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Vaccines and Your Baby Video Series
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Can Babies Handle Vaccines So Young?
Babies have immune systems that are amazingly strong and adept. Vaccines given in the first two years of life are just a tiny fraction of what babies encounter and successfully manage every day.
In this video series, physicians at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explain how vaccines work and how they are made. The video also describes several vaccines and the diseases they prevent. Families share their stories of children affected by vaccine-preventable diseases.
Videos in this Series
- Introduction: Vaccines and Your Baby
- Before the Chickenpox Vaccine
- How Vaccinations Cause Immunity to Infectious Diseases
- What is a Virus in the Body?
- How the Chickenpox Vaccine Works
- Why the Hepatitis B Vaccine Is Important
- Why the Pneumococcal Vaccine Is Important
- How the Hib Vaccine Has Helped Alleviate Meningitis
- What the DTaP Vaccine Is and Diseases It Prevents
- The MMR Vaccine Prevents Three Viruses
- The Importance of the Polio Vaccine
- Do Vaccines Have Side Effects?
- How are Vaccines Tested for Safety?
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Can Babies Handle Vaccines So Young?
Transcript: Can Babies Handle Vaccines So Young?
JoAnne Woehling, MD: In the first two years of life, you'll be visiting your baby's doctor fairly often. And during those visits, we'll talk about what your baby should be eating and what to expect as the baby gets older. We'll also talk about vaccines. During some visits, your baby could get several shots at one time. But as upsetting as it can be to watch your child go through this, the truth is your baby's already been through much tougher challenges.
From the moment of birth, babies immediately encounter thousands and thousands of bacteria that live in the lining of their skin, nose throat, and intestines. So how do they manage all of these bacteria? The answer is that babies have immune systems that are amazingly strong and adept. We all have the capacity to respond to hundreds of thousands of different challenges to our immune systems at one time. So the vaccines given in the first two years of life are just a tiny fraction of what babies encounter and successfully manage every day.
Paul A. Offit, MD: You know, that with everything that you have to think about right now, this probably seems like a lot of information. But really of all the facts we've talked about, the one that matters the most is this: After food and shelter, vaccines are probably the best way we have of keeping our children safe and well and free from harm.
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