Childhood vaccines: so many….how many?
Childhood vaccines: so many….how many?
30,000! 30,000 Rs???
Yesss, this is the cost of optional vaccines for a baby for the first two years of life and health insurance does not cover it
In my last thirteen years of practice , I have seen many parents saying, “Sirf free injections lagwane hain” (I want only free injections for my baby”). I always ponder, a person can afford a car, branded clothes for himself and his family but not preventive health for the apple of his eyes? Is it ignorance about health? Or it is an opinion that if we have a good standard of living so diseases won’t touch us? Or it is simply the fear of getting so many injections to the “nanhi si jaan”. . Food for thought , isn’t it?
Well fellas vaccines have been developed after a lot of research to protect our little angels from deadly diseases. Yes, there were very few injections in times of our “dadi-nani” but back then so many children less than 5 years of age used to die of hepatitis, typhoid, TB, pertussis (kaali khansi), cholera (haija) , measles (khasra) and many other such deadly diseases. To prevent that from happening to our little ones now,these wonderful “teekas” have come up. Some (rather many of these now) our govt. is providing free of cost and provide protection against TB, measles, hepatitis B, tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria(heard of galghontu?) and of course polio (those two miracle drops!!). But there are others which punch a hole in our pocket and an extra prick on our baby’s skin. I tell every parent that if they can afford it they should definitely go for it. One shot of that optional vaccine will cost 2-4000Rs but if God forbid child develops pneumonia, jaundice or diarrhea – expense would be 10 times . Chalo, maybe that cashless insurance policy of yours will cover it!!! I am sure you got a family floater health insurance plan. Pat your back for that. There is another side to it! The little one whom we were saving from single prick of that “monstrous” injection will now have to be poked multiple times – blood tests, medicines you know! Then leaves from work, absence from school – entire household goes haywire. Who has time for that? Vaccine seems more feasible, right?
Now comes the big anti-vaccination theory many parents must have read on google – complications and that risk of “autism”. Well, complications occur in one out of a 10,000 or a million children if they all receive vaccines while the disease can affect and kill much much more number of unvaccinated children. And, till now nobody has found a correlation between vaccination and autism.
Dear mommies (and daddies ) try to get all the vaccines recommended for your little ones. Your pediatrician will give you the list of all the options, still, here is a comprehensive list for a ready reckoner:
Age Vaccine
Birth (while in hospital) BCG (TB), Polio drops, hepatitis B (kaala peeliya)
1.5m,2.5m, 3.5m Penta (Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, Brain fever in single shot), polio drops + injection, rotavirus drops, pneumonia injection*
6m Flu (2 shots one month apart)
9m MR if girl, MMR if boy + typhoid
1y Hepatitis A
1y3 Months MR /MMR + Chicken pox
18m DPT + brain fever + pneumonia booster, polio drops
*so many injections in one go??? Yes they are. But body deals with millions of bugs in a day so this is peanuts for our immune system.
There will be a total of ten hospital visits in 2 years to complete this chart. In any case, baby needs to be seen by a pediatrician at least 3 monthly to make sure he or she is well so these routine visits become vaccine visits. So alongwith “nazar ka tikka” give them “health ka teeka”. Happy parenting!
NB: If you like my blog, please follow me on momspresso and visit draanuradhabansal.com. You can also post your queries on my website, I would be happy to answer them. Wish you happy and healthy babies…