Immunisation Schedule General Information

Before your child is immunised, your GP or General Practice Nurse will check with you that your child is well and able to get the vaccines. If you have any questions about your child’s immunisations, ask your GP or General Practice Nurse before your child is immunised. You can also get more information from your Public Health Nurse at your local HSE health clinic. There are very few reasons why your child should not get a vaccine.

You can offer your child their usual milk a few minutes before their immunisation. This has been shown to help to reduce pain. At the 2- and 4-month vaccine visits, your child will get rotavirus oral vaccine. You can feed your child at any time before or after this vaccine.

Common side effects after vaccination include:

• - swelling or pain around the area where the injection was given irritability
• - a high temperature (over 38 degrees Celsius) - particularly common after the MenB vaccine
• - headache mild diarrhoea

You may give paracetamol to children after their 2-month and 4-month vaccinations. This will help ease any pain and bring down a high temperature.

Contact your GP if after a vaccine:

• - your child is not well and you are worried about them

There may be another reason for them being sick.

View our dedicated page on what diseases vaccines prevent here.

Young children are most at risk of getting these diseases and need to be protected as early as possible. For example, children younger than 6 months are at the highest risk of serious complications of whooping cough (6 out of 10 children in this age group need to go into hospital, and 9 out of 10 deaths from whooping cough are in this age group). Also, the rotavirus oral vaccine can only be given to children under 8 months of age. This is because in very rare cases a child can get a blockage in the gut if the vaccine is given later.

The MMR and chickenpox vaccines are the exception. They are not usually given to children under 12 months because they may not work properly in young children.

Some parents worry that giving several combined vaccines at once will overload their child’s immune system or that the vaccines may not work properly. There is nothing to worry about, as your child’s immune system can easily cope with vaccines. Studies have shown that vaccines are just as safe and effective when they are given together as when they are given separately.

By getting several vaccines at the same time, your child is protected at a younger age and needs fewer injections. For example, if your child received single injections of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines instead of the combined MMR vaccine, they would have to have three injections instead of one.

Your child needs a number of vaccines to get the best protection, so it is important to complete the course of vaccines.

Yes. Most of these vaccines can be given at any age, and a child who misses one injection in a course of injections does not have to start again. But your child will not be fully protected until they get all the vaccines. The exception is the rotavirus vaccine, which can only be given to children under 8 months of age.

If you miss a vaccine, it’s best to have vaccines on time, but you can still catch up on most vaccines if you miss them.[AGB1] 

Contact your GP surgery if your child:

• - misses any vaccinations
• - has a vaccination appointment that you cannot attend
• - has a temperature of 38 degrees or higher - check with your GP or GP practice nurse if your child can have their vaccines

One of two things could happen:

1. Your child may never come into contact with the germs that cause these diseases and so would not become ill, or
2. Your child may come into contact with the germs, either as a child or as an adult. If they do, there is a good chance they will get the disease.

If your child gets the disease, they could be:

• - Mildly ill and have to stay inside for a few days, or Very sick and have to go into hospital or, at worst, die.
• - Your child could also spread the diseases to others who are not protected, such as children who are too young to be vaccinated.

Many people could get very sick and some could die if not enough people in your community are protected.

Some of these diseases are very rare in Ireland today, so the chances of exposure are small, but others are still fairly common. Also, even though some of the diseases are rare in Ireland, they are common in other countries, so your child could get those diseases while travelling abroad.

With increased travel to and from these countries, it is possible that these diseases will happen in Ireland. If there are not enough people immunised, there could be epidemics in which many people will get the disease and some will die.

If your child is not immunised, they are at a greater risk of getting these infections when they are older. Some infections are more serious in teenagers or adults than in children. For example, mumps in teenage boys or young men may cause swelling of the testicles, and they may not be able to have children. If a woman catches rubella during the early stages of pregnancy, her child may have major birth defects. Also, measles can be more serious in adults.