If You Choose Not to Vaccinate Your Child- Understand the Risks and Responsibilities.

If you choose to delay some vaccines or reject some vaccines entirely, there can be risks. Please follow these steps to protect your child, your family, and others.

With the decision to delay or reject vaccines comes an important responsibility that could save your child’s life, or the life of someone else.

Any time that your child is ill and you: 

• call 911; 
• ride in an ambulance; 
• visit a hospital emergency room; or 
• visit your child’s doctor or any clinic

you must tell the medical staf that your child has not  received all the vaccines recommended for his or her age.  Keep a vaccination record easily accessible so that you can  report exactly which vaccines your child has received, even  when you are under stress.

Telling health care professionals your child's vaccination status is essential for two reasons:

• When your child is being evaluated, the doctor will need to consider the possibility that your child has a vaccine-preventable disease. Many of these diseases are now uncommon, but they still occur.
• The people who help your child can take precautions, such  as isolating your child, so that the disease does not spread  to others. One group at high risk for contracting disease  is infants who are too young to be fully vaccinated. For  example, the measles vaccine is not usually recommended  for babies younger than 12 months. Very young babies who  get measles are likely to be seriously ill, often requiring  hospitalization. Other people at high risk for contracting  disease are those with weaker immune systems, such as  some people with cancer and transplant recipients.

Before an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease occurs in your community:

• Talk to your child’s doctor or nurse to be sure your child’s  medical record is up to date regarding vaccination status.  Ask for a copy of the updated record.
• Inform your child’s school, childcare facility, and other   caregivers about your child’s vaccination status
• Be aware that your child can catch diseases from people who  don’t have any symptoms. For example, Hib meningitis can be spread from people who have the  bacteria in their body but are not ill. You can’t tell who is contagious. 

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