The Best Gift You Can Give Them is Their Health

It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat one after it occurs.

• Vaccination is a safe, highly effective, and easy way to help keep your family healthy.
• The recommended vaccination schedule balances when a child is likely to be exposed to a disease and when a vaccine will be most effective.
• Vaccines are tested to ensure they can be given safely and effectively at the recommended ages.

Source: CDC.gov

Before a new vaccine is ever given to people, extensive lab testing is done. Once testing in people begins, it can still take years before clinical studies are complete and the vaccine is licensed.

After a vaccine is licensed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CDC, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other federal agencies continue routine monitoring and investigate any potential safety concerns.

Source: CDC.gov

Vaccines, like medicine, can have some side effects. But most people who get vaccinated have only mild side effects or none at all. The most common side effects include fever, tiredness, body aches, and redness, swelling, and tenderness where the shot was given. Mild reactions usually go away on their own within a few days. Serious, long-lasting side effects are extremely rare. We know they are rare because the CDC tracks and investigates reports of serious side effects.

If you have questions or concerns about a vaccine, talk with your pediatrician.

Source: CDC.gov

Today’s vaccines use only the ingredients they need to be as safe and effective as possible. A vaccine could include any of these kinds of ingredients:

• Adjuvants such as aluminum salts help boost the body’s response to a vaccination. (Also found in antacids, antiperspirants, etc.)
• Stabilizers such as sugars or gelatin help keep a vaccine effective after it is manufactured. (Naturally present in the body and found in foods such as Jell-O®.)
• Formaldehyde helps prevent bacterial contamination during manufacturing. Formaldehyde is naturally present in the body at levels higher than vaccines. (Also found in the environment, preservatives, and household products.)
• Thimerosal is a preservative used in the vaccine manufacturing process. It is no longer used to make any vaccine except multi-dose vials of the flu vaccine. Single dose vials of the flu vaccine are available as an alternative.

Source: CDC.gov

Vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed many infants, children, and adults. Without vaccines, your child is at risk for getting seriously ill and suffering pain, disability, and even death from diseases like measles and whooping cough.

The main risks associated with getting vaccines are side effects, which are almost always mild (redness and swelling at the injection site) and go away within a few days. Serious side effects after vaccination, such as a severe allergic reaction, are very rare and doctors and clinic staff are trained to deal with them.

The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children. The only exceptions to this are cases in which a child has a serious chronic medical condition like cancer or a disease that weakens the immune system or has had a severe allergic reaction to a previous vaccine dose.

Source: CDC.gov

No. Scientific studies and reviews continue to show no relationship between vaccines and autism. Please see the CDC vaccine safety website for more information on autism and vaccines.

Source: CDC.gov

Vaccines do not overload the immune system. Every day, a healthy baby’s immune system successfully fights off thousands of germs. Antigens are parts of germs that cause the body’s immune system to go to work to build antibodies, which fight off diseases.

The antigens in vaccines come from the germs themselves, but the germs are weakened or killed so they cannot cause serious illness. Even if babies receive several vaccinations in one day, vaccines contain only a tiny fraction of the antigens they encounter every day in their environment. Vaccines give your child the antibodies they need to fight off serious vaccine-preventable diseases.

Source: CDC.gov

The recommended schedule protects infants and children by providing protection early in life, before they come into contact with life-threatening diseases. Children receive vaccinations early because they are susceptible to diseases at a young age.

Young children have the highest risk of having a serious case of disease that could cause hospitalization or death. Delaying or spreading out vaccine doses leaves your child unprotected during the time when they need vaccine protection the most. For example, diseases such as Hib or pneumococcus almost always occur in the first 2 years of a baby’s life. And some diseases, like hepatitis B and whooping cough (pertussis), are more serious when babies get them.

No, even young children who are cared for at home can be exposed to vaccine preventable diseases, so it’s important for them to get all their vaccines at the recommended ages. Children can catch these illnesses from any number of people or places, including from parents, brothers or sisters, visitors to their home, on playgrounds or even at the grocery store. Regardless of whether your baby is cared for outside the home, your baby comes in contact with people throughout the day, some of whom may have a vaccine-preventable disease.

Many of these diseases can be especially dangerous to young children, so it is safest to vaccinate your child at the recommended ages. Children under age 5 are especially susceptible to diseases because their immune systems have not built up the necessary defenses to fight infection.

Getting every recommended dose of each vaccine provides your child with the best protection possible. Depending on the vaccine, your child will need more than one dose to build high enough immunity to help prevent disease or to boost immunity that fades over time.

Your child may also receive more than one dose to make sure they are protected if they did not get immunity from a first dose, or to protect them against germs that change over time, like flu. Every dose is important because each protects against an infectious disease that can be especially serious for infants and very young children.

Some vaccine-preventable diseases, like pertussis (whooping cough) and chickenpox, remain common in the United States. On the other hand, other diseases vaccines prevent are no longer common in this country because of vaccines.

If we stopped vaccinating, the few cases we have in the United States could very quickly become tens or hundreds of thousands of cases. Even though many serious vaccine-preventable diseases are uncommon in the United States, some are common in other parts of the world.

Even if your family does not travel internationally, you could come into contact with international travelers anywhere in your community. Children who don’t receive all vaccinations and are exposed to a disease can become seriously sick and spread it through a community.

The CDC has a wealth of information and research on childhood immunizations. Our pediatricians are also a great resource to ask any questions you may have during your visit.

Vaccines for Your Children | Childhood Vaccines | CDC