Childhood Vaccinations

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The Purpose of Vaccines

The first step in addressing the common questions and concerns parents have regarding vaccines is to remind ourselves of the purpose of vaccines. Vaccines are meant to help prevent illness and disease. Some vaccines prevent very serious and even life-threatening diseases. Others prevent typically less serious but far more common illnesses (such as chicken pox). In either case, they work by helping each child's immune system familiarize itself with and learn to fight off certain bacteria or viruses without having to actually experience the infection. The resulting protection is called immunity.

The Side Effects

Most (if not all) parents are well aware that vaccines have the potential to cause side effects as well as protective immunity. Fortunately, most of these side effects are relatively mild – such as soreness and/or redness at the site, low-grade fever and irritability. But a few can be more serious, and even though the risk is quite low, this fact of childhood vaccination is what most often concerns parents. After all, the last thing any of us want to do is knowingly put our children in harm's way.

That leaves parents faced with the decision of whether or not they are willing to accept this small but real risk and vaccinate their children. Granted it is very hard to sit down and listen to a health care professional describe all of the possible side effects that can occur after a vaccine and then allow your child to receive as many as four shots at one visit. But one of the most important and often forgotten factors in making this decision is what risks the actual disease or infection itself poses. To consider whether vaccines are a risk worth taking, we must first take a look at the diseases they are preventing.

Is There Still a Risk?

Educating yourself about the risks of the vaccine-preventable diseases themselves can help to make the potential vaccine side effects seem far less threatening. Out of sight has meant out of mind for many twenty-first century parents when it comes to the vaccine-preventable diseases, which to date include polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis, some types of pneumonia and meningitis, and even chicken pox. Most of today's young doctors and parents alike haven't had to encounter the sometimes devastating effects of these diseases.

The reality is, however, that as late as the 1950s parents lived in fear of polio and its ability to cause paralysis and death, a type of bacteria known as Haemophilus influenza was a common and dreaded cause of meningitis (an infection involving the lining of the brain) up until the 1990s when the Hib vaccine was made available, and without the vaccine for diphtheria, it would once again rank as one of the most common causes of death for school-aged children.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Shots?

The mere thought of subjecting their children to as many as twenty shots over the first two years of their children's lives is enough to make some parents question whether vaccines are really worth it. While no parent is pleased with the idea of allowing their child to play the role of a pin cushion, it is important to once again remind ourselves that the amount of pain children experience with a needle stick (which in reality is usually minimal and short-lived) is far less traumatic than the potentially devastating effects of the actual infections.

Can The Immune System Handle It?

Beyond just the number of pokes children are subjected to, some parents are even more concerned that the multitude of vaccines given to young children will overwhelm their immune systems. After all, it was not all that long ago when there was only one recommended vaccine (smallpox). In contrast, parents today are expected to give their children a whole slew of shots (with eleven currently recommended vaccines).

At the same time, far more is known about the immune system and how it works today than in generations past. Not only do we know that an infant's immune system is functional and able to respond well to vaccines, but we also have vaccines that are much more "targeted" than in days past. While the number of recommended childhood vaccines has continued to increase, the number of components in each vaccine that trigger an immune response (called antigens) is actually less than the number found in the single small pox vaccine of the last century.

Making Informed Decisions

Even before reading this article, it is likely that many of you did not have to put much thought into the decision of whether or not to immunize your child(ren). But others of you may still have unanswered questions. If this is the case, be aware that rumors abound when it comes to the world of vaccines. A perfect example is the highly publicized and subsequently disproven theory that the MMR vaccine causes autism, or any of a number of cause-and-effect allegations.

The most important thing you can do for the sake of your child's health in researching addressing vaccine-related concerns is to not only to get your questions answered, but by getting your information from reliable sources such as the National Network for Immunization Information, the American Academy of Pediatrics, or the Vaccine Education Center.

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