As a parent, you want to do whatever you can to protect your child and keep them safe and healthy. Vaccines are a vital way to do that. They help protect your child from a range of dangerous and preventable diseases.

Parents should try to have their children vaccinated according to the schedule. A significant delay in vaccination puts children at risk of the serious diseases the vaccines could prevent.

If children miss a vaccine dose, parents should talk to their doctor about catching up with the schedule. Missing a dose does not require children to restart the series of injections from the beginning.

Vaccination does not need to be delayed if children have a slight fever resulting from a mild infection, such as an ordinary cold.

Some vaccines are recommended only under special circumstances—for example, only when children have an increased risk of getting the disease the vaccine prevents.

More than one vaccine may be given during a visit to the doctor’s office, but several vaccines are often combined into one injection. For example, there is a vaccine that combines pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines in one injection. A combination vaccine simply reduces the number of injections needed and does not reduce the safety or effectiveness of the vaccines.