About Me

You’ve received that dreaded call from your child’s pediatrician again informing you that it’s time for Jr’s shots. With much trepidation you count down to the very nanosecond when you’ll be tortured by the screams of your child as he receives his routine immunizations. As unpleasant as the ordeal is, and as debatable as the issue of rather to vaccinate or not is, vaccines are a necessary evil.

Vaccines or immunizations are made available to protect your children against ten major childhood diseases. These diseases include:

1.) Hepatitis B

2.) Diphtheria

3.) Haemophilus infections (meningitis and epiglottitis)

4.) Measles

5.) Mumps

6.) Polio

7.) Whooping cough (pertussis)

8.) Tetanus

9.) German Measles (rubella)

10.) Chicken Pox

Medical reports claim that any of these diseases listed above can disable or kill, so parents are advised to get their children immunized against them. Special circumstances call for other immunizations against:

1.) Influenza

2.)Rabies

3.) Pneumococcus

4.) Hepatitis A

Your child’s pediatrician will advise you of what is necessary.

“How does a vaccination work”? you may wonder. Well the book “Caring For Your Baby and Young Child” states that ‘When your child is given a vaccine, he receives the “weakened” part or killed infectious organism part of the vaccine that is able to stimulate his body to produce antibodies against it.’ Should your child ever come in contact with the disease, these antibodies go to work to protect him against the disease.

It’s important to note that all vaccines carry the risk of potential side effects. For instance:

1.) Chicken pox (Varicella) Vaccine- Side effects are generally mild and include stiffness, swelling at injection site, soreness, tiredness, fussiness, fever, redness and nausea. A rash of a few small bumps or pimples may develop at the injection site and rarely on other pars of the body. This can surface up to one month after vaccination and can last for several days.

2.) Polio- On very rare occasions (OPV) Oral Polio Vaccine can cause vaccine associated paralytic polio in a child whose immune system has been compromised. (IPV) or Inactivated Polio Vaccine, has not been shown to cause any major problems besides mild soreness at the injection site.

3.) Influenza- This vaccine has few side effects except for one or two days of soreness at site of injection. Febrile (or feverish) reactions are infrequent.

4.) Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HIB) Vaccine- Mild fever may develop