How to Stay on Track with Your Child's Immunizations

What’s the most important thing you do for your children?

Keeping them safe is right at the top of the list, and one of the best ways to do that is by protecting them from potentially life-threatening diseases with up-to-date immunizations.

Staying on track with those immunizations is sometimes harder than it looks, especially if you have more than one child. Here at Arlington Family Practice, one of our specialties is keeping every member of your family up to date on their immunizations. Here’s how we do it.

What are immunizations?

Also called vaccines, immunizations are preventive, proactive treatments to protect your body from certain illnesses. An immunization is a small, diluted amount of the disease you’re fighting against.

When one of our Arlington Family Practice team members immunizes you, your body makes antibodies to defend itself and fight the disease.

Because the injected virus is weakened, you don’t actually get sick. But your body is ready to recognize the intruder and fight if you’re infected with that disease in the future.

Immunizations are important because they prevent dangerous and life-threatening diseases from spreading throughout the community. Getting your vaccines is the responsible thing to do, both for yourself and those around you.

How to keep up with your child’s immunizations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has produced a list of recommendations of when children should receive which vaccines. Following this schedule is important for your child’s health. 

The best way to stay on track with the recommended schedule is to visit your pediatrician or family practitioner regularly. At Arlington Family Practice, we keep the immunization schedule top of mind at each of your child’s milestone visits.

The schedule is heaviest during your child’s first year of life. Once they reach their teen years, the most common immunization is the annual flu shot.

At each doctor visit, we give your child the necessary immunizations for their age. We also schedule their next visit and remind you beforehand to help you stay on track with their needed vaccines and overall health.

If you miss a few doses (we know life gets hectic), the CDC has even produced a catch-up schedule that gives the minimum intervals between vaccines; we follow this protocol as we schedule your missed shots.

If you’ve fallen behind on your child’s immunizations or aren’t sure where they are in their schedule, our team at Arlington Family Practice can help. Call our Arlington, Massachusetts, office at 781-646-4345 or book your appointment online today.