Babies Who Should Not Have The 6
Most babies can have the 6-in-1 vaccine, but there are a few that should not, for example, those who:
- are allergic to the vaccine
- have a high temperature at the time of the vaccination appointment wait until they’ve recovered
- have a neurological problem thats getting worse, including poorly controlled epilepsy wait until theyve been seen by a specialist
The 6-in-1 vaccine should not be given to babies who have had a severe allergic reaction to a previous dose of the vaccine, or a reaction to any part of the vaccine that may be present in trace amounts, such as neomycin, streptomycin or polymixin B.
There’s no need to postpone vaccination if your baby has a minor illness, such as a cough or a cold with no temperature.
If your baby has a history of fits or has had a fit within 72 hours of a previous dose of the vaccine, speak to your GP surgery, nurse or health visitor for advice.
Your Child’s Vaccination Schedule
Vaccination schedules are carefully studied and designed to give the best possible protection for children against serious diseases.
Canadians should consult with their health care provider or public health authority to determine when they should visit, and learn about the measures that have been put in place to safely deliver immunization services during COVID-19.
Vaccination schedules can vary slightly, depending on the province or territory you live in. This means that some provinces or territories will vaccinate at a different age.
Typically, your child will be vaccinated:
- between birth to 2 months
- at 4 months
- between 12 months and 18 months
- between 4 to 6 years of age
For some of the vaccines, your child will require more than 1 dose at different times. This is needed because for some vaccines, the first dose does not provide as much immunity as possible.
More than 1 dose is needed to build more complete immunity. The DTaP-IPV-Hib vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type B, is an example.
In other cases, the initial series of shots that children receive as part of their infant immunizations helps them build immunity. After a while, however, that immunity begins to wear off.
At this point, a “booster” dose is needed to bring immunity levels back up. The MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, is a good example.
Vaccines Given At Birth
Hepatitis B Vaccine is given before taking your baby home from the hospital. Hepatitis B can cause slow, persistent liver damage in a child. The virus, found in blood and body fluids, can last on a surface for up to a month. Doctors recommend this vaccine for all babies as a preventative to liver disease and cancer from the virus.
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What Is A Delayed Immunization Schedule
The immunization schedule is the same for all children. However, there may be certain adjustments needed if your child has a weakened immune system, or if sheâs taking certain medications that may weaken her immune system.Your childâs healthcare provider will take into account your little oneâs entire medical history when determining whether to give or delay a specific vaccination. In some cases a shot can be delayed, or not given at all, if the healthcare provider thinks this is the safest course of action for your little one.
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With breastfeeding, the potential for immunity is less significant as the maternal antibodies are consumed by a baby through breastmilk and then go into the gut, and not directly into the babys own bloodstream. We know that breastfed infants are less likely to have some kinds of infection when they are infants, but whether that will turn out to be true from the antibodies from the COVID vaccine remains to be seen, Gray said.
But what about parents who were infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy? Wouldnt they pass on antibodies as well?
The research on that was less clear.
Dr. Carolynn Dude, an assistant professor of maternal fetal medicine at Emory University, helped lead a study on that subject. The results, which appear in the most recent issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, show that while parents were found to have mounted a robust immunological response after contracting COVID, with a significant of neutralizing antibodies present in their blood samples at the time of delivery, these same protective antibodies were found in only 25 percent of infants born to these same patients.
This, Dude said, suggested that the vaccines might offer more protection to babies than a parents bout with the disease.
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Changes To The Immunisation Programme
Immunisation programmes are regularly reviewed to make sure that all children are offered the best protection against preventable diseases. As new vaccines become available, or research shows that giving existing vaccines at different times improves protection, the programme will be changed.
Recent changes to the UK programme have been:
- giving hepatitis B vaccine at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks of age
- giving rotavirus vaccine at 8 weeks and 12 weeks of age
- giving MenB vaccine to babies at 8 weeks,16 weeks and 1 year of age
- giving flu vaccine to all eligible primary school aged children
- giving meningococcal A, C, W and Y vaccine to young people around 14 years old
- giving human papillomavirus vaccine to boys as well as girls from September 2019
- giving a single priming dose of pneumococcal vaccine at 12 weeks of age instead of 2 doses at 8 and 16 weeks
Can I Let My Child Get The Chickenpox Instead Of Getting The Vaccine
Although chickenpox is a mild disease that many parents will remember from childhood , some children will develop serious cases with complications that can be fatal or cause permanent disabilities. The vaccine eliminates the risk of complications from the disease, and prevents children from infecting their siblings, friends and classmates.
