As public health concerns, Massachusetts General law 105 CMR 220.000 requires school children be immunized against:
- Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis: DTP or DTap-5 doses
- Polio-4 doses
- Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR)-2 doses
- Hepatitis B-3 doses
- Varicella (Chicken Pox)-1 dose
These five vaccines are essential for entrance of public kindergarten in Massachusetts. The immunization record is a part of registration submission. The registration time varies among cities and towns, generally it runs from March to June. Children who are immunized according to the CDC recommended schedule may need to be immunized up to 4 or 5 injections during their hospital visit for the"kindergarten shots". In the guideline from Center of Disease Control, the age for receiving immunization of DTaP, Polio, MMR and chicken pox is around 4-6 years old. Many of children borne after March may not be immunized with any of these at the age of four. These children may need to have 4 kindergarten shots in one hospital visit. The number may go up if Hepatitis B doses are not up to schedule.
Most vaccines have been proven to be safe to most children, but four or five shots at one time are awfully too many for a little child. Each vaccine has side-effects and the side effects accumulate upon multiple immunization. Mild side effects, such as: fever, redness or swelling in injection site are relatively frequent in children. Fever alone, the frequency is about 1 in 4 children who get DTap shot. It is about 1 in 6 children with MMR vaccine; 1 in 10 with chickenpox vaccine; 1 in 15 with hepatitis B vaccine. The frequency of soreness and redness is even higher. Health care providers should spread these immunization into 2 or 3 hospital visits, however, for the convenience of hospital, they usually cluster all the immunizations to one monster " kindergarten shots". It does not seem to be proper to me. If hospitals do not feel compelled to arrange multiple visits, alternatively, CDC can specify different immunization times for DTaP, Polio, MMR and chicken pox vaccines. It will result a better timetable for immunization in young children.
The obscurity of immunization timetable is evident after I witnessed soreness, swelling, vomiting and fever in my children for last three days after they received their kindergarten shots. I did not do my homework before the appointment because I trusted hospital and their immunization schedule. "Both of them had been used for many others and they should be fine" I thought. I did not check my children's immunization record and did not realize so many vacciines involved for "kindergarten shots".
I was speechless when the nurse showed up with 8 needles on her hands; four for each of my twins. I would call it off if she had told me the number of the shots before she came up with all the needles full of liquid. I am suffering from my own conscience becaue of the side effects from too many vaccines at once. The side effects are not life-threatening but annoying enough to make twins stay awake at night and throw up. I wish, I could have done differently.
I am warning all the parents who have any child at pre-school age to be aware of the "monster kindergarten shots" and to avoid to have all the shots given at once. It is a right thing to check the immunization record in advance and make two appointments to spread kindergarten shots over multiple visits.
