VACCINE POLICY AT DOLPHIN PEDIATRICS

Dr. Suarez-Troccoli firmly believes

That our vaccines are a safe and effective way of preventing serious illnesses and save many lives. We have vaccinated all the children in our families
That all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the American Academy of Pediatrics
That vaccines do not cause autism
That vaccinating children may be the single most important health-promoting intervention we perform as health care providers and that parents can perform as caregivers
The recommended vaccines and the vaccine schedule are the results of years of scientific study and data collection from millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists

Vaccine Policy and Comments (taken in part from Greenvale Pediatrics)

We live in a multicultural world where travel is accessible to all and there are people from all over the world around you, so we are not isolated. We recognize that there have always been, and always will be, questions about vaccinations but these mainly come from the fact that because vaccines have been so successful at eradicating disease, many parents don’t have the experience of having a relative or loved one that has had polio, diphtheria, bacterial meningitis, whooping cough, tetanus, or even chickenpox and thus does not believe they exist. This can lead to many people thinking they do not need to vaccinate their kids. When parents choose not to vaccinate their child they are taking advantage of millions of others who do vaccinate their children. The immunity provided by the large population of vaccinated children decreases the likelihood that the unvaccinated child will contract these diseases. This sort of “herd immunity” only works as long as the majority of children are vaccinated. If immunization rates decrease there is a greater chance for our children to become ill from vaccine-preventable diseases.

We want to make our parents aware of these facts not to scare or coerce, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating all of our children. We recognize that the decision may be a very emotional one for some parents. We will do everything we can to convince the parents, who trust us with their child’s health, that vaccinating according to the routine schedule is the right thing to do. We cannot provide everyone with a different vaccination schedule as there is no evidence that alternate vaccination schedules offer any advantage over the traditional AAP approved schedule and because our office, which is small in order to provide a closer relationship with your family, becomes chaotic with everyone getting vaccines at different times. So, without exception, our office does not offer alternative vaccination schedules.