Understanding Vaccinations: A Guide for Parents

Work with Dr. Johanna Rodriguez-Toledo, Dr. Zacharia Reda, Dr. Dandan Ma, and Dr. Heli Bhatt of Newport Children’s Medical Group at Mission if you’re looking to complete your child’s vaccinations in Mission Viejo, CA.

How Do Vaccinations Protect My Child?

 Parents only want the best for their children, but with so much information available, many of us struggle to identify what those best things are. Questions surround every aspect of child care, and vaccinations are not excluded.

Before you decide on your child’s vaccinations, we at Newport Children’s Medical Group in Mission Viejo, CA, think it’s important to understand how they actually work.

Vaccinations grant protection by eliciting a specific response from the body. After a vaccination introduces a weakened germ to the body, the latter responds by creating antibodies. Those antibodies are specifically attuned to the germ's characteristics and work quickly to eliminate it.

Now that your body has developed that immune response to that weakened germ, it can spring into action again when a live variant is detected. Your body can sense the presence of that foreign entity and produce the necessary antibodies. It can continually produce that response to protect against multiple exposures.

Basically, you can think of vaccinating as training your child’s body to fend off disease.

If you’re wondering about the safety of vaccinations, remember that the germs injected into your child’s body are already weakened. In some vaccinations, the germ is dead. Their only purpose is to draw an immune response. The germs introduced through vaccination no longer pose a threat to your child’s health.

When Should I Start My Child’s Vaccinations?

 Your child should already have most of their vaccinations by their second birthday. The vaccinations that still aren’t completed by then should be finished when your child is around four or six, with only a yearly vaccine against the flu and a tetanus shot every ten years normally recommended after that. 

Some parents balk at the aforementioned vaccination schedule and think it’s too much too soon. It’s important to note that vaccinations are administered early so children have essential disease protection as soon as possible. You cannot tell what your child could be exposed to out in the world, so completing their protection right away is of the utmost importance.

Speak to your doctor to learn more about your child’s recommended vaccine schedule. Avoid delaying your child's vaccinations because doing so may even put them at greater risk.

Contact Dr. Rodriguez-Toledo, Dr. Reda, Dr. Ma, and Dr. Bhatt of Newport Children’s Medical Group at Mission and complete your child’s vaccinations. Call 949-364-8700 for our Mission Viejo, CA, location.