You’ve just found out you’re pregnant with your first child. You voraciously read everything out there, from breast-feeding to baby blues and fruit juice to jaundice.

In what seems to be the blink of an eye, you’re standing in the pediatrician’s office holding your new bundle of joy and operating on two hours of sleep. You can’t remember if you brushed your teeth before you left the house, much less what you read a few months ago about the shots your—of course, now sleeping—baby is about to receive. You look to your pediatrician for advice and guidance.

Although periodically questions are raised about the safety of vaccinations, Arkansas Children’s Hospital pediatrician and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UAMS College of Medicine, Dr. Dennis Kuo says “Side effects and safety are continually examined by the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Physicians. If anything, they err on the side of safety…never the tiniest chance they would want to hurt a child. They also continually look at the efficacy of the vaccination schedule.” Dr. Kuo affirms “We all take this so seriously.” He suggests parents take the time to go beyond the talking points and get in-depth information while developing a trusting relationship with their pediatricians. “The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a great online vaccination resource,” he shares.

The online resource “Vaccines and Your Baby” covers how vaccines work, common questions and concerns about vaccines, proper vaccine schedules, and exhaustive descriptions of each of the vaccines briefly outlined below.

• Hepatitis B Vaccine protects children from contracting the Hepatitis B virus that infects the liver, causing the long-term liver disease called cirrhosis and liver cancer.
• Pneumococcal Vaccine protects children from the bacterium pneumococcus which can cause several bacterial infections including meningitis and pneumonia.
• Diptheria-Tetanus-acellular Pertussis (DTaP) Vaccine protects children from diphtheria which can affect the heart, kidneys and nervous system. It also protects children from Tetanus which is a bacterium causing severe and painful muscle spasms. This vaccine also protects children from the Pertussis bacteria which can cause whooping cough, pneumonia, seizures and brain damage.
• Haemophilus influenxae type b (Hib) Vaccine protects children from the bacterium that typically causes meningitis, bloodstream infections and pneumonia.
• Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) Vaccine protects children from the measles virus which can infect the lungs or brain; the mumps virus that causes painful glandular swelling or infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord; and the rubella virus, which causes gland swelling, mild rash and fever. Rubella infections during pregnancy can cause permanent and severe birth defects or miscarriage.
• Polio Vaccine protects children from the virus that can cause intestinal infection and paralysis of limbs or the muscles needed for breathing.
• Varicella (Chicken Pox) Vaccine protects children from pneumonia, encephalitis and severe skin infections.
• Hepatitis A Vaccine protects children from the virus that can cause rapid overwhelming infection of the liver and death.
• Influenza Vaccine protects children from the flu which infects the respiratory system which can cause pneumonia.
• Rotavirus Vaccine protects children from the virus that infects the lining of the intestine which can cause high fever, diarrhea, and persistent, severe vomiting. (According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center, approximately 2,000 children in the world die every day from rotavirus.)

For more information visit The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center websites at Vaccine.CHOP.edu and Vaccine.Chop.edu/Parents.