Vaccinations: Why do Kids Get So Many at One Doctor's Visit?
Watching your child get their immunizations can be really hard. It might also raise some questions: Why are they getting so many shots at once and why now? Is this all really necessary?
Sticking to the immunization schedule is actually really important—here’s why.
Vaccines are extensively studied to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases and are timed to give the body the best shot at building immunity. The several vaccines children get before the age of one are “all based on the time their immune systems can build the right type of reaction to the vaccine,” Parentalogic cohost Dr. Alok Patel explains. Because many vaccines require more than one shot, it's important that children get their vaccines on time so they have immunity before they encounter a disease.
Of course, watching your child get multiple vaccines at once can be tough (let’s face it; even many grownups don’t like them). “If you’re not comfortable with multiple shots, you can talk to your doctor’s office about combination shots, which is multiple vaccines in one needle,” Alok suggests. Alok says it’s important to remember that children come in contact with thousands of antigens—i.e. foreign substances—every single day. The vaccines on the immunization schedule will only introduce them to “150 antigens,” Alok says. “Vaccines are like a drop in the ocean compared to all the other foreign substances they come in contact with.”
Altering or delaying the immunization schedule can leave your child “under-immunized at critical points in childhood,” Alok says. “No other vaccine schedule has been tested for safety or efficacy.”
Vaccines are also really important in protecting those who can’t get vaccinated because of their age or health factors. That’s the concept behind herd immunity, which occurs when a large portion of a community is immune to an infectious disease, making the spread less likely. For herd immunity against measles, for example, “we need 95% of the population to be vaccinated against measles for it to not spread,” Alok says. That’s why it’s essential children get all their shots at the right time—not just for their immunity, but for the sake of the herd, too.
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