Pediatrician Dr. Eric Rydland, M.D.
Childhood vaccines have a tendency to stress many of the body’s systems, which we believe is the reason many vaccine reactions tend to occur. There are several reasons for this, which are beyond the scope of this discussion. We strongly feel, though, that parents of children who are to receive their vaccines should do certain things to prepare their child’s body for these vaccines in addition to informing themselves about each vaccine, its risks, benefits and risk factors which will put your child at a higher risk.
The most important preparation, in our opinion, is to be sure that the person who is about to receive the vaccine is as healthy as possible before the vaccine is given. Optimally, he or she should be free from illness for at least several days (we recommend one week if at all possible). At times, due to frequent illnesses, we may have to give the vaccine during the recovery phase of an illness, choosing the best possible time frame. The reason for this is that the immune system should be as strong as possible before challenging it with the vaccine (which requires the immune system to make antibodies, temporarily using up some of its “energy”).
We feel that it is important to give your child only one vaccine at a time whenever you can. This puts less stress on his or her immune and detoxification pathways. The vaccines may be given as frequently as every one to two weeks. We recommend that the measles, the mumps and the rubella vaccines be separated by three to six months and never to be given with another vaccine. Again we may need to adjust these recommendations in certain individual circumstances.
Options To Prepare Your Child’s Immune System
Herbs
There are several things that can be done to help your child’s body handle a vaccine in the most efficient way possible in addition to the timing. The first is to use herbal preparations. (All treatments are begun up to one week before the anticipated time of the vaccine and then continue use for one week afterward.) We recommend the Immune Formula by kidsWellness. The dose for your child is listed on the label according to weight. Doses should be repeated three to four times daily. Instead of this formula, you may give appropriate doses (adjusted for your child’s weight) of three or more individual herbal immune stimulant herbs such as echinecea, golden seal, pau d’arco, burdock, dandelion, olive leaf, etc. for the same duration and frequency. Please note that since we are trying to stimulate the immune system naturally, the more you do the better. In other words, if you cannot give the herbs four times daily for the full two weeks, give what you can.
Vitamins/Minerals
Other preparations, which can be used in addition to the above are antioxidant vitamins and minerals. If a baby is nursing the mother can take these preparations and they will get to the baby through her milk. (Women who are pregnant must always check with their medical practitioner before taking anything.)
Vitamin C 250-300 mg. per 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of weight per day for one or more weeks prior to and after each vaccine. This should be divided into three to four doses spaced throughout the day. I prefer a mineral ascorbate or ascorbic acid (no citrus based Vitamin C should be given under one year of age).
Vitamin E 100 I.U. per 10 pounds body weight daily as a single dose.
Vitamin A 5,000 I.U. per 10 pounds body weight daily as a single dose.
Zinc 10 milligrams per 10 pounds body weight daily divided into two to three doses.
Homeopathic
A third method of preparing your child’s system is to take homeopathic preparations for several days before and after each vaccine. Homeopathics cannot be given within 15 minutes of any food or drink either beforehand or afterwards. The best time, therefore, to give these is 15 minutes after eating and then wait 15 minutes more before your child eats or drinks again. We recommend using the “Vaccination” homeopathic combination from Newton Laboratories. This is a homeopathic preparation which will treat and prevent vaccine reactions based on the common symptoms of vaccine reactions. The dose is three drops for infants under one year old and six drops for older children administered three times daily for up to one week before and after each vaccine.
Another way to prepare the body for a vaccine is to give the nosode of that vaccine in a single dose two to three days in advance of that vaccine. These nosodes are strong preparations of these diseases prepared homeopathically. They are, therefore, as close to 100% safe as possible (we have never seen a reaction to these after years of experience and thousands of doses). The dose is repeated again two to three days after the vaccine. There are individual nosodes for each of the diseases against which we vaccinate.
Recommendations
We realize that the above is confusing and performing everything as written above is nearly impossible. We have provided all the options of which we are aware to be as complete as we can. To make it as practical as possible what we usually recommend is as follows (by age and feeding method, e.g. breast feeding or artificial/formula feeding):
1. For nursing babies under six months old we recommend that the mother take the suggested vitamins and the baby take the “Vaccination” homeopathic three drops three times daily for three to seven days before and after each vaccine.
2. For nursing babies older than six months old follow the steps as with nursing babies under six months old and add kidsWellness herbal Immune Formula three to four times daily for the same length of time as above.
3. For babies who are not nursing or are nursing less than four times daily we recommend the kidsWellness Immune Formula three to four times daily, Vitamin C and the “Vaccination” homeopathic formula three times daily for the same length of time as above.
4. For older children we recommend Vitamin C doses as above, “Vaccination” homeopathic three times daily, and the kidsWellness Immune Formula three times daily.
