How to Have a Healthy Start to the School Year
Besides new backpacks and shoes, parents should be thinking about back-to-school immunizations and well-visit check-ups as summer comes to a close. Some kids have gotten behind in their regular vaccinations, but now is a great time to catch up.
“We don’t know what a new school year may bring,” said, Dr. Duane Teerink, Family Medicine Provider at the Intermountain Health West End Clinic. “We do know that vaccines have helped safely protect children for decades, to the point that many diseases like mumps or measles are rarely seen now.”
Children can be protected from the following diseases through vaccination:
· Influenza (flu)
· HPV
· Measles
· Mumps
· Rubella
· Diphtheria
· Tetanus
· Pertussis (whooping cough)
· Polio
· Hepatitis A and B
· Varicella (chickenpox)
· Haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB)
· Neisseria meningitidis
· Pneumonia
· COVID
In addition to school required vaccines, the HPV vaccine is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for kids between the age of 9 and 12 years old to prevent six different types of cancer. Influenza and COVID vaccines help protect against severe respiratory viruses that spread around the community during the school year.
“We insist on seat belts, helmets, and other safety precautions for our children to keep them safe,” said Dr. Teerink. “Immunizations are just one more way we work to keep our children healthy and safe.”
Well-child checkups are doctor’s visits scheduled at specific times in a child’s life where your child’s health care provider can analyze their growth and development and address ways to keep them healthy.
Your child's well visits serve many purposes, but they are primarily an opportunity for your provider to ensure your child is growing and developing properly. It is important to catch delays and disorders as early as possible to ensure children get the treatment necessary to help them function optimally.
“Your child’s well-check can be a time to catch-up on missing vaccines, as well as a time to review developmental assessments, vision and blood pressure screenings, important mental health screenings, and other guidance critical to a child’s health and growth,” said Dr. Teerink. To schedule an appointment online or find a clinic near you, visit sclhealth.org/montana.
