United States: One does not want his or her new born child to go to the doctor to be given immunizations.
The Importance of Following the Immunization Schedule
Babies are expected to undergo immunization, which has the potential of preventing about 15 specific ailments. Many must be given over multiple days, weeks, or months, translating to nearly thirty jabs by age two.
Many parents might consider skipping or stretching these shots, but several health care professionals who spoke to USA TODAY stated that they do not suggest deviating from the vaccination schedule for children.
“The vaccination schedule is laid out in a way to protect folks to the things they’re most vulnerable to at whatever stage they may be in,” said Dr. Kisha Davis, chief health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, and board member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “There’s really strong science and evidence both from the research and also from decades and generations of giving vaccines.”
Why you shouldn’t spread out vaccines
The main goal of vaccines is to shield babies due to the fact they have the weakest immune system and have great risks of being infected and developing severe disease, according to Dr. Ofer Levy, MD PhD, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and Director of Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“Every day that passes that you delay immunization is a day you are needlessly putting that child at risk,” he said.
Childhood vaccines, in many cases, last for the better part of three years, and therefore, one has to be very certain that protection upfront early in life is adequate, said Davis.
Parents find it easier to have their babies receive their vaccinations on time as recommended by health officials, according to Dr. William Schaffner, the professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Symptoms of disarray that could be easily attributable to spreading out vaccines, he said, include additional doctor visits and a greater number of shots to achieve the best possible level of immunity. As much as the illness can be managed, life will also interfere, so parents may even delay or stop going for additional doctor’s appointments.
General practitioners and pediatricians witnessed this during the COVID-19 pandemic when priority servces such as well-child check-ups were substantially postponed or skipped because of government-imposed lockdowns.
Science proves fatalities slowed by the pandemic have adverse consequences. The analysis further showed that overall, these vaccination rates are lower for children who were born in 2020 and 2021 than for children born in either 2018 or 2019, with the exception of the birth-administered vaccines.
“A vaccine deferred is sometimes a vaccine never received,” Schaffner said.
No, vaccines don’t overload a baby’s immune system
Some parents have concerns that with so many injections scheduled for toddlers and infants, the tiny bodies of the children will be overburdened, Schaffner observed. How does their ‘sensitive’ immunity work, and what happens when they take those vaccines?
“It’s remarkable, but it can,” he said.
The concern emerged in the spotlight again last Summer when President-elect Donald Trump outlined his opinion about child vaccinations in a telephone conversation with an inheritor of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Explaining the particulars of vaccines: ‘When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that looks like 38 different vaccines and it’s the size of a horse, it’s for a baby that is 10 pounds or 20 pounds,’ Trump said, adding that babies are capable of ‘changing radically.’
But a dozen vaccines are nothing in front of the countless viruses, bacteria, and other pathogenic organisms babies’ immune systems face daily, Davis pointed out.
Vaccines Do Not Overload a Baby’s Immune System
While childhood vaccinations may administer about 140 microbes, she said, babies are exposed to thousands of microbes as they crawl on the floor, put objects in their mouths, and get wet smooches from the pet dog, as reported by USA Today.
“The evidence is strong. You’re not hurting your baby,” Davis said.
If parents are behind on their child’s vaccinations, health experts said for USA TODAY that it’s never too late to call your family doctor and get a plan for catching up. However, it says parents should not delay getting their children immunized if they can avoid it.