What Is Baby Immunisation?
Whenever the human body is exposed to a disease causing organism, it starts making antibodies to fight against it. These antibodies are infection fighting molecules in blood and body fluids that prevent a person from falling ill with the same disease again. Thus, the body develops immunity against the microorganism that it has once fallen prey to. Immunisation is the process where a person is exposed to a certain disease causing organism so that he or she will develop immunity towards it.
Dead or weakened forms of disease causing microorganisms are either injected or orally given to children so that their bodies start making antibodies for those particular diseases. Since the antibodies will remain in the body for life, an immunised child will not contract a disease that he has been vaccinated against. The child thus has immunity against certain diseases.
Why Is Baby Immunisation Important?
Immunisation is the most important part of your baby's health schedule, especially during the first two years of his or her life. This is because a number of the diseases that vaccines prevent against, like polio, whooping cough, mumps, diphtheria etcetera can be life threatening and may cause death or permanent disability in small children. Getting your child immunised can save him or her from these debilitating and life threatening diseases.
Baby immunisation has been one of the most successful medical government initiatives in India. It has managed to wipe out small pox, and polio is also on its way out of the country. New parents have been saved from seeing the deadly impact that these vaccine preventable diseases used to have on families and communities, where generations were wiped out at the attack of a single disease.
While vaccines have, to a large extent prevented such outbreaks from happening, we cannot ignore getting our child vaccinated in the hope that vaccine preventable diseases are on their way out. Many parents think that since all other children are getting vaccinated, they can ignore getting their own child immunised because the chances of an outbreak are almost nil.
However, both of these are faulty lines of thinking. This is because, even today, outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases like measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza and chicken pox are quite common. Only getting your child vaccinated on time against these diseases can save him or her from contracting these preventable yet painful diseases.
Another group of parents is against vaccinations because they think that it causes a lot of pain and makes children fall sick. While there are definitely some side effects of vaccinations that include localised pain, body aches and fever, one should always remember that this pain is next to nothing compared to what your child will go through if he/she contracts any of the diseases that vaccines prevent against.
Getting Your Baby Immunised Is The Way To Go
Remember that it is important to get your child vaccinated against all vaccine preventable diseases, putting aside whatever personal reservations you may have. This is because while vaccinations will keep your children healthy and happy in the long run, not getting them properly vaccinated can expose them to death or disability for life.
In case you feel that there are too many vaccinations that your child will have to undergo, and you want him or her to avoid pain and discomfort, then you may speak to your child's doctor about this. In many cases, you can often do away with a few vaccines that prevent some non-life threatening illnesses like diarrhoea etcetera. However, make sure that you do this only after consulting your child's paediatrician.
In order to ensure that your child gets immunised, make sure that you get an immunisation schedule during your first visit to the doctor. Getting your child immunised on time can save him from 14 to 16 deadly diseases. Remember that keeping your child healthy in the long run can be as easy as sticking to the immunisation schedule and protecting your little one from as many illnesses as you can through regular immunisation.
A list of the diseases that vaccines prevent against:
- Diphtheria
- Haemophilus influenzae type B
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Influenza
- Measles and Mumps
- Meningococcal disease
- Tetanus
- Pertussis or whooping cough
- Pneumonia
- Pneumococcal disease
- Polio
- Rubella
- Varicella or chickenpox
- Rotavirus diarrhoea
Source: Apollo Munich Insurance
Note: Please consult your Doctor for more details and guidance. This is just for the general awareness of the readers
Best Regards
Prakash Nair
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