Video: Parents weigh risks of childhood vaccines

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SEATTLE - Most parents vaccinate their infants, but others feel caught.

They weigh risks of the disease against potential harm from vaccines. 

Now some parents are turning to individual vaccination plans.

Ruby Otto was a tiny 2-month-old when her mother decided against getting her the first round of recommended childhood immunizations.

"In my gut I just felt no, it's not time yet," said her mother, Shannon Otto. "It just seems like a big strain on those tiny little undeveloped immune systems.

So she's working with her naturopathic doctor Tamara Cullen. Ruby has gotten just some of the recommended vaccinations.

And she gets vaccines one at a time.

"By giving them separately, you might get an edge on getting a better immune response, and you're not doing any harm," said Tamara Cullen, naturopathic doctor.

But pediatrician Dr. Danette Glassy of the Mercer Island Pediatric Associates calls individual immunizations an unnecessary step.

"The idea that we could overwhelm their child's immune system with a few antigens from immunizations, is not founded," Glassy said.

She says there is a wealth of solid research to back that view.

And she worries when parents stretch out an infant's vaccine schedule, it leaves them open to disease and they may not get boosters at intervals that build immunity.

"I'll tell you what really happens is life happens," Glassy said. "And they don't come back. They don't get their timely vaccinations. We have big holes, and two years later we're going, 'how come you never had a mumps vaccine?'"

For Shannon Otto, fear of bad reactions to some vaccines outweighs her fear of the diseases they prevent.

She is vigilant about timing boosters and her naturopath advised her, there's another advantage to single dose vaccines. They limit Ruby's exposure to additives.

"Many of them still have aluminum as an adjuvant and also formaldehyde," Cullen said.

While Glassy acknowledges parents fear of vaccines, she says: "I tell them that I think it is in their children's best interest to be immunized, because I have seen these diseases, and I've seen babies and children die of these diseases."

There's another concern for parents. Some immunizations aren't available in single doses. That includes the vaccine against pertussis, a disease with a high mortality rate for infants.