In recent years, more and more parents have been choosing to skip on vaccinating their children entirely or spreading vaccinations out over an extended period of time. This growing trend, however, is actually surprisingly dangerous for both your children as well as the health of the general public. Here's why keeping your kids from getting their flu vaccines and other vaccinations on time could be putting their health and the health of others at risk.

Personal Risks

Many adults today forget the potential health risks associated because of just how successful vaccinations have been at preventing the spread of disease and, in some cases, nearly eradicating diseases altogether. 91.9% of all children between 19 and 35 months old receive polio vaccinations today. However, when not vaccinated, children can still be vulnerable to this, as well as many other, now rare yet still devastating diseases.

Additionally, while more serious diseases pose a severe risk to unvaccinated children, common illnesses like the flu can also cause problems for younger children. Young children tend to be more heavily affected by illnesses that are considered less serious in older children or adults, making flu vaccines even more important at younger ages.

Herd Immunity

One of the main reasons to vaccinate, aside from the individual health of your own children, is that skipping on vaccinations can be dangerous to the people around you. Not everyone is able to be vaccinated due to their own health conditions; particularly, those with weaker immune systems may not be able to receive more concentrated vaccine formulas. Vaccinating your children and yourself helps reduce risk to these people be decreasing the chance of it spreading from you to them.

Low Risk To Children

Many parents cite health risks of preservatives in vaccines when looking for reasons to skip on vaccinations for their children. However, this simply does not hold up against evidence. Preservatives in vaccines are used in such small amounts that they pose next to no risk to human health, and for parents that do have concerns about certain components of vaccines, a variety of thimerosal-free and preservative-free vaccines exist that can be used.

Vaccinating both yourself and your children is incredibly important for the health of the general public, and skipping on vaccinations (or even spreading them out over longer periods of time) can be incredibly unsafe. Keep yourself and your family healthy by staying up to date on flu vaccines and other types of vaccinations.