Back to School: Catching Up on Your Child's Vaccinations
Did your child miss routine vaccines during the pandemic? Make sure they're up to date before heading back to school!
Volume 13 • Issue 6
Vaccines can protect children from serious diseases like chicken pox, measles, polio, and tetanus. Schools and daycares can ask for a record of a child’s vaccines to help prevent spread of these diseases.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some children were not able to get their usual childhood vaccines. Your local public health unit may contact you either to ask for your child’s vaccine record or to recommend that your child get the needed vaccines.
SafeMedicationUse.ca has the following tips to check if your child has all the vaccines needed to attend school or daycare:
- Contact your pediatrician, family doctor or nurse practitioner to ask for an updated copy of the vaccine record for your child.
- Visit Health Canada’s Immunization Schedule Tool or provincial/territorial vaccine schedule. These resources will tell you which vaccines your child’s age group needs, according to the province or territory where you live.
- Check your child’s vaccine record for the names and dates of vaccines they have received. Compare this list with the list of required vaccines for your location, to find out if any vaccines are missing.
- Set up an appointment with your pediatrician, family doctor, nurse practitioner, or public health unit to get any missing vaccines. Take your child’s vaccine record with you to the appointment so it can be updated.
Read more about keeping the family’s vaccinations up to date.
This newsletter was developed in collaboration with patients and families.
Learning from consumer reports is shared with health care providers through ISMP Canada publications.
