Practice 10: Vaccination

Take all girls and boys for vaccination at birth, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks and 9 months for full course of immunization to protect them from 10 communicable diseases.

• Ask if the mother knows how many times the child should be vaccinated and why.
• Ask if all the children have been vaccinated according to the vaccination schedule.
• Listen attentively.

• Appreciate if the child is immunized on time. Advise to continue.
• If not, discuss and try to get to the root of the problem. Does the family not want to immunize children, forgot the dates, or have fear that the vaccine might have side effects?
• Discuss to jointly solve the problem. Repeat schedule if required. Inform about diseases, their complications and treatment cost if not convinced.

• Help the mother learn the schedule of child’s immunization and put it on the calendar.
• Help the mother learn how to treat common side effects after vaccination e.g. fever.

• Take all the eligible children for complete vaccination in order to protect her/him from vaccine preventable diseases.
• A child should receive 6 vaccines shots from birth till 18 months of age.
• Vaccination is free in government health facilities.
• It is safe to vaccinate children even when they are sick.
• It is important to vaccinate eligible children during polio or measles campaign even if the children have received the vaccines before.