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Children In Licensed Daycare Centres
If you want your child to attend daycare, and decide not to vaccinate them due to medical, religious or philosophical reasons, you will need to give your daycare a valid written exemption. If the disease appears in your childs daycare centre, your child may have to stay out of daycare until the disease is no longer present.
Gonorrhea And Chlamydia Test
Some Ob/Gyn practices recommend routine testing at 32 weeks for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Texas is among the states with the highest rate of these sexually transmitted diseases. You may not even know you have these diseases because they dont always present with symptoms. However, the diseases can be passed to the baby during delivery and can cause an infection called ophthalmia neonatorum that may lead to blindness.
If you have been in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship, you may feel comfortable declining this test. There is a chance the test will return a false-positive result, meaning it may show you have one of these diseases when you actually dont. Remember this before you panic that your partner is cheating on you.
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If Your Child Misses An Immunisation
To fully protect your child and avoid unnecessary costs, it is best to immunise your child at the recommended age. If you have fallen behind or missed a session, the vaccine schedule can be safely continued as if there had been no delay. Ask your doctor or immunisation provider about catch-up doses of vaccine.
There is no need to repeat doses already received before having catch-up doses.
What To Do If You Move
If you move to another province or territory, your child’s vaccination schedule may change. Once you have moved, contact your new health care provider or local public health office. They will tell you which vaccines may be needed in that province or territory.
Remember to take your child’s vaccination record to the appointment with you.
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Immunisation And Young Children
In the first months of life, a baby might have some protection from infectious diseases that their mother has had or been immunised against. This is known as passive immunity. It occurs when antibodies are transferred from mother to baby during pregnancy. The level of antibody protection for the baby can be low and wears off quickly. This puts them at risk of diseases that can be prevented with vaccination.Most childhood immunisations are given as an injection in the arm or leg, except rotavirus vaccine, which is given by mouth. A vaccination dose may contain a vaccine against one specific disease, or several diseases. This is known as a combination injection, and it helps to reduce the number of injections your child needs.
How Many Booster Shots Can The Body Take
With the FDA recommending booster shots of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, it seems like the time in between booster shots and recovery time keeps getting shorter and shorter. Plus, many questions arise when it comes to taking the vaccine with other medications or other vaccines. Parents sometimes worry that their childs immune system will not be able to cope with receiving several vaccines at once. And some adults are worried about getting multiple booster shots after six months, five months or whatever the timeframe is now.
So should we be concerned if we are taking booster shot after booster shot? First, we need to look at how long our bodies have been exposed to vaccines.
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Preparing For Your Child’s Immunisation
When you take your child for each vaccination, it important to take your child’s My Health and Development Record or your child’s health record booklet, so that the doctor, nurse or health worker can record your child’s visit. These records are an important reminder of when your child’s next immunisations are due and which children in the family are immunised.
There is also the option of setting up an eHealth record for your child and downloading the My Child’s eHealth Record app.
Before the immunisation, you need to tell the doctor or nurse if your child:
Newborn Vaccines Your Baby Needs
Is your baby protected from vaccine-preventable diseases? Here’s the newborn vaccine schedule recommended by the CDC and AAP for your baby’s first months of life.
Your baby will be given a handful of vaccines and supplements in the first months of life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the carefully-planned childhood vaccine schedule. Following the schedule in the coming months and years will put your infant on track for life-long immunity to dangerous diseases.
The vaccines recommended for your young baby are closely monitored by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration for safety and effectiveness. Here are the vaccines that your baby will receive from birth through two months.
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Concerns About Side Effects Of Immunisation
If a side effect following immunisation is unexpected, persistent or severe or if you are worried about yourself or your child’s condition after a vaccination, see your doctor or immunisation nurse as soon as possible or go directly to a hospital. Immunisation side effects may be reported to SAEFVIC, the Victorian vaccine safety service .
You can discuss with your immunisation provider how to report adverse events in other states or territories.
It is important to seek medical advice if you are unwell, as this may be due to other illness rather than because of the vaccination.
How Long Vaccines Take To Work
It usually takes a few weeks for vaccines to work. Your child will not be protected immediately.
Also, most vaccines need to be given several times to build up long-lasting protection. For example, a child who gets only 1 or 2 doses of the whooping cough vaccine is only partly protected. They may still catch whooping cough if the course is not completed.
