An Open Letter To My Child About Vaccination

Created in partnership with Queensland Government VacciDate

Dear Baby,
There has been a change going on around you and your friends at daycare that may affect your future, your health and your education. It’s called vaccination, and it’s about keeping you safe.

I want to give you all the facts about vaccination and reassure you that I have done the research and I am on top of things. I have a schedule to stick to and a trusted public health doctor who is looking out for you as well.

Vaccination is a big topic these days and it’s important that you know what is happening. Some of your friends may not be vaccinated, it’s a decision every parent has to make and it can be confusing.

I have spent many hours reading, discussing and researching vaccination and why it matters. I decided facts were my friends. I couldn’t rely on word-of-mouth or Googled opinion pieces. It was going to require actual research from trusted sources; I wanted the truth. Your future is too important.

I’ll tell you though, it wasn’t an easy task sifting through the countless studies to find the facts, but now that I have, I feel assured. I wanted to share why our choice was to fully vaccinate you, for your best protection and future.

The facts are that vaccines train your immune system. They give it a chance to build up resistance to dangerous diseases, so that if you are ever exposed to the real thing, your body is able to fend it off.

So far in your short life, you have had five lots of vaccination. One at birth, six  weeks, four months, six months and one year. You won’t remember them now and you won’t feel them in your body because they are secretly keeping you safe from illness and fighting away the bad guys.

For your best protection, the vaccinations had to happen on time, or as close as possible to the due date in accordance with the National Immunisation Program Schedule Queensland. The schedule outlines the ages at which a child should be vaccinated to get the earliest and best protection against vaccine-preventable disease.

The Government has made it easy to keep track of your vaccinations through the free VacciDate smartphone app. It has helped us manage your vaccination schedule to ensure you are all up-to-date and on-time.

The VacciDate app can send appointment information to your personal calendar and provides access to the VacciDate website containing information about vaccinations. It has been a great help when you have left us both sleep deprived!

If you’re worried, don’t be, your parents are vaccinated too.

Before you were born, everyone in our family had a needle to ensure you stayed healthy from a disease called Whooping Cough. It’s a very nasty illness that can cause babies to cough until they find it hard to breathe.

Remember when you had that cough? It wasn’t nice and we were all worried, but we knew you were as safe as you could be because you had already started on your vaccination schedule and although you cried, we knew it was for the best.

However, you should know that you might not see some of your friends at daycare anymore if they have not been vaccinated. From January 1, 2016 new laws will take effect that means children not up to date with vaccinations will not be able to be enrolled in childcare.

This is ok because again, it means you can be safe. The research says disease epidemics can be prevented when at least 95 percent of people are vaccinated. Even those who are not vaccinated against a disease because they are too young, or have a weakened immune system are protected, because there are so many individuals with resistance that the disease doesn’t spread very far.

Rest assured baby, we are looking out for you, your health and your future.

Love Mum x

Watch the Queensland Health Vaccination Matters Video here.