keep a list of your child's vaccinations.
It's good to have a list of vaccinations that are made to your child( certified by a doctor), and information about his sensitivity to medicines. Take this, a list with you when the family goes on a trip. The list is useful also if you are moving or changing a doctor. Of course, you can always call or write to the doctor who did the vaccinations, but sometimes information is needed urgently. The most common case is when a child in the distance from the house injures himself and needs an anti-tetanus serum. In such cases, the doctor who is engaged in your child is very important to immediately know if the child has previously given such a vaccine. Diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus. Inoculations from these three diseases are usually done together, in a combined form( three vaccines at a time).You need to start very early, preferably at a month old. The vaccination is done three times( each injection contains vaccines for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus), with an interval of one month. But if the intervals between injections are more than a month, the effect persists.
These three injections give a very high degree of protection, but after a few months it weakens. Therefore, repeated vaccinations are made( at 12 and 18 months) to restore immunity. In 4 years, the vaccine is done again.
This combined vaccine often causes a reaction( due to pertussis vaccine): the temperature rises, the child fits, loses appetite. The site of the injection is inflamed. The reaction begins three to four hours after the injection. The doctor can prescribe any remedies to alleviate the symptoms. The next day the child should feel better. If the temperature at it or him has still raised or increased, it is not necessary to attribute it at the expense of an inoculation: most likely any new illness or disease is guilty. This vaccination does not cause a cough or cold symptoms.
Doctors usually do not get vaccinated if the child has a cold or is generally sick. Do not vaccinate children under one year during the polio epidemic for fear of temporarily weakening the resistance to this disease. After a year, the risk is much less.
Usually at the site of the first injection - on the buttock or arm - there is a hardening. It can persist for several months, but you do not need to worry about it.
Now we will discuss each of the vaccines included in this combination vaccine.
The pertussis vaccine is part of the combined. It is prepared from killed pertussis bacteria. It does not give full immunity from whooping cough, but if the child who received the vaccine falls ill, the disease is mild. Pertussis is a dangerous disease for children, and this is one of the reasons why vaccination is started so early.
Two or three injections are required to ensure that the vaccine provides high resistance to the body. Therefore, a child who has already fallen ill with whooping cough, the first vaccine may not help.
Diphtheria toxoid is another component of the combined vaccine. The poisonous substance that produces diphtheria bacteria, called diphtheria toxin( it does something to harm the body in case of illness), is chemically treated so that it becomes non-toxic - an anatoxin. Diphtheria toxoid injected into the body gives him the ability to resist diphtheria toxin. It is recommended to do three inoculations to the child in early infancy, then repeat at the age of one year and then every three years. In this case, it is almost certainly guaranteed against diphtheria.
Tetanus toxoid is the third component of the combined inoculation. It is prepared from a poisonous substance( tetanus toxin) produced by tetanus bacteria, and when several injections are made, the slowly organism creates its own long-term protection against tetanus. This protection( tetanus toxoid) should not be confused with anti-tetanus serum( horse serum), which gives a quick, but only a short-term protection.
Tetanus is a dangerous disease associated with open wounds. Bacteria of tetanus are found almost everywhere in the soil in which the horse and cow barn were. You can meet them in the streets of the city. The deeper the wound, the more likely the infection is with tetanus. Therefore, the most dangerous wound is a deep nail in the shed. Many believe that tetanus is caused by rust on the nail. This is not true. The important thing is where was the nail.
Nowadays, if the body has developed a resistance to tetanus, the doctor makes another vaccine to strengthen it. But if he does not have evidence that the child was receiving tetanus vaccination, he injects tetanus antiserum( paragraph 338) to hedge. Therefore, you need to carry a list of vaccinations for your child, if you are away from your doctor.
Immunity against tetanus is produced very slowly and reaches the required degree of safety only after the second vaccination. Therefore to start to inoculate, when the child received a dangerous wound, is useless. Immediate immunization requires the inoculation with horse serum.
A second vaccination after the initial series is done in a year, and then every three years. In addition, in case of a dangerous wound, the child is given an antitetanus toxoid. This immediately increases its immunity, bringing it to the required level of safety.
Antitetan antitoxin( horse serum). Long before the tetanus toxoid was received, antitetanus serum was used. The horse is infected with tetanus bacteria, and serum is produced in its blood, which provides immunity against this disease. Such a serum is administered to a person who has received a dangerous wound. Thus, a person, as it were, borrows from a horse her immunity, but this immunity only lasts for several weeks. The negative feature of the serum is that it causes painful symptoms( temperature and redness of the skin) a few weeks after inoculation. In addition, injection can make a person very sensitive to horse serum. And the next time such a vaccine will lead to a serious illness, if not take appropriate precautions.
