Vaccinate or not? - this is the question many parents ask themselves. They do not know if vaccines are safe for their child. Will vaccinations really protect a child from the disease, or maybe on the contrary - cause it? How is it with vaccines?
A child comes into the world with the so-called primary immunity. Unfortunately, these disease-protecting antibodies (antigens) given to you by your mother last only for the first three months after birth. Then, until the age of nine months, the baby's immune system deteriorates. He is only learning to recognize the enemy, i.e. viruses and bacteria and to produce a suitable weapon against them - antibodies. Vaccines make learning faster and more effective. Vaccine - this is nothing more than weakened or dead pathogenic microorganisms introduced into the body, provoking the immune system to produce antibodies. It is training that prepares the body to instantly recognize germs and send out an army of antibodies against them. This army will either protect the child from infection, or at least significantly mitigate its course. In order for the acquired immunity to last for many years, you need to take the so-called booster doses of the vaccine.
Vaccination calendar
After birth
Mandatory: hepatitis B, tuberculosis
2 month
Mandatory: hepatitis B, DTP (combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) Recommended: Hib (against Haemophilus influenzae), against pneumococci
3/4 month
Mandatory: DTP, polio Recommended: Hib, pneumococcus
5 month
Mandatory: DTP, polio Recommended: Hib, pneumococcus
6/7 month
Mandatory: hepatitis B, polio
12 month
Mandatory: tuberculosis (in the absence of scarring)
13/14 month
Mandatory: measles, mumps, rubella Recommended: chickenpox
How do combination vaccines work?
16/18 month
Mandatory: DTP, polio Recommended: hepatitis A, Hib, pneumococcal
6 year
Mandatory: DT, polio Recommended: hepatitis A
7 year
Mandatory: measles, tuberculosis Recommended: mumps, rubella
11 year
Mandatory: polio
12 year
Mandatory: tuberculosis (negative tuberculin test)
13 year
Mandatory: rubella (for girls not previously vaccinated with a combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella) Recommended: rubella (for boys - if they have not previously been vaccinated with a combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella)
14 year
Mandatory: DT, hepatitis B (if the child has not been vaccinated before)
You must do itMost babies do not have any reactions or complications after being vaccinated. Sometimes there are temporary, harmless local reactions. What to do then?
- Pain, redness and swelling at the injection site can be relieved by applying a gauze compress soaked in a solution of 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and half a glass of boiled, lukewarm water for half an hour.
- After the TB vaccination, a local reaction resembling a small abscess develops. This place must not be rubbed with salicylic alcohol! It should not be covered with compresses or plasters that prevent the access of air. The child can wash and bathe.
- After vaccination against measles, some children develop cold-like symptoms or a brief rash. The same ailments disappear quickly. Your child may stay at home for 1-2 days.
- Sometimes children get a fever after vaccination. If the temperature does not exceed 39oC, it is enough to give the child an antipyretic (preferably in a suppository, e.g. panadol), prepare him a cooling bath and give him plenty of drink. For higher ones - contact the pediatrician.
Vaccinations - when not recommended?
The decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate the child is made by the doctor after examining the child.
You can vaccinate your child despite:
- minor infection without increasing the temperature or with a fever of up to 38oC;
- upper respiratory tract infections;
- diarrhea with a fever that does not exceed 38.5oC;
- prematurity, low birth weight in infants.
The site of vaccination in children is the deltoid muscle on the right side, as well as the outer side of the thigh; does not vaccinate in places where the skin is inflamed.
If the vaccination cycle is interrupted, it is not required to repeat it, but to continue vaccination according to an individual calendar.
Vaccinations really work
Most vaccines are given to babies. Parents, imagining the hordes of microbes injected into the organisms of their babies, experience dilemmas before each visit to the pediatrician.Meanwhile, the vaccines in use today contain negligible amounts of dead or weakened microbes. They are not dangerous even for very young children. The vaccine will not cause, for example, tuberculosis, smallpox, tetanus. On the other hand, if a pathogenic bacterium or virus living in a normal environment enters the body of a baby that does not have a mature immune system - the threat will be high. We should not count on the fact that the child's body will become resistant to a given disease once it passes through it. Sometimes it happens, but the vaccine gives a much greater protection (depending on the vaccine, up to 95%). In addition, thanks to it, even if children become ill, they will endure the disease much more gently and the risk of complications from the disease will be much lower.
ImportantVaccines should usually be kept in the refrigerator at 2 to 8oC. They cannot be frozen. When buying the preparation at the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist about the conditions in which it is best to transport and store it (sometimes it is worth going to the pharmacy with a thermos filled with crushed ice to keep the preparation constantly cool - this applies, for example, to flu vaccines).
Recommended vaccinations
Most children can be vaccinated. There are few contraindications, e.g. an infectious disease with high fever, a very weakened immune system (e.g. due to cancer), a violent reaction of the body after previous vaccination. However, the doctor always decides whether and when to vaccinate a child. Regardless of whether the vaccination belongs to the so-called the calendar of compulsory vaccinations or recommended vaccinations, for which parents pay out of their own pocket. Recommended vaccinations are as important for the child as the mandatory vaccinations. However, our country cannot afford to finance all vaccinations, so it passed part of the payment to the parents. Recommended protect against serious diseases such as Hib. It is caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type B which spreads by airborne droplets. It is enough, then, that the infected child coughs and sneezes in the company of other children. When Hib enters the body, it forms colonies deep in the throat. At this stage, it can cause inflammation of the pharynx, middle ear, bronchitis. By getting into the bloodstream, it reaches various organs and damages them. This can lead to, for example, purulent inflammation of the meninges, lungs or joints. Because Hib has become resistant to many antibiotics, treatment with them is sometimes ineffective. In order to protect the little ones from the sometimes fatal consequences of Hib's aggression - it is worth vaccinating them. The sooner the better, as the youngest children suffer the most from the infection.
Pediatricians also advise tochildren - especially those who go to nursery or kindergarten - get vaccinated against the flu. This can be done from the seventh month of life. The main idea is to protect the little ones from the complications of the flu and to prevent them from taking salica - lans. Flu is quite often given this type of medication, and children under 12 should not actually take them. Salicylates can cause them a serious disease, the so-called Reye's syndrome, which is inflammation of the liver and swelling of the brain, often leading to coma and even death.
Combined vaccine
It is a preparation that combines non-infectious particles of viruses or bacteria of various diseases in one ampoule. So the baby is rarely stabbed and immunizes against several diseases.
Combined vaccines are on the list of recommended vaccinations, so the parent has to pay for them out of his own pocket: from about PLN 110 to PLN 167, depending on the selected option. For this vaccine to be effective, it must be administered in 4 doses.
Combined vaccines contain correspondingly fewer microorganisms, therefore the child does not receive a viral or bacterial "bomb". These preparations are as effective as single vaccines; they have been used for years in the USA and Western Europe and did not cause side effects, so they turned out to be safe for children.
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