The full list of vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for children up to the age of 18 provides protection against more than 15 diseases. These vaccines protect your child from becoming ill with conditions that affect their health and wellbeing.
Maintaining an active and accurate vaccination schedule for your child is one of the best ways to ensure good health for their future. Many of the common vaccines given today prevent diseases with significant health complications. Some are potentially life-threatening.
The team at Pediatric Practitioners of Oklahoma, located in Claremore, Oklahoma, are your partners as vaccine specialists. We can help you keep your child’s immunizations updated and current so that they stay protected against preventable illnesses. All vaccines are essential, but these five may be the most important in your child’s early years.
Typically administered in five doses by the time your child is six years old, this vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Diphtheria can cause severe breathing issues due to an infection of the throat. Tetanus is also known as lockjaw, a disease of the nerves caused by toxic bacteria that usually enter the body through a cut or scrape.
Whooping cough is the common name for pertussis. The younger a child is when they catch this respiratory illness, the more dangerous it can be. The CDC recommends the first dose of the DTaP vaccine at two months.
Given in four doses over six years, two months is also the CDC recommendation for the first dose. Polio causes permanent paralysis, but vaccines have virtually eliminated the disease in the United States, with no cases originating in the country since 1979. The polio virus can still arrive here via travelers, making the vaccine essential for your child.
Measles, mumps, and rubella are three diseases blocked by a single vaccine, delivered in two injections. The first dose is usually at your child’s first birthday and the second between the ages of four and six. Measles is an intense respiratory illness that can be devastating to unvaccinated children, while mumps is a viral disease that affects the salivary glands and can cause sterility in boys. Rubella, also known as German measles, is a mild illness for children, but it can harm an unborn child if passed on to a pregnant woman.
This vaccine, delivered in four doses between 2 and 15 months, provides protection against many strains of streptococcus bacteria. These bacteria can cause illnesses ranging from minor respiratory infections to meningitis and pneumonia.
It takes three doses administered from birth to 18 months to protect your child against hepatitis B — the most common cause of liver infection worldwide. The vaccine is safe and effective and is the only one that the CDC recommends for your child at birth.
Discuss your child’s vaccine schedule with your caregiver at Pediatric Practitioners of Oklahoma. Call the office or request an appointment online today to schedule a visit to update your child’s vaccines.
