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An increasing number of parents are concerned about vaccinating their children and are asking doctors about the need and safety to follow the vaccination schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, decades of studies have shown that vaccines are safe and that the administration of vaccines according to CDC guidelines is essential to boost the immunity of young bodies, experts told Live Science.
Parents worried about vaccines tend to ask similar questions, said Dr. Robert Jacobson, a physician specializing in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. They want to know if it is more painful to receive three or four injections at a time, if the baby's immune system can tolerate multiple vaccines and what could happen if the vaccines were delayed.
"Other problems are mistrust in the health system [and] the government, "said Heidi Larson, an anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, which studies the views of the population on vaccination.
These fears may encourage parents to eliminate or delay vaccinations, but such treatment can put an infant's health at risk and increase the risk of contracting a preventable, life-threatening disease. according to the CDC.
Related: Can you still get measles if you have been vaccinated?
Is it really more painful for babies to receive multiple injections during a single visit? No, on the contrary, studies have shown that infants feel more pain when painful medical procedures are spread over several days, compared to several procedures done the same day, said Jacobson.
In neonates exposed to multiple heel spurs – blood sampling by puncture – over several days, long, painful interventions intensified anxiety and anticipation of pain, researchers reported. in 2002 in the JAMA journalBabies "have learned to anticipate pain and have experienced more intense pain reactions" during procedures than infants who have not been repeatedly beaten.
For multiple vaccines, the recommended combinations do not overload, do not weaken, and do not use the immune system of babies, as some parents fear; in fact, multiple injections ultimately strengthen the baby's natural resistance to pathogens, researchers reported in a published study in 2002 in the journal Pediatrics.
"Young children have a huge capacity to respond to multiple vaccines, as well as to the many other challenges present in the environment," the scientists wrote in a 2002 study on Pediatrics. "By providing protection against a number of bacterial and viral pathogens, vaccines prevent" weakening "of the immune system and [the] consecutive secondary bacterial infections sometimes caused by a natural infection ".
A race against the clock
Regarding the postponement of planned vaccinations, waiting to receive vaccines can actually be dangerous for the baby's health.
Such delays can be risky as children need a vaccine before their first encounter with the disease, Jacobson said. "If this schedule is designed as a race against the clock to protect the child before it is exposed, the delayed schedule actually increases.[s] the chance that the child gets the disease before being vaccinated, "he said.
If you add time between doses, some vaccines will be given too early in time, so that the child's immune system will not respond to any of the vaccines and will completely ignore them. This could negate the effectiveness of both vaccinations, leaving the child vulnerable to the disease.
When vaccinating babies and young children, timing is critical, Jacobson said. For example, a baby may be immunized against the flu by his mother; an influenza vaccine will not work until the protection disappears. Other vaccines, such as inoculation against rotavirus, can not be administered when a child reaches a certain age. Infants receive two or three doses of rotavirus vaccine, but after the age of 8 months, these vaccines have an increased risk of a disease called intussusception, when a segment of the "telescope" intestine inside a another segment can potentially lead to obstruction.
In addition, when parents opt for a delayed vaccination schedule, they rarely follow it. According to a study published in the 2012 review of children born in Portland, Oregon, between 2003 and 2009, only about 1% of parents who reported the vaccine to their children followed the modified schedule. pediatrics.
"It's a hard job to bring your kids over to doctor's visits several times," Jacobson said. "Everything from planning to parking makes things even more complicated, and your kids' lives and yours get in the way."
Originally published on Science live.
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