As summer begins, many kids will soon be getting immunizations to enroll in daycare or school, and doctors emphasize the importance of having an open dialogue with pediatricians. Summer may have just started, but doctors say now is the time to get children vaccinated to avoid delays in enrollment. Appointments are already filling up.
The Virginia Department of Health has a full list of immunizations required for school or daycare enrollment. Dr. Ryan Fulton, section chief of Carilion Children’s Outpatient Pediatric Medicine, emphasizes the importance of yearly checkups to ensure children stay up to date on their vaccines.
Read more about the vaccines from the World Health Organization here and here.
“Right now is the perfect time to ensure that your kids have all the paperwork and vaccines required to start the new school year off right,” Fulton said. “It’s very important that we don’t put it off till the very end because, as we see every year, we have a rush in August to get all the paperwork done. We don’t want anybody to have to go through all that with the stress of starting school.”
While there is a lot of information and misinformation available online and on social media, Fulton recommends relying on doctors as the experts.
“It’s hard for anyone, including me, who has a significant amount of health understanding, to filter through what is right and what is wrong. And so that’s why the relationship with your child’s pediatrician is so important. It’s really about fostering that relationship and establishing good boundaries so you have an understanding of what reality is, what the facts are. Having those conversations with your child’s doctor is where that starts.”
Dr. Fulton advised parents to share any concerning information about vaccinations they find online with their doctor first before making a decision. This way, both parties can make informed decisions about the child’s health.
“There are a lot of myths about vaccines out there. More so it seems every day. I think the biggest myth that I want people to understand as a myth is that your physician is out there trying to push vaccines on you. In reality, I want the best for your child at the end of the day. And you as a parent have to be informed,” Dr. Fulton said. “I have parents come in all the time that have lots of questions and I’ll have them send me articles that they find and we’ll review them together to understand.”
Fulton said it’s important to keep an open dialogue with your child’s doctor.
“We want folks to come here and discuss their child’s health with us. We want to have that open dialog, that transparency. We want have those conversations because at the end of the day, developing that relationship is what is the priority for me and the physicians here at Carilion Children’s.
Dr. Fulton said the type of vaccines a child will need depends on their age.
“Starting school, obviously, you want to make sure that you get your kindergarten vaccines, which are typically boosters for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, as well as varicella. So that’s for starting kindergarten. And then we also have vaccines for going into middle school, which are your meningitis vaccines.”
Parents can schedule their child’s annual checkup today.
To see the full list of immunizations required for your child, visit VDH’s website here.
“So the biggest thing that we want to encourage folks to do is come to your primary care doctor, talk about the vaccines that are required because really those conversations really need to happen with your doctor rather than on social."