If a wounded adult or child does not have immunity or if there is no evidence of vaccination, it is difficult to decide whether tetanus antitumor is necessary, for example, if the wound is shallow and there is doubt about the existence of tetanus bacteria. In each case, the decision is made jointly by the doctor and parents. If a child cuts or scratches during a game in the yard, usually no serum is injected. Vaccination against smallpox. It is mandatory for all children. Better to make it up to a year, then the child takes it easier. Smallpox is a serious illness, and the vaccination is completely guaranteed by it. The vaccine contains viruses or bacteria of the so-called of cowpox, and when vaccinated, the child develops a cowpox in mild form. A remarkable feature of cowpox is that it is a very mild disease, but it gives immunity against a serious disease - smallpox.
Some children are not vaccinated against smallpox in the first year of life. If a child has eczema or another skin disease, the vaccine should be deferred until the skin is cleansed( except in cases when smallpox is registered in the area).Children with eczema and a rash sometimes have a strong reaction to the inoculation. Vaccination should also be postponed if the child is sick or weak in health. It is wise not to vaccinate in the heat, or when other members of the family have a cold, or when the child has a cold or other illness. You should not get vaccinated if there is another child in the family who is sick with eczema and who is not vaccinated. He may accidentally become infected. To ensure the child's complete safety, the vaccine should be repeated every five years. If there are cases of smallpox in the neighborhood, everyone should immediately re-inoculate.
The doctor applies a small amount of vaccine to the baby's skin, and then scratches the skin in this place. Immediately after this, nothing happens. Three days later, a small red pimple appears, on which a white head( pustular) is soon formed. Gradually the pimple increases, it is surrounded by reddened skin. The most difficult condition is on the eighth or ninth day. If the reaction is moderate, the ulcer will reach the size of a small coin( ruble), if heavy - large( fifty rubles).In the easiest case, there will be no reaction at all. If the reaction is average, the child does not feel well, is capricious, loses appetite, his temperature rises. Do not vaccinate your child if you are traveling or if you are very busy next week.
After the peak of reaction, the ulcer dries up, a hard brown scab forms, which disappears after a few weeks.
The place of grafting should not be blocked from access to air. Never use a celluloid coating. The best place for grafting is not to cover anything, except clothes, if the child does not scratch this place. If the inoculation is made in the forearm and the child scratches this place, glue a sterile gauze square to the inside of the shirt so that it lies over the place of vaccination. If the girl has been vaccinated in the thigh( to avoid the appearance of a scar on her arm) and the clothing does not cover this place from scratching, apply a gauze sterile box over the grafting site and attach it with two strips of adhesive tape running up and down the thigh. Do not tie your arm or leg with a band-aid. This can make blood circulation more difficult.
In the first three or four for after the vaccination, you do not need to do anything. After the appearance of the abscess, the baby is usually not bathed, because it is better not to moisten the sore. While the scab does not fall off, wipe the child with a damp sponge.
Although a strong reaction to the inoculation is very rare and does not lead to any complications, you should contact the doctor if the site of the vaccination has become highly inflamed, or if the fever has risen, or if the reaction continues after the tenth day.
If the vaccine does not take root, this does not mean that the child has immunity. This only indicates that the vaccine was weak or did not penetrate the skin. In this case, the vaccine should be repeated and done until the vaccine is ingrained.
If the vaccine is repeated after several years, a reaction should appear again on the skin. If the effect of the previous vaccination is weakened, the reaction will be approximately the same as the first time. If immunity is preserved, a small sore is formed, lasts for several days and comes off without suppuration. If nothing at all, it means that the vaccine was weak or did not penetrate the skin. In this case, the vaccine should be repeated.
Vaccination against poliomyelitis. Salk vaccine for the development of immunity against poliomyelitis( child paralysis) is now common everywhere, and vaccination is done for all children. It greatly increases the likelihood that your child will not fall ill with this dangerous disease. The doctor will tell you at what age it is best to start and what is the best interval between vaccinations.
The world has been waiting for this vaccine for a long time. Any vaccine should be made from bacteria of the same disease. Poliomyelitis is caused by a virus, and this virus, like all other viruses causing human diseases, is extremely difficult to grow, not in the human body. Three doctors - John Anders, Frederick Robbins and Thomas Weller - managed to finally grow the virus in the cells of monkeys. When this step was taken, Dr. Jonas Salk managed to carry out the most complicated work to create an effective and safe vaccine.