Why You Should Vaccinate Your Children

Vaccinating your child is important. Not only does it protect them against various diseases, but it also protects you, your loved ones, our community, and future generations to come. Receiving vaccinations helps to strengthen immune systems. Children’s immune systems are not fully developed, so vaccinations can reduce the risk of infection and work with the body to better protect against sickness and disease. If your child is not up to date on their vaccines, they are at a higher risk of serious illness or even death from diseases like measles and the whooping cough. Vaccinations are proven to be effective and safe for your children. Immense lab testing is done before offering a vaccination and even then, the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Disease and Control, and National Institutes of Health continue to monitor the safety of the vaccine. It is important to stay on track of your child’s vaccination schedule to efficiently protect them and boost their response to illness and diseases. It is always better to prevent a disease than it is to treat one! Talk with a NEW Health provider to see what vaccines are needed for your children to keep them healthy and happy.

Examples of Deadly Diseases Vaccines Protect Your Child From

• Diphtheria is an infection caused by strains of bacteria that creates toxins inside your body. This disease can lead to heart failure, difficulty breathing, paralysis, and death (CDC, 2020). 
• Measles is an acute, viral, infectious disease that can lead to diarrhea, otitis media, pneumonia, encephalitis, subacute sclerosing, panencephalitis, and death (Gastanady, Haber, Rota, Patel, 2021).
• Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus that leads to fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite, and swelling of the salivary glands (CDC, 2021a). In more severe cases people may experience inflammation of the testicles, ovaries, pancreas, brain, tissue covering the brain and spinal cord, or experience deafness.
• Polio is an infectious disease that leads to flu-like symptoms, but can develop into paresthesia, meningitis, and paralysis (CDC, 2021b)
• Tetanus, often called lockjaw, is an infection that produces a toxin that causes painful muscle contractions such as your neck or jaw muscles being painful to open or hard to use (CDC, 2019a).
• Pertussis, often called whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory disease which causes uncontrollable violent coughing and can make it difficult to breathe (CDC, 2019b).

Common Myths – Proven Wrong

• Vaccines Contain Toxic Ingredients: Often parents are worried about ingredients like formaldehyde and aluminum, but the amount of these ingredients is so minimal that they are not toxic. Vaccines have been proven to prevent diseases, not infect you and your loved ones. Various major studies have proven that the ingredients in vaccines are safe for you and your children.
• Natural Immunity is Healthier and More Effective: This approach can lead to serious illness and death. In order to gain immunity from diseases, you would have to catch them, rendering you susceptible to complications from these diseases.
• Vaccines Can Cause Autism: A study originated in 1997 spread propaganda that certain vaccines can cause autism. This article has been discredited due to procedural errors and ethical violations and the surgeon who published that study lost his medical license and the paper has been retracted (Vaccine Myths Debunked, 2022). Various major studies have since been conducted to find no linkage between vaccinations and autism.
• Vaccines Can Give You the Disease They are Supposed to Protect You From: While vaccines can cause mild symptoms resembling the disease they are protecting you from, vaccines do not carry live infections. Your bodies response to the vaccination shows your immune system is working with the vaccine to become further protected.

Are your children up to date on their vaccines?  Call (509) 935-6004 to stay on top of your child’s vaccination schedule. Remember, you are not only protecting your family, but the community we cherish. Let’s help each other out by getting vaccinated and staying safe.

Sources

CDC. (2019a, February 28). Tetanus Disease (lockjaw). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/tetanus/index.html#:~:text=Tetanus%20is%20an%20infection%20caused,open%20the%20mouth%20or%20swallow.

CDC. (2019b, November 18). Whooping Cough (Pertussis). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/index.html

CDC. (2020, May 26). Diphtheria: Causes and Spread to Others. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/diphtheria/about/causes-transmission.html

CDC. (2021a, March 8). Mumps. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/index.html#:~:text=Mumps%20is%20a%20contagious%20disease,tiredness%2C%20and%20loss%20of%20appetite.

CDC. (2021b, September 28). What is Polio? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/index.htm

Gastanaduy, P., Haber, P., Rota, P., & Patel, M. (2021, August 18). Measles. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/meas.html#:~:text=Measles%20is%20still%20a%20common,people%20who%20were%20not%20vaccinated.

Vaccine Myths Debunked. PublicHealth.org. (2022, July 13). Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccine-myths-debunked/