How to book in Canada
Book through your family doctor, a local public health unit / CLSC (Quebec), or a participating pharmacy. Exact timing and a few vaccines vary by province and territory - your public health unit can confirm your child's schedule.
Government of Canada - provincial and territorial immunization contactsTap any milestone to expand it. Each vaccine explains what it is, the diseases it prevents, and why it is given at that age.
2 monthsNewborn4 vaccines
One shot covering five diseases. Whooping cough and Hib meningitis are most dangerous in the first year, so protection starts at 2 months.
Protects against pneumococcus, a leading cause of ear infections, pneumonia and meningitis in toddlers.
Oral drops that prevent the severe vomiting-and-diarrhoea illness that used to hospitalise many Canadian babies each winter.
Some provinces give hepatitis B in infancy; others give it as a school program in Grade 6-7. Both approaches protect against lifelong liver infection.
4 monthsNewborn3 vaccines
Second dose - each one deepens and lengthens protection.
Second pneumococcal dose.
Second rotavirus dose.
6 monthsInfant3 vaccines
Third dose, completing the early series.
A third rotavirus dose is given only with the brand that needs three.
Recommended every autumn for all children from 6 months. Two doses in the first year a child is vaccinated.
12 monthsToddler4 vaccines
First measles, mumps and rubella dose. Measles spreads extremely easily and can cause pneumonia and brain swelling, so this is a priority vaccine.
Prevents chickenpox and its complications such as skin infection and, rarely, pneumonia.
The pneumococcal booster around the first birthday.
Protects against group C meningococcal disease, a cause of meningitis and blood infection.
18 monthsToddler2 vaccines
A booster around 18 months that carries protection into the pre-school years.
Some provinces give the second MMR (and varicella) dose at 18 months; others wait until age 4-6.
4 to 6 yearsChild2 vaccines
A booster before school starts that refreshes four of the baby vaccines.
The second measles-containing dose, giving near-complete lifelong protection.
Grade 6 (around 11-12 years)Teen3 vaccines
A school-based program protecting against the virus behind almost all cervical cancer and many mouth, throat and anal cancers. Given to all genders.
The school hepatitis B program in provinces that did not vaccinate in infancy.
Broadens meningococcal protection before the higher-risk teenage years. Timing (Grade 6 or Grade 9) varies by province.
Grade 9 or 14-16 years (province dependent)Teen1 vaccine
A teenage tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough booster, sometimes combined with a meningococcal ACWY dose.
Given in addition to the routine schedule, for children who meet certain criteria.
When: Infancy
Who: Offered to infants in some First Nations and Inuit communities with high rates of tuberculosis.
When: Infancy and childhood
Who: Recommended for children with certain medical conditions, and routinely in some northern and Indigenous communities.
When: Before or during the baby's first RSV season
Who: NACI recommends offering it to all infants in their first RSV season, starting with babies at higher risk. Each province and territory decides its own programme and eligibility, so ask your local public health unit.
How Canada compares with other countries for each vaccine, and the side effects that are normal.
Moving here? Moving to Canada with a child
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About the Canada schedule
Canada does not have a single national schedule - each province and territory runs its own publicly funded immunization program based on recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). The differences are small, mostly in the exact months doses are given and in a few optional vaccines.
The schedule below is the common NACI-based pattern used across most of the country. Babies are usually immunized at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months, with pre-school and school-age boosters, and a school-based program in Grade 6 (around ages 11-12).
Always check your own province or territory's schedule with your public health unit or family doctor.
How Canada compares
Canada's routine schedule protects against 16 diseases across 8 vaccination ages, 3 of them in the first year. By age 2 a child has had about 16 vaccine doses, including oral drops against rotavirus.
Less common elsewhere: Canada routinely vaccinates against Flu, which fewer than half of the other 13 countries on this site include for every child.
Compare Canada with any other country, disease by disease.
Behind schedule or new to Canada? Almost every dose still counts, and your clinic can plan a catch-up - see common questions or moving to Canada.