Vaccinations are an essential part of keeping your child healthy throughout their lifetime. Scott Dattel, MD, FAAP, and the team at Kansas City Pediatrics in Kansas City, Missouri, offer vaccinations for newborns to young adults. For recommended childhood vaccines, travel vaccines, or an annual flu vaccine, call or schedule an appointment online with the office today.
Vaccination is a natural process used to protect your child from getting and spreading communicable diseases. Vaccines introduce a small amount of a disease’s bacteria, virus, or toxin into your child’s body, usually through a small needle.
Vaccines stimulate your child’s immune system to build a defense against the disease if they are exposed later in their life. Some vaccinations need repeating more than once or on an annual basis. For example, a flu vaccine is administered each year to protect against the influenza virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children receive vaccines beginning at birth, so they can build a natural immunity before they have a chance for exposure.
Vaccination equips your child to better fight infection, so they can avoid symptoms or experience less severe symptoms, when and if they get exposed to an infectious disease.
Your child’s vaccination is also important to protect other children and adults in their community. Some diseases, like chickenpox, measles, rubella, and whooping cough, can easily spread from person to person and cause severe reactions, especially in very young children and older adults.
Kansas City Pediatrics follows the CDC vaccine recommendations for children from birth to six years of age. These include:
The CDC recommends children between 11 and 12 also receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal vaccine.
Some vaccinations require a series of immunizations given over time, such as hepatitis A and B. Other vaccinations are combinations that prevent several diseases, such as mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine.
The team at Kansas City Pediatrics is available for questions or to offer further information regarding your child’s recommended vaccination schedule. The team keeps an ongoing record of your child’s vaccines, sends reminders to update vaccines when needed, and can help new patients get caught if they are behind on the CDC vaccine timetable.
To learn more about vaccines or to schedule your child’s vaccinations, call the office or schedule an appointment online with Kansas City Pediatrics.
