To help your child grow into a healthy adult, I highly recommend children receiving all immunization (vaccines) from birth to age 18. Vaccination is a way of creating immunity to certain diseases by using small amounts of a killed or weakened microorganism that causes a particular disease.
Childhood vaccines offer protection from serious or potentially fatal diseases. These vaccines are especially important when children are younger and developing quickly. Babies are naturally born with protection against certain diseases. The protection comes from the placenta through the mother before birth and from breast milk after birth; however, this protection is only temporary.
Microorganisms can be viruses (such as the measles virus) or they can be bacteria (such as pneumococcus). Vaccines stimulate the immune system to react as if there were a real infection — it fends off the “infection” and remembers the organism so that it can fight it quickly should it enter the body later.
Many of my parents choose to use well-child visits as a time for scheduled vaccinations and to see how much their child has grown since the last check-up. The different types of vaccines your child may receive include:
• Attenuated (weakened) live viruses are used in some vaccines, such as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
• Killed (inactivated) viruses or bacteria are used in vaccines such as polio (IPV).
• Toxoid vaccines contain an inactivated toxin produced by the bacterium. For example, the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines are toxoid vaccines.
• Conjugate vaccines, such as aemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), contain parts of bacteria combined with proteins. These Hib infections include meningitis (an infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord), pneumonia (lung infection) and epiglottitis (a severe throat infection).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children get the following vaccines: diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis, hepatitis A , hepatitis B, H. influenzae type b (Hib), influenza, measles/mumps/rubella (MMR), pneumococcal (PCV13), chickenpox (varicella), rotavirus (RV), polio (IPV), human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal (MPSV4/MCV4). The vaccine schedule is designed to ensure that children receive vaccines at the optimal time to protect them from infectious diseases.
Some vaccines will be given as one shot but others include a series of shots. When available, doctors might give your child vaccines that are combined into one shot. For your child to be completely immunized against a disease, he or she must get all of the recommended doses. There have been outbreaks of serious diseases in children who did not get fully immunized.
To find out which vaccines your child needs and which ones are coming up, ask your child’s pediatrician or check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendations, which can be found at www.cdc.gov.
You can request an immunization tracking card from your child’s doctor or the Indiana State Department of Health. You should bring that card with you to all of your child’s doctor visits. Ask your child’s doctor or nurse to record the vaccine given, date and dosage on the card.
Some parents may hesitate to have their kids vaccinated because they’re worried that the children will have serious reactions or may get the illness the vaccine is supposed to prevent. But because the components of vaccines are weakened or killed — and in some cases, only parts of the microorganism are used — they’re unlikely to cause any serious illness.
Several vaccines may cause mild reactions, such as soreness where the shot was given or fever, but serious reactions are rare. The risks of vaccinations are small compared with the health risks associated with the diseases they’re intended to prevent.
Some people have had concerns that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might be linked to the vaccine, but studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD. In fact, a 2013 CDC study looked at the number of antigens (substances in vaccines that cause the body’s immune system to produce disease-fighting antibodies) from vaccines during the first two years of life. The results showed that the total amount of antigen from vaccines received was the same between children with ASD and those that did not have ASD.
Eskenazi Health provides well-child checkup services at several locations. For more information on these services or to find a primary care physician, please call 317-880-8687.
Nydia Nuñez-Estrada, M.D.
Family Medicine
Eskenazi Health Center North Arlington