Office Vaccination Policy and Schedules
(Information copied from the CDC Vaccine Information Statements)
Recent outbreaks of preventable childhood diseases emphasize the importance of vaccination for all children. The following information will tell you what you need to know about the routine immunizations we administer and explains why it’s important to make sure your child is vaccinated on time. It is our policy that all patients in our practice receive the immunizations currently mandatory in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
At Roslindale Pediatrics, we are dedicated to the health and safety of all our patients. As such, we follow the vaccination schedule recommended by the Mass DPH and the AAP. This allows patients who cannot receive a vaccine due to age or a specific medical condition to also remain safe coming into our practice.
Here is a link which will show you our annual well visit schedule, which includes the standard vaccines and lab tests.
Vaccine Safety and Facts
Unfortunately, there has been a lot of misinformation spreading recently about the safety of vaccines. We understand it can be difficult to know what to believe between social media, the news, and our political leaders, so we have provided some links below to help you understand more about the safety of vaccines and why they are so important. And as always, if you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out.
Information resources for parents concerned about the safety of immunizations:
Websites
National Immunization Program – www.cdc.gov/vaccines
This website is the official home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Parents can link directly to the National Immunization program. Answers to many vaccine-related questions can be found here.
American Academy of Pediatrics – HealthyChildren.org
As fellows of the AAP, the physicians at Roslindale Pediatric Associates practice according to the guidelines and recommendations of this organization of over 45,000 pediatricians. This site covers many health-related topics, including vaccinations.
Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia - https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/parents-pack/vaccines-go-what-you-should-know
CHOP has compiled a great and easy way to look for resources for vaccine information for children including a user friendly app that you can download through the apple store or google play.
National Network for Immunization Information – www.immunizationinfo.org
Immunization Action Coalition – www.immunize.org/vaccines
This group is a nonprofit organization that works to increase immunization rates by providing up-to-date information to parents.
Books
Vaccinating Your Child-Q&A for the Concerned Parent
(2000) Sharon Humiston, MD,MPH; Cynthia Good, and Bill Atkinson
Vaccines: What Every Parent Should Know
(1999) Paul Offit, MD and Louis Bell, MD
Flu and COVID-19 Information
At Roslindale Pediatrics, we highly recommend all of our patients 6 months and older receive the influenza vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine annually. Please check back here for updates on our recommendations and flu clinics.
We want to make sure our patients are well informed about the influenza virus and how to protect your children from it. Below are some links about the flu virus and the vaccine:
CDC Flu Vaccine Information Statement (VIS)
Community Vaccine Clinics
Boston Children’s Hospital has a vaccine clinic where patients in the community can receive routine vaccines. The clinic is located on the first floor of the hospital. Please direct any questions to the clinic at 617-355-5358. Please note that, due to the lack of state-supplied COVID vaccines, all patients will be informed that their insurance will be billed. While it is likely these vaccines will ultimately be covered by insurance, there is no guarantee commercially insured patients will not have an out-of-pocket expense.
The city of Boston also has vaccine clinics available for flu and covid. Please see their official website for more information.
RPA Vaccine Clinics
Roslindale Pediatric Associates will start providing Flu vaccine clinics in the Fall for all patients 6 months and older. Unfortunately we will not yet have COVID-19 vaccines for the clinics but this might change depending on when we can order them. You will receive a message through mychart once the clinics are available to schedule. We recommend booking early as they do fill up quickly.
If this is your child’s first year getting the flu shot, they will need 2 doses separated by a minimum of 4 weeks.
PLEASE SCHEDULE YOUR CHILD'S FLU VACCINE VIA MYCHART
If you are unsure if your child is due for flu vaccine, you can review the immunization tab in MyChart for “care gaps”.
-We will NOT be able to accommodate any patients without appointments. This includes unscheduled siblings.
Many pharmacies also offer flu vaccines, please check their websites for availability and age restrictions if your schedule does not work with our flu clinics.
If your child receives a flu shot elsewhere, please send us a message so that we can update their EMR to reflect that the vaccine was completed.
Stay safe and healthy!
RSV Information
The RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) is a common cause of the common cold, but in children under 12 months, especially premature babies or babies with underlying conditions, it can lead to severe respiratory problems such as bronchiolitis, hypoxia, and reactive airway disease. For more information on the virus from the American Academy of Pediatrics, please click here.
We are very excited that there is now a new way to fight off the RSV virus in these younger patients. It is an antibody injection called Beyfortus, and it is recommended for all babies under 8 months, and high risk patients under 19 months. The one injection has been vigorously studied and should supply immunity for the entire RSV season throughout the winter. It has been shown to decrease office visits and hospitalizations by 80%, and it starts working right after the injection, unlike immunizations that generally take 2 weeks.
The product safety information can be found here.
Beyfortus should be available in the nursery to give right after birth and it is currently available in our office to give at your baby’s next appointment. We will not be holding vaccine clinics for Beyfortus.
If you have any further questions about this new option to fight off a common cause of respiratory problems in babies, you can always call us or message us.