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How To Prepare Your Child For A Vaccination
If your little one is old enough to understand whatâs going on, try describing the immunization appointment and whatâs about to happen. Offer assurance that even though the shot may hurt a little, the pain wonât last. Also, consider bringing along your childâs favorite toy or even a security blanket. This may help comfort her.During the appointment, you may be able to hold your child in your lap, which can offer additional comfort. Also, consider trying to distract him with a toy, a story, or pointing out things in the room. For a very young child, you might consider breastfeeding or bottle-feeding afterward. Even swaddling may help comfort her especially if sheâs crying after the shot.You may consider asking the doctor or the nurse who administers the shot if there are any steps you could take to help your child feel more comfortable. You may be told to have your child move his arm around after the vaccination, which can help reduce any pain or swelling.
Recognizing The Signs Of A Delay
Youve heard it over and over again by now, and its true: Theres a wide range of normal when it comes to a babys development. And most babies who dont make all of their milestones on a developmental timetable thats based on averages still fall within that normal range.
But sometimes a lag or slowdown in development or a sudden loss of skills is out of the norm and needs evaluation and possibly intervention and the earlier any necessary intervention is made, the greater the impact it will have on a childs developmental future and lifelong success and well-being.
Experts agree that parents can be invaluable in the diagnosis of developmental disorders and early diagnosis can lead to the kind of early intervention that can make an enormous difference in a childs future.
That’s why it’s so important to know the signs. So dont keep concerns about your babys development to yourself. Let the doctor know if youre worried that shes falling behind, if it seems shes forgotten skills she had already mastered or if youve just got a nagging feeling somethings not right.
Also be sure to know the signs of a developmental disorder and to tell the doctor if your baby doesnt do the following by 12 months of age or seems to stop doing them altogether:
- Exchange back-and-forth sounds with you
- Babble
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Reasons Why Your Baby Should Not Be Immunised
There are very few reasons why babies cannot be immunised.
Vaccines should not be given to babies who have had:
- a confirmed anaphylactic reaction to a previous dose of the vaccine
- a confirmed anaphylactic reaction to neomycin, streptomycin, or polymyxin B
In general, children who are immunosuppressed should not receive live vaccines. Children who are immunosuppressed include those:
-
whose immune system does not work properly because they are undergoing treatment for a serious condition such as a transplant or cancer
-
who have any condition which affects the immune system, such as severe primary immunodeficiency. Primary immunodeficiencies are very rare diseases that mean you are more likely to catch infections. They are usually caused by a faulty gene and are diagnosed soon after birth
If this applies to your child, you must tell your doctor, practice nurse or health visitor before the immunisation. They will need to get specialist advice on using live vaccines such as MMR, rotavirus vaccine and Bacillus CalmetteGuérin vaccine . There are no other reasons why vaccines should definitely not be given.
Importance Of Vaccines For Infant And Toddlers
For newborns, breast milk can help protect against many diseases. However, this immunity wears off after breastfeeding is over, and some children arent breastfed at all.
Whether or not children are breastfed, vaccines can help protect them from disease. Vaccines can also help prevent the spread of disease through the rest of the population through herd immunity.
Vaccines work by imitating infection of a certain disease in your childs body. This prompts your childs immune system to develop weapons called antibodies.
These antibodies fight the disease that the vaccine is meant to prevent. With their body now primed to make antibodies, your childs immune system can defeat future infection from the disease. Its an amazing feat.
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What Is A Vaccination Schedule
A vaccination schedule is a plan with recommendations for which vaccines your children should get and when they should get them. Vaccines are one of the most important ways to prevent children from getting some dangerous diseases. By exposing you to a germ in a controlled way, vaccines teach your body to recognize and fight it.
Government vaccine recommendations are just that — recommendations. You arent forced to get them. But state laws require your kids to have certain vaccines before they can go to daycare, school, or college, with some exceptions. Vaccines protect not just your child, but everyone they come in contact with. The more people who get vaccinated, the harder it is for a disease to spread.
Before theyre approved for use and added to the schedule, vaccines go through years of testing to make sure they work and that theyre safe. The government keeps track of any reports of side effects to make sure no problems come up.
Immunisations Your Baby Will Have At 8 12 And 16 Weeks
At 8 weeks, your baby will have immunisations against:
- diphtheria
- Haemophilus influenzae type b
- hepatitis B
- meningococcal group B disease
These will be given as 2 injections and drops into the mouth.
At 12 weeks, your baby will have immunisations against:
- diphtheria
These will be given as 2 injections and drops into the mouth.
At 16 weeks, your baby will have immunisations against:
- diphtheria
These will be given as 2 injections.
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