Common Queries Of Parents About Vaccinating Their Children Answered

As the COVID-19 vaccines for young children have been approved, questions for pediatricians have been rising. Parents all across the country are wondering where they can approach to get authentic answers. Their questions range from the effectiveness of these vaccines to their safety for their kids.

Common Queries Of Parents About Vaccinating Their Children Answered

The first question that comes to the minds of every parent is if the vaccine is safe. Orlando’s Nemours Children’s Hospital’s pediatric infectious disease specialist, Dr. Adriana Cadilla says that vaccines are safe for children. She is the mother of two children aged eight and six years who got vaccinated on Saturday.

She said that along with most pediatricians out there in the country she recommends a vaccine for all children between the age of 5 to 11 years. She said that this is how we are going to save lives. They promote vaccines, administer them and they would never recommend something that is not safe for children.

Data shows that the vaccine that has been approved for children is up to 90.7% effective in preventing the COVID-19 infection and there have been no side effects reported in 3,100 kids who participated in the study trials. The most commonly reported side effects were muscle aches, fatigue, pain, fever, headache, chills, nausea, and joint pain. The FDA says these side effects go away within a few days.

Cadilla said that the side effects are nothing compared to acute COVID-19 infection. The vaccine is the only safe choice, she adds.

There have been reports about a very rare side effect of the vaccine that is myocarditis. It is a condition that causes inflammation in the heart. As far as these concerns, Pfizer reports that no such cases were reported in the study trial on children aged 5 to 11 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures that cases of this condition have been extremely rare. They have been mostly reported in young adults and male teens. However, this condition can be treated with medication and people can recover quickly.

Children’s Minnesota’s general pediatrics chief, Dr. Gigi Chawla says that the risk of developing myocarditis is a much bigger threat. She said that it is a condition that can be reported in people with COVID-19.

Another concern is, do these vaccines affect fertility?

The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s pediatrics assistant professor, Dr. Anna Sick-Samuels says that there is no reason to believe that the COVID-19 vaccine can in any way impact fertility. She said that if vaccines were available for her four year old she would vaccinate her.

She said that there is not any biological link connecting vaccines to infertility. There is no general reason why vaccines would have any cause of concern about infertility. However, she added that evidence suggests that unvaccinated pregnant women might have seriously complicated issues if the contract COVID-19.

Another common question asked by parents is why vaccines are based on a child’s age. Medications usually differ as per weight. So why does the five-year-old kid get the same vaccine dose as an 11-year-old?

Texas Children’s Hospital’s chief medical officer Dr. Stanley Spinner said that vaccines work differently than medications. He said that giving a full adult drug to a child can damage his kidneys or liver, but vaccines induce the immune system and are safe.

Many parents wonder if they should wait for some months for their 11-year-old child to turn 12 so that they can administer an adult dose. But Spinner’s advice is that they should not. Adults are administered 30 µg dose and children are administered 10 µg. He says that both of them are effective in the same manner.

He says that there is no point in waiting because 30 µg would not make them any stronger. And he advises that parents should not delay because it would only mean more risk of contracting the virus.