Immunizations for your Kids
- Childhood Infections
- Flu Shots
- Vac Preventable Infections
- Immunization Schedule (14)
- Vaccine Safety - Advocacy (17)
Live Vaccines
Live vaccines, despite some parents concerns about viral shedding, have played an important part in combating deadly infections, including measles, polio, and small pox.
2012 Immunization Schedule
Review the changes to the 2012 immunization schedule to see if the latest CDC immunization schedule for children and teens means that your kids need any extra shots.
Vaccines - Vaccination and Vaccines Information and History
Modern vaccines and vaccination plans began with the development of the first smallpox vaccine and have continued as vaccines have been developed for a number of other childhood infections, such as polio, measles, and pertussis, etc.
Vaccines - Vaccine Facts
Understanding vaccine facts and avoiding vaccine misinformation can help to make sure your kids are fully vaccinated and safe from vaccine preventable infections and outbreaks.
Vaccine Abbreviations
Immunization records can sometimes be hard to figure out if you don't understand the common vaccine abbreviations or acronyms that are now used in place of some vaccine names.
Meningitis - Meningitis Vaccines
Meningitis can be a severe infection of the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and brain. Fortunately, there are several meningitis vaccines to help protect children from bacterial meningitis.
Vaccine Shortage Update
Learn about the current vaccine shortages and delays, including the current Hib vaccine shortage and how it may affect your child.
Vaccines for Asplenia
Children without a working spleen are at risk for many infections, which makes getting appropriate vaccines for asplenia important.
Immunization Quiz
Most parents now something about the vaccines their kids get, but it is often just that you show up to your well child checkups and your Pediatrician tells you what shots you need. Take our Immunization Quiz to see if you know as much about the vaccines your kids get as you should.
Whooping Cough Vaccines - Vaccines for Whooping Cough
With the wide availability of whooping cough vaccines, many parents likely wonder why this vaccine preventable infection is still such a problem. Make sure your kids and their contacts are fully vaccinated with a whooping cough vaccine, including teens and adults, to decrease their chance of getting whooping cough.
Vaccine Additives and Preservatives
Although mercury has been removed from most vaccines, vaccines may still contain aluminum, formaldehyde, human serum albumin, gelatin, antibiotics and yeast proteins. Learn why your child's vaccines may have these additives and why the AAP says they are safe.
The History of Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Vaccine Debate
Not surprisingly, there has been a debate about the safety and importance of vaccines even before the first vaccine was introduced. Being reminded of this first debate and how now vaccine preventable illnesses affected other people may help parents as they debate the vaccine issue for themselves.
National Infant Immunization Week
National Infant Immunization Week is held each year to highlight the importance of immunizations that protect children against 14 vaccine-preventable diseases.
Alternative Immunization Schedules
Review why unvaccinated children and those who are not fully vaccinated also pose a risk to infants who have not yet completed their first series of immunizations and those children who have immune system disorders.
Reporting Vaccine Reactions
While very helpful, unfortunately, vaccines can sometimes cause side effects. Learn how to report side effects to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) if your baby does have a moderate or severe reaction to any of the vaccines that he gets.
Pneumonia Vaccines
Most people think of Pneumovax as the classic pneumonia vaccine. There are many other pneumonia vaccines that can protect kids from bacteria and viruses that can cause pneumonia, including Prevnar 13, Hib, DTaP, and the seasonal flu vaccine.
Free Vaccines - Low Cost Vaccines
Review where you can get free vaccines or low cost vaccines for your child that is uninsured or underinsured and can't afford vaccines.
Understanding Vaccine Safety
Understanding vaccine safety can help you to learn the importance of immunizations to protect your children from vaccine preventable diseases. Also learn about the benefits and risks of vaccines and their side effects and what to do if your child has an adverse reaction to a vaccine.
Chicken Pox Vaccine Update - Chicken Pox Booster Dose
The ACIP is now recommending that children get a second dose of the chickenpox vaccine when they are four to six years old, which should help to further decrease chickenpox infections.
The Vaccine Debate
The 'vaccine debate' about whether vaccines are safe or could be causing autism has been in the news a lot lately. For most pediatricians, the vaccine debate doesn't revolve around trying to change the minds of anti-vaccine proponents. Instead, they work to help parents make an informed decision about vaccinating their children.
Gardasil
Gardasil is an investigational vaccine being made by Merck against the two types of HPV or Human Papillomavirus that cause most cervical cancers and the two types that cause the most genital warts.
