Vaccines For Children

A GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

- Dr. Ashish Gupta

Vaccines save lives and protect against the spread of disease. If you decide not to immunize your child, you put your child at risk. Your child could catch a disease that is dangerous or deadly. Getting vaccinated is much better than getting the disease. Your pediatrician knows that you care about your child's health and safety. That's why you need to get all the scientific facts from a medical professional you can trust before making any decisions based on stories you may have seen or heard on TV, the Internet, or from other parents. Your pediatrician cares about your child too and wants you to know that...

Working mechanisms of vaccines.

Vaccines keep children healthy and have saved millions of lives for more than 50 years. Most childhood vaccines are 90% to 99% effective in preventing disease. 

And if a vaccinated child does get the disease, the symptoms are usually less serious than in a child who hasn't been vaccinated. There may be mild side effects, like swelling where the shot was given, but they do not last long. And it is rare for side effects to be serious.

Vaccines are safe

Today's vaccines are safer than any in history. Vaccines contain antigens, which are either live but very weakened viruses, inactivated viruses, or small parts of bacteria or viruses that prompt the body to produce protective antibodies without causing the disease. Even though children receive more vaccines now, the total number of antigens is less because today's vaccines are more refined than older versions.

At a very young age, children's immune systems are equipped to respond to many antigens at the same time, including those in vaccines as well as the ones they encounter in their daily activities such as eating, breathing and playing.