Immunizations Specialist

Immunizations protect your children from devastating diseases like polio, hepatitis, and diphtheria. Fiona Carroll, MD, of Child & Adolescent Health Center in Lathrup Village, Michigan, offers up-to-date immunizations that include human papillomavirus (HPV) and annual flu shots, as well as all routine childhood vaccinations. To check your child’s immunization status and make sure they’re protected, call Child & Adolescent Health Center today or book an appointment online.

What are immunizations?

Immunization is an invaluable preventive medicine tool that protects every member of your family, from infants to seniors. It involves receiving one or several vaccines, most often as an injection. 

Immunization schedules prevent sometimes life-threatening conditions such as:

• Meningitis
• Tetanus
• Hepatitis B
• Measles
• Mumps
• Rubella
• Diphtheria
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer
• Influenza (flu)
• Pneumonia
• Polio
• Varicella (chickenpox)
• COVID-19

Immunization begins shortly after birth when your baby receives a hepatitis B vaccine. Child & Adolescent Health Center performs most other immunizations during your child’s early life, although some, like the HPV vaccine, are given later. 

Certain vaccines, like flu shots, need repeating every year, but most protect your child for life.

How do immunizations work?

Immunizations trigger your child’s immune system, so it identifies harmful microorganisms like viruses and bacteria. The immune system protects your child from infection by creating antibodies that attack and kill these organisms.

If you haven’t had a disease before, you might get sick while your antibodies battle the invading organisms. But the antibodies your immune system creates are then available should you encounter the virus or bacteria again.

Immunization uses this highly effective natural protection without your child needing to get sick first. The vaccine gives their immune system the information it needs about a specific strain of bacteria or virus to create the antibodies that protect them from infection.

Is immunization safe?

Immunization is one of the safest methods of protecting your child from diseases that could have life-changing or fatal consequences. Vaccines use various substances, including:

• Dead microorganisms
• Weakened live microorganisms
• Inactive toxins produced by the organism
• Genetic material such as ribonucleic acid (RNA)

Vaccines only contain the information your immune system requires to produce the appropriate antibodies, so they won’t harm your child or give them the disease. Sometimes they trigger mild symptoms when the immune system first encounters them, but these soon wear off.

What immunizations should my child get?

Leading medical organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians approve a new schedule of immunizations each year.

This schedule lists all the recommended vaccines and when children should have them. Child & Adolescent Health Center uses it to provide your child with the most effective immunizations.

Contact Child & Adolescent Health Center to check your child’s immunization status and arrange any vaccinations they need. Call or go online today to book an appointment.