Vaccine Information Statements
Get more information about the vaccines your baby is going to get at her well child checkups.
Prevnar
Prevnar is a new vaccine that can help to prevent infections by the pneumococcal bacteria, which is a common cause of blood infections, meningitis and ear infections in children.
Immunizations Poll
Are your children's immunizations up-to-date?
Vaccine Shortage Update
My kids missed some shots this past year because of the shortages. Can they get their shots now?
2011 Immunization Schedule
Review the changes to the 2011 immunization schedule to see if the latest CDC immunization schedule for children and teens means that your kids need any extra shots.
Boostrix Pertussis Vaccine for Teens
Read about Boostrix or Tdap, a new vaccine to protect older children and teens against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis or whooping cough.
General Recommendations on Immunization
Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) which provides technical guidance regarding common immunization concerns for health-care providers who administer vaccines to children, adolescents, and adults.
The Facts about Immunisation
Myths and facts about immunizations from the Australian Skeptics website.
PATH Vaccine Resource Library
PATH’s Vaccine Resource Library offers a wide variety of high-quality, scientifically accurate documents and links on vaccine-preventable diseases and topics in immunization, as they work to promote equal access to new and lifesaving vaccines worldwide.
CHOP Vaccine Education Center
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine education center, which provides 'accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date information about childhood vaccines, and the diseases they prevent, to parents and health-care professionals.' Includes information about each vaccine, and answers to important questions, such as 'Are Vaccines Safe?' and 'Are Vaccines Still Necessary?'
Common Misconceptions about Immunizations
Infomation to help you dispel common misconceptions made by anti-vaccine proponents, including the myths of links between vaccines and SIDS and autism.
ProQuad
ProQuad is a new vaccine that combines the MMR and Varivax vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox into a single shot.
Every Child by Two
Aims to promote immunizations to prevent vaccine preventable diseases by providing information of the vaccines and the diseases they prevent.
Immunization Action Coalition
The IAC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote immunizations in children and adults. Includes immunization schedules for children and adults, Vaccine Information Statements translated into many different languages, and an Ask the Experts forum for parents and pediatricians to answer common questions.
New Vaccines for Teens
Learn more about two new vaccines, Boostrix and Menactra, that will be available to help protect older kids from pertussis and meningitis.
Immunization Info - National Network for Immunization Info
Information, including a resource kit, to help Pediatricians promote immuizations and to help parents to make informed decisions about getting their kids fully immunized. Includes a database with state by state requirements and regularly updated vaccine newsbriefs (that you can subscribe to).
National Immunization Program
From the US Center for Disease Control , with information on vaccines for children and adults, benefits of immunization, vaccine recommendations, and future developments.
Menactra Vaccine For Meningococcal Disease
Learn more about Menactra, a new vaccine to protect your kids against meningitis and meningococcal disease.
Six Common Misconceptions about Vaccination
Explanations about six common misconceptions about vaccination, including that the diseases that vaccines prevent have been eliminated in the United States.
The Vaccine Page
A database of information about vaccines and current news for doctors and parents.
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) collects information any adverse effects that immunizations may cause. With the online reporting form, doctors and parents can report possible vaccine side effects so that they can be further investigated.
Licensed Vaccines in the US
CBER list of Vaccines Licensed for Immunization and Distribution in the U.S.
New Vaccines
New Vaccines
Flu Shots for Children
A flu shot can help prevent your children from getting influenza, and is especially recommonded if they have a chronic medical problem, such as asthma or diabetes, or are around someone else that is high risk.
The Panic Virus Book Review
In the wake of study after study that conclude that vaccines are safe and disprove the links between vaccines and autism, many parents continue to believe that it is safer to either not vaccinate their kids or follow a selective or alternative immunization schedule. Seth Mnookin's 'The Panic Virus' will help you understand why the anti-vaccine continues to influence so many parents.
Vaccines - Best Books about Vaccines
The vaccine debate continues for some people, despite the overwhelming evidence that vaccines are safe and don't cause autism. With so much misinformation about vaccines confusing parents, it can be hard for some to know what to do and whether or not to vaccinate their kids. In addition to talking to your pediatrician, reading one of these books...
Pertussis Outbreaks
Learn more about the California pertussis outbreak, including which kids are at risk and how you can help your kids avoid pertussis or whooping cough with a pertussis vaccine.
