Key Information for Your Child's Stay
child vaccines
Protect Your Child’s Health
Vaccines work with your child’s immune system to help protect them from diseases. Vaccination—or immunization—gives your child a weakened or dead form of certain germs. The germs aren’t strong enough to make your child sick, but they trigger their immune system to make specific antibodies (or proteins) to fight them. The antibodies then stick around to fight off an actual infection if your child is ever exposed to one.
Vaccines Your Child Needs
Below is a list of the vaccines your child will need from birth through age 18. Your child may need some vaccines more than once for them to be effective. It may look like a lot, but remember they’re spaced out over 18 years.
Vaccines
COVID-19
Virus that can cause fever, coughing, trouble breathing, vomiting, diarrhea and inflammation throughout the body
DTaP and Tdap
Diptheria (a bacterial infection), tetanus (lockjaw), pertussis (whooping cough)
HepA and HepB
Liver diseases hepatitis A and B
Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b)
Bacterial infection that can cause meningitis, pneumonia and other serious infections
HPV
Human papillomavirus (viruses that can cause certain cancers or genital warts)
Influenza (IIV)*
Flu virus (affects your child’s nose, throat and sometimes lungs)
Meningococcal (MenACWY, MPSV4 and MenB)
Bacterial meningitis (infection that affects your child’s blood, brain or spinal cord)
MMR
Measles, mumps, rubella (can cause fever, rash and/or swollen glands, and sometimes lead to ear infections, pneumonia or meningitis)
Pneumococcal (PCV13 and PPSV23**)
Bacteria that cause meningitis, blood infections (sepsis) and ear infections
Polio (IPV)
Virus that can cause paralysis
Rotavirus (RV)
Virus that causes vomiting, severe diarrhea, fever and dehydration
Varicella (Var)
Chickenpox (virus that causes an itchy rash and blisters, and can have severe complications)
*Everyone 6 months and older needs this vaccine yearly.
**Only recommended for certain high-risk groups.
Vaccines Work!
They have gotten rid of some deadly diseases entirely in the U.S. Vaccines have also helped to increase the average American lifespan by 30 years, and have been shown to be very safe.
Resources
To see exactly what vaccines your child needs and when, visit
cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules. If you have questions about immunizations, talk to your child’s doctor. And check the following sites for up-to-date information: