Vaccinate Your Baby for Best Protection

"Immunization is one of the best ways parents can protect their babies from 14 serious childhood diseases before age 2.

Immunization is one of the best ways parents can protect their babies from 14 serious childhood diseases before age 2. Vaccinate your child according to the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for safe, proven disease protection.

Diseases that vaccines prevent can be very serious – even deadly – especially for infants and young children. Vaccines work with your baby’s natural defenses to help them safely build immunity to these diseases.

Most parents today have never seen first-hand the devastating consequences that vaccine-preventable diseases have on a family or community. Some diseases that are prevented by vaccines, like pertussis (whooping cough) and chickenpox, remain common in the United States.

Protect Your Child from Serious Diseases

Measles is an example of the how serious vaccine preventable diseases can be. Cases and outbreaks still occur when the disease is brought into the United States by unvaccinated travelers (Americans or foreign visitors) who get infected when they are in other countries. Measles is still a common disease in many parts of the world. The viral disease is highly contagious and can spread easily when it reaches a community in the U.S. where groups of people are unvaccinated. Measles can be serious and can cause pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain), and even death. Young children are at highest risk for serious complications from measles.

Another example is whopping cough (pertussis). The U.S. has experienced an increase in whooping cough cases and outbreaks reported over the last few decades. Whooping cough can be deadly, especially for young babies who are too young to get their own vaccines. Since 2010, there have been tens of thousands of whooping cough cases reported each year nationwide, with a peak of more than 48,000 cases reported in 2012.

The Diseases Vaccines Prevent

• Diphtheria
• Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Influenza (flu)
• Measles
• Mumps
• Pertussis (Whooping cough)
• Pneumococcal disease
• Polio
• Rubella (German measles)
• Tetanus (lockjaw)
• Rotavirus
• Varicella (chickenpox).."
  Baby Vaccination

Protect Your Baby with Immunization

"Immunization is one of the best ways parents can protect their infants from 14 serious childhood diseases before age 2. Vaccinate your child according to the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for safe, proven disease protection.

Diseases that vaccine prevent can be very serious—even deadly—especially for infants and young children. Vaccines reduce your child’s risk of infection by working with their body’s natural defenses to help them safely develop immunity to disease. Immunizations have helped improve the health of children in the United States. Most parents today have never seen first-hand the devastating consequences that vaccine-preventable diseases have on a family or community. Although most of these diseases are not common in the United States, they still exist around the world, so it is important to protect your child with vaccines..."
Babies and immunization

What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?

"Raising a child comes with many decisions. Some are a matter of taste, like what color to paint the nursery. Others are essential, especially when it comes to safety, like baby proofing your home for potential hazards. But, what about the hazards that you can't see and that can cause serious illness, disability, or even death in young children? Immunization gives you the power to protect your baby from 14 serious childhood diseases..."
Vaccination

Report shows 20-year US immunization program spares millions of children from diseases

"The CDC estimates that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years. Despite the U.S. immunization program’s success, according to CDC officials, 129 people in the U.S. have been reported to have measles this year in 13 outbreaks, as of April 18..."
Immunization

Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
"CDC recommends routine vaccination to prevent 17 vaccine-preventable diseases that occur in infants, children, adolescents, or adults. This report provides information for clinicians and other health-care providers about concerns that commonly arise when vaccinating persons of various ages. Providers and patients encounter numerous issues, such as the timing of each dose, screening for contraindications and precautions, the number of vaccines to be administered, the educational needs of patients and parents, and interpreting and responding to adverse events. Vaccination providers help patients understand the substantial, occasionally conflicting, information about vaccination. These vaccination recommendations are intended for clinicians and other health-care providers who vaccinate patients.

The guidance in this report will help vaccination providers to assess vaccine benefits and risks, use recommended administration and storage practices, understand the most effective strategies for ensuring that vaccination coverage in the population remains high, and communicate the importance of vaccination to reduce the effects of vaccine-preventable disease. These recommendations are intended for use in the United States; vaccine availability, use, and epidemiologic circumstances might differ in other countries and might warrant different recommendations..."

National, State, and Local Area Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19--35 Months --- United States, 2009
"Since 1994, the National Immunization Survey (NIS) has been collecting data to monitor childhood immunization coverage. This report describes the 2009 NIS coverage estimates for children born during January 2006--July 2008 and focuses on the more recently recommended vaccines (i.e., hepatitis B [HepB] vaccine birth dose, hepatitis A vaccine [HepA], pneumococcal conjugate vaccine [PCV], and rotavirus vaccine) for children aged 19--35 months. The most recent NIS data indicate that vaccination coverage increased in 2009 compared with 2008 for HepB birth dose (from 55.3% to 60.8%) and HepA (from 40.4% to 46.6%), but coverage for PCV (≥4 doses) remained stable (80.4%). Full coverage for rotavirus vaccine was 43.9% among children born within 2 years of licensure (1). Coverage for poliovirus (92.8%), measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) (90.0%), hepatitis B (HepB) (92.4%), and varicella (VAR) (89.6%) vaccines continued to be at or near the national health objective of 90%, although coverage for MMR and HepB vaccines decreased slightly in 2009. The percentage of children who have not received any vaccines remained low (<1%). Parents and primary-care providers continued to ensure that children were vaccinated, in spite of interim recommendations to suspend the booster dose of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (Hib) because of a national shortage, and heightened public awareness of controversies in vaccine safety..."

Recommended Immunization Schedules for Persons Aged 0 Through 18 Years --- United States, 2010
"The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) annually publishes an immunization schedule for persons aged 0 through 18 years that summarizes recommendations for currently licensed vaccines for children aged 18 years and younger and includes recommendations in effect as of December 15, 2009. Changes to the previous schedule (1) include the following:

The statement concerning use of combination vaccines in the introductory paragraph has been changed to reflect the revised ACIP recommendation on this issue (2).
The last dose in the inactivated poliovirus vaccine series is now recommended to be administered on or after the fourth birthday and at least 6 months after the previous dose. In addition, if 4 doses are administered before age 4 years, an additional (fifth) dose should be administered at age 4 through 6 years (3).
The hepatitis A footnote has been revised to allow vaccination of children older than 23 months for whom immunity against hepatitis A is desired.
Revaccination with meningococcal conjugate vaccine is now recommended for children who remain at increased risk for meningococcal disease after 3 years (if the first dose was administered at age 2 through 6 years), or after 5 years (if the first dose was administered at age 7 years or older) (4).
Footnotes for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine have been modified to include 1) the availability of and recommendations for bivalent HPV vaccine, and 2) a permissive recommendation for administration of quadrivalent HPV vaccine to males aged 9 through 18 years to reduce the likelihood of acquiring genital warts (5)..."

Recommended Immunization Schedules for Persons Aged 0 Through 18 Years --- United States, 2009
"The recommended immunization schedules for persons aged 0 through 18 years and the catch-up immunization schedule for 2009 have been approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians."