10 common myths about childhood immunization

Childhood vaccination is extremely important, but many parents have not paid enough attention to it because of the following common mistakes.

The purpose of vaccination is to help strengthen the child's immune system. However, many parents cause their children to suffer from many infections due to misconceptions about vaccination. Supplementing your child's knowledge about vaccinations and changing misconceptions is the way for you to take the best care of your baby. The following article summarizes the most common misconceptions that adults often perceive about vaccination in children when they reach age.

1. Good hygiene will make the disease go away. Immunization in children is not really necessary

Of course, good personal hygiene, use of clean water and hand washing will help prevent infectious diseases in children and babies. However, many infectious factors can attack your baby no matter how clean you keep them. If vaccination programs stop working, some effectively prevented diseases will recur. Therefore, if a child is not immunized, controlled and less common diseases such as measles and cholera are likely to spread into epidemics.

2. Vaccines have many side effects, causing long-term harm or even death

Research has proven that vaccines are a safe way to protect babies from infection and increase resistance . Painful arm pain, mild fever or other mild symptoms are common vaccination reactions in both infants and adults, but are not severe and are temporary. Serious health effects due to vaccines are rare. In fact, the harm caused by non-vaccinated infections is far more dangerous and fatal than some of the side effects of vaccines. Therefore, for children, the benefits of vaccination outweigh the side effects.

3. Diseases requiring preventive vaccination are almost eradicated in my country, so there is no reason for children to be vaccinated.

Although vaccine-preventable diseases are not common in many countries, the factors of infection that put them at risk of transmission to other countries persist. Geographical boundaries do not reduce infection to anyone who is not immunized.

In Western Europe, for example, measles outbreaks occurred in unvaccinated countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK since 2005. To protect the village For body and newborn babies, vaccination is always the first priority option. Parents should not depend on subjective opinions from those around them in preventing the spread of disease. Prevention is better than cure.

4. The flu is just a small problem. vaccines are not effective against the disease

Flu is a serious illness with a high fatality rate. Every year, it is estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 people worldwide die from this disease. Pregnant women, young children, the elderly in poor health, and anyone with chronic illnesses such as asthma or heart disease, are at high risk of infection and death.

Vaccination for pregnant women protects the newborn (currently there is no vaccine for infants under 6 months of age). Most flu vaccines provide immunity to the three most common strains that are circulating in most seasons. This is the best way to reduce your risk of getting serious flu and spreading it to others. Preventing the flu helps you further reduce your medical care costs and lost income from sick leave.

5. For the baby to get sick, the body will have better immunity than the vaccination

Vaccines interact with the immune system to produce an immune response similar to a natural infection, but they do not cause illness or risk potential complications for the vaccinated person. In contrast, the cost of immunity to natural infections could be pediatric neurodevelopmental delay due to Haemophilus type b (Hib), measles congenital malformations, viral liver cancer. hepatitis B or death from measles.

6. It's not safe to vaccinate too many at once

Studies have shown that vaccination is only safe and effective when multiple injections are given together. There are many combination vaccines that have been in use over the years ( MMR - measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; DTaP - a vaccine that protects children against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis).

Most recently, the vaccine Pediarix combination vaccines against diseases diphtheria , tetanus and pertussis vaccines against polio and vaccines against hepatitis B in one shot only was allowed to circulate and use by physicians. Researchers are continuing to develop safe combination vaccines for use in the near future. The best feature of these combination vaccines is that you will give less shots to your baby, remember that both you and your baby feel more satisfied.

7. Vaccinations hurt your baby

The pain of immunizations is only temporary and if compared with the pain of serious diseases that immunization can protect the baby from, the pain is no longer so important. In addition, there are ways to help reduce pain in your child. Studies show that babies who are vaccinated while being hugged, held or distracted by their parents experience less crying, and infants who are breastfed immediately before or during the injection. The strain will experience less pain. You can ask your doctor about giving your baby a sugar solution before the vaccination or taking anesthesia an hour before (prescription medication) to relieve your baby's pain.

8. If all other children are immune, my baby will not get sick

Some parents believe that they do not need to immunize their children when all other children are already immune - since there are no more germs at that time. But that theory no longer holds true.

First of all, other parents are also at risk of believing this theory, which means that their children are also not vaccinated, giving them a chance of an outbreak of inherently preventable diseases. .

Second, unvaccinated children put vaccinated children at risk (vaccines are usually 90% effective - highly immunized individuals limit the spread of the disease). Immunization is not only about hurting your child but also hurting other kids - your child's friends.

Third, unvaccinated children are susceptible to diseases such as whooping cough not only from other unvaccinated children but also from adults. This is because the pertussis vaccine is no longer given after the baby is seven years old, and the immune system is almost worn out by adulthood.

Plus the disease is still contagious and is usually very mild in adults so it often goes undiagnosed. This means that these adults may not realize they have pertussis and can inadvertently infect the child because they are vulnerable to the effects of the disease.

9. One shot of the vaccine is enough to protect the child

Researchers have found that skipping a particular vaccine during a vaccination puts a child at high risk of getting infected, especially measles and pertussis. So if it is recommended to have a series of four shots, make sure your baby gets all the shots they need to give him the complete protection of the vaccinations.

10. Injecting too many vaccines easily leads to risk of many other diseases

There is no evidence to suggest that getting vaccinated for many diseases increases the risk of diabetes, infectious diseases or other diseases. Likewise, there is no indication that there is an association between vaccinations for multiple vaccines and for allergic diseases such as asthma.

If you still have questions about this issue, please consult your doctor or pediatric specialist for timely advice and answers. You should always pay attention to the vaccination schedule for your baby to make sure your baby always receives the best health care!