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Back-to-school Shots
Vaccinations and Your Preschooler By Kimberly Austin
When Pam Boker took her little girl to the pediatrician to receive the first of her elementary school vaccinations she was amazed at her now 20-year-old daughter's reaction to needles.
"She had a fear of needles that I didn't know about," Boker says. "She had to be chased around the room before we could set her down and give her the shot."
The same fear continued in her other children. Her second child screamed bloody murder in the office, and her other two kids followed suit. Fear of vaccinations in preschoolers, however, is a very common occurrence. Every school year, this scene is played out in doctors' offices across America.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that between the ages of 4 and 6, children receive immunizations for polio, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus.
Thankfully, children do not have to get seven shots. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations combine to make one vaccine -- MMR -- while diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis combine to make another -- DPT. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children older than age 7 take the DTP without the pertussis part of the vaccine, because pertussis is not common in children older than 7.
Although the immunization process for many of these illnesses begins as a baby, it is between the ages of four and nine that children put up the most resistance.
Dr. Margaret Fischer of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children's Department of Infectious Disease Control in Philadelphia agreed with the recommendations."All of these illnesses your body can fight," Dr. Fischer says. "But it's easier on your body if you do not to have to."
Dr. Fischer added that additional vaccinations may be necessary for children who did not receive the Hepatitis B vaccinations at an earlier date, and children older than 5 would not have received the chicken pox immunization, which was approved in 1995. Finally, depending on the area, some parents may want to consider lead screening.
"Lead screening depends on your locality," Dr. Fischer says. "If you live in an older home with lead paint you may want to."
