedule can leave children vulnerable to debilitating diseases. Some are also less effective as people get older. James Campbell, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist, states: 'If you're making up your own schedule, you don't have backing from the data.' If an infant catches a vaccine-preventable disease like pertussis, they have a much higher risk of severe acute disease, hospitalization or death.

Current studies do not support the hypothesis that multiple vaccines overwhelm, weaken, or “use up” the immune system. The young infant is fully capable of generating protective humoral and cellular immune responses to multiple vaccines simultaneously. Although a delay in vaccines is recommended for children with severe illnesses until the symptoms of illness resolve, this recommendation is not based on the likelihood that the child will have an inadequate immune response to the vaccine.

Refusing, delaying, or spacing out vaccines only leaves infants susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases during the most vulnerable period of their life. The immunological challenge from vaccines is a drop in the bucket compared to what infants encounter every day. Young infants are able to build immune responses that save them from disease.

There is no reason to delay vaccination, because the vaccine recommendations are based on scientific research with your child's developing immune system in mind. The timing of immune system development affects when and how well your baby's immune system will respond to vaccines.

Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that vaccines don't cause our immune system to overload. A landmark study published in 2002 confirmed that even when children receive several vaccines during the same appointment, their immune systems are not “overloaded.” The study by Paul Offit suggested that an infant’s immune system could theoretically respond to 10,000 vaccines at the same time without being weakened.

Research out of St. Jude investigates how the immune system in infants responds to a routine vaccine panel at two months. By appreciating how immune cells in infants respond to immunization, scientists can optimize efficacy, offering children a better chance to combat infection early in life. The timing of vaccine administration is critical to immune system development.

There is no medical benefit in spreading vaccines out. An alternative or delayed vaccine schedule will not decrease the risk for side effects. Delaying vaccines leaves kids vulnerable to illness when they are most at risk.

For people with healthy immune systems, there isn't a clinical reason not to follow the recommended schedule.

Our data suggest that primary vaccination with a neo-antigen should preferentially be applied at younger age (<50 years) to ensure sufficient and long lasting responsiveness. Studies in atopic children who were vaccinated against tetanus or pertussis did not show significant differences in antibody levels compared to healthy children. Analysis of the postnatal maturation of T-helper cell responses showed a continuation of Th2-biased immune responses but decreased capacity for production of Th1 cytokines compared to healthy children.

Our working hypothesis is that LVR children display immune dysfunction and maturational delay similar to neonates. Low IFN-γ or IL-4 antigen specific recall responses to vaccine antigens persist until at least 1 year of age even with in vitro APC supplementation, suggesting that intrinsic blocks to cytokine responses may persist past the neonatal stage. Determining the mechanisms within each cell line responsible for immune maturational delays compared to older children and adults could be overcome by modifications in pediatric vaccines.

Some parents are concerned about the safety and necessity of childhood vaccines, causing them to reject or delay routine immunization. New research into immunization is fueling concerns about the increased rejection of routine vaccines in the U.S. An investigation found that many counties have immunization rates below herd immunity levels due to delays.

Major health organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and World Health Organization (WHO) state that the standard childhood vaccine schedule is optimal for immune protection and there is no evidence that delaying vaccines improves immune system development; instead, it increases disease risk. Multiple studies, such as those reviewed in Pediatrics journal, confirm no long-term immune benefits from delayed schedules.