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It is important for parents to educate themselves on the importance of immunizations for their
children. In addition to one's primary care provider, McFarland pediatrician, Dr. Swanson,
discusses other resources for parents to learn more about immunizations. There are two excellent
resources that we'd, that I'd like to direct parents to. They're both websites. One's by
the CDC, cdc.gov, and the other is by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's aap.org,
and these, both websites, are very well done for immunizations, with all the information
and questions parents might have. Another resource parents should always read before
getting vaccines is the vaccine information sheets developed by the CDC, which explains
the disease and the vaccine, and the possible reactions. And these are given to the parents
by the providers before the vaccines, and it's important that they read these as well.
Following the recommended immunization schedule from your healthcare provider is also a key
component in keeping children healthy. Dr. Wendy Thiessen shares why accessing trusted
resources for immunization information is so important. There is a lot of information
on the Internet, unfortunately, that's promoting anti-vaccination or promoting more of a delayed
vaccine schedule. I think that there is some danger in this because the vaccine schedule
exists for a reason. The people that have developed these vaccines have developed these
vaccines to protect certain patient populations at certain ages, and if we delay these vaccines,
we do put those patients at a greater risk of not having the protection when it's most
needed. And so, I think some of that information that we find on the Internet really isn't
based in a lot of science. There's not a lot of studies to back it up, and so, I really
think that going to a trusted website, such as the CDC website or the AAP website is probably
your best resource for this type of information. For more information about childhood immunizations,
please visit with your McFarland healthcare provider, or visit us online at mcfarlandclinic.com.