Immunization Schedule & Vaccination Record

Immunizations or Vaccinations play a big role in any infant’s life. Between birth and one year, a baby will receive vaccines for around 10 different diseases if the recommendations given by the Department of Health are followed. Besides keeping your child healthy, most schools will not allow a child to enroll unless she is caught up on her vaccines. There is no national database that keeps track of the vaccines your child has received, and doctors rarely keep records of vaccinations given longer than 2 years, so it is important that every parent follow their own Immunization Schedule and stay up to date with their child's vaccines.

For an authoritative information on immunizations and vaccinations, see the Vaccines & Immunizations on the cdc.gov website (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Here are a couple useful links to get you started:

• Immunization Schedules from cdc.gov - Free printable immunization and vaccination schedules for children of various ages.
• 2010 Recommended Immunizations for Children from Birth Through 6 Years Old (.pdf) from www.cdc.gov - This sample immunization schedule includes descriptions of each of the vaccines on the second page.

The above immunization schedules are useful for seeing when various vaccinations are given, but to keep a record of your immunizations, you can can use a form such as the ones listed below:

• Printable Vaccination Record forms from www.cdc.gov
• Printable Immunization Record Cards for Adults, Children, and Lifetime from immunize.org - (Click on the images of the cards to view a printable PDF) You can also order these cards on "rip-proof, smudge-proof, water-proof" paper.