Each vaccine protects against a different disease, and several of those diseases are most dangerous in the first months of life - whooping cough, Hib meningitis and pneumococcal infection in particular. Combination vaccines already do a lot of the work: a single '6-in-1' shot covers six diseases at once. The number of appointments is kept as low as safely possible while still giving strong, early protection. A baby's immune system deals