A new survey, conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has found that parents often request doctors to delay their kid’s vaccination and despite a child’s safety fears the doctors agree with those requests.

During the survey, the researchers questioned a nationally representative sample of 534 primary care physicians in 2012. They asked them about how frequently parents in their practices postponed one or more vaccinations for their children younger than age 2.

These doctors were the members of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In the survey, researchers figured out that 90% of the doctors mentioned that they receive requests from parents to spread out vaccines, and 1 in 5 doctors agreed that at least 10% of their patients have made this request.
Researchers noted that around three-quarters of doctors agreed to such requests either ‘often/always’ or ‘sometimes’, while only a quarter said that they ‘hardly ever’ entertained such requests.

The survey revealed that 87% of the doctors told the parents, who chose to spread out vaccines, that this might prove risky for their children and they can contract preventable infectious diseases. While 84% of the doctors told the parents that the alternative schedules can be more painful for children, as they had to come back to the doctor more times for injections. Out of all, there were just 3% doctors who, when asked to delay the vaccination, told the parents to consult another doctor.

The survey doctors said that they agreed to the requests of the parents because they didn’t want to break their trust with the families as denying might give the families a reason to leave and go to another doctor.

According to the doctors, parents often request to delay children vaccinations because of the probable long-term complications and other dangers arising from vaccines.