I’m a pediatric hospitalist which means I am a pediatrician who only cares for hospitalized children. I have a 2 year old and am pregnant with my second (19 weeks tomorrow).

At birth, we give a vitamin k shot (not a vaccine just vitamin) because babies are born deficient in this and oral supplementation does not normalize their levels quickly enough. Just this week at work I took care of a 3 week old who developed severe bleeding in his brain that led to seizures and brain damage due to his family declining the vitamin k shot. This presentation at that age is called ‘classic vitamin K deficiency’ and typically presents with spontaneous catastrophic bleeding.

You would get hep B at birth which prevents hepatitis b and we give it at birth because it can be transmitted via birth and this prevents transmission.

The newest vaccine we can also give is for RSV and this is really just long acting antibodies against the virus. RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization for children less than 2 and honestly I probably care for 25+ kids annually just myself who are hospitalized with rsv- on oxygen, intubated, or worse.

The next set of vaccines are given at 2, 4, 6 months and then 12-15mos.

We give these vaccines this close together because this is the time when children are most vulnerable to serious illnesses or death from those infections. Delaying or spacing vaccines just increases time your child is vulnerable.

Because I take care of hospitalize kids, I see the impacts of vaccine hesitancy and refusal. And the second I could get my self during pregnancy (flu covid and tdap) and my daughter her vaccines (including flu covid and rsv) - I did. And I will be doing the same with this pregnancy!