Tweens and Teens Need Immunizations as Much as Infants and Toddlers, But Less Than Half of this Age Group Receives the Vaccinations They Need

When my boys were 1 and nearly 4-years-old the chicken pox vaccine came out. Their pediatrician explained the benefits of the vaccine versus the complications of chicken pox. My husband had a base case of chicken pox and shortly after our second son was born had shingles. I also had a very serious case of chicken pox as a child. I did not have to be told twice that the vaccine was available. The boys were given the vaccine. My friends chose not to vaccinate their children and suffered for weeks with chicken pox.

Whenever a new vaccine or a recommendation change for a vaccine is made public I have a conversation about it to my children's physicians. It is important to me to do everything that I can for their health and that includes having the vaccinations up to date. It is one of the most important task I can do for my children.  

My oldest son will be heading off to college very soon, just a few weeks. I have been planning this for some time and that includes Meningococcal vaccine, Pertussis (Whooping Cough) as well as Tetanus and Diphtheria booster. My younger son is also being prepared for adulthood with this series of immunizations.  

I have boys, but there is a vaccine that is very necessary for young girls on up to their early 20's that is a must have for their future health. The HPV vaccine or as it is also known as the human papillomavirus. HPV can lead to cervical cancer and infertility. A few of my friends with daughters were unsure about this vaccine as it sounds like it is a permission vaccine for girls to have sex. I pointed out research that states that even if a girl was a virgin upon her wedding day and her husband was not, she could be infected with HPV by her husband and develop cervical cancer. It is not a permission slip but a life saving vaccine.  

It is no different than if you vaccinate your child from tetanus. You do not want your child to walk on rusty nails, but you will do all you can to protect your child if he does by being immunized from the disease. You want to make sure your child is protected into adulthood from all the diseases that have taken lives of others who were unprotected from these diseases. Vaccinations is the best choice you can make for your infant, toddler, school age, pre-teen and teenager.

Money should not be an issue when it comes to making sure that your child is immunized. There are many agencies that will offer free immunizations for children. Here is some great information for you to check out that will give you what you need to make sure your children are safe inside and out.

For families with health insurance, all or most of the cost of vaccines is usually covered.  For families without insurance, children age 18 and younger may be eligible to get the vaccines for free through the Vaccines for Children program (VFC). Why Do Pre-teens and Adolescents Need Immunizations?

Call 800-CDC-INFO or visit www.CDC.gov/vaccines for more information.

Taking care of the written word,

dannielyn

Copyright Dannett Frey, Taking Care of the Written Word, 2010, all rights reserved

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/pre-teen-immunization.

I am writing this post as part of a CDC blogger outreach program. I may receive a small thank you gift from the CDC for my participation in raising awareness about pre-teen immunizations.

Truth in Autism Must Come First

Someone tweeted a link to a CNN article that discussed a Doctor who lost his ability to practice medicine because he was found to purposely mislead millions of individuals.  These individuals are parents who were under the belief that vaccinations were a cause of autism in some children.  These parents chose not to vaccinate their children out of fear that their children would have been exposed to autism or that autism already present in at least one child would be the cause of autism in the other children.

The fear of a child being diagnosed with autism is very real for families.  I worked in the field of social work and have had families with 2 to 3 children (in both cases it was all of their children) with autism.  These children appeared normal according to their developmental stages until suddenly around two years old the signs and symptoms of autism began to take over their child's development.  To determine that their children are in this type of situation because of vaccinations when it in fact does not have anything to do with the onset of autism puts those children in additional risk of contracting another disease that is completely preventable.

A child with autism and not fully immunized can come down with mumps, measles, rubella and other diseases that are completely preventable and suffer even more than their autism.  Blindness, deafness, heart diseases and becoming paralyzed are only a few of the problems that can come about when they are not immunized.

A child's life is already fragile when they are in their infancy.  All parents want to protect their child from harm and certainly do not want to inflict unnecessary harm on their children.  That is why when the announcement came out that children were developing autism due to immunizations parents questioned whether they should have their children immunized only to put their children at greater risk.  Then to find out that the physician who made this statement had no business making those statements nor had done tests that could be repeated with the same results by a large number of other researchers is atrocious.  This physician should lose more than simply his license.  He should be legally and financially responsible for the children who have suffered from a preventable illness due to the fear of vaccination.  This certainly should not be the last word on this subject.

Too many were duped by someone they believed had the answers as to why their child who should have been "normal" now had autism.  He needs to have a stronger punishment to fit this crime. To read the article in full click on the posting for May 25, 2010.

taking care of the written word,

dannielyn