Answering commonly asked questions
Vaccinations are a hot topic among parents. While everyone wants to protect their baby from serious illnesses, parents naturally want to be absolutely sure that the jabs their baby receives are absolutely safe. Parents quite rightly ask questions about safety, including the following:
Why does my baby need to be vaccinated so early in life?
Doctors like to vaccinate from as young as 8 weeks to ensure that your baby is not left vulnerable in the early months of life. An 8-week-old baby who hasn’t been immunised is open to infection by the germs that cause meningitis C, whooping cough, and HIB, which can be killers in this age group. Many parents worry that their baby’s immune system won’t be able to cope with the vaccine, but most doctors regard these fears are unfounded. Apart from anything else, your baby is exposed to thousands of germs every day – far more than they encounter in any number of immunisations.
Are vaccines safe?
Before a vaccine is licensed, its safety and effectiveness are tested thoroughly. After a vaccine has been licensed, its safety continues to be monitored. Any side effects that are discovered, no matter how rare, can then be assessed further. All medicines cause side effects, but vaccines are believed to be among the safest of drugs.
Is it possible to overload the immune system by giving too many vaccines?
From birth, your baby’s immune system protects her from the germs that surround her. Without this protection, your baby would not be able to cope with the tens of thousands of bacteria and viruses that cover her skin, nose, throat, and intestines. Vaccines are designed to strengthen your baby’s immune system and protect her from extremely serious diseases. Most doctors believe that there is no evidence that any vaccine programme overloads a child’s immune system. In the USA, where more vaccines are given in a single GP visit than in the UK, a study found no difference in hospital admission in children who had had multiple immunisations compared with children who had had only polio vaccine. Immunising against several diseases at once was just as safe as immunising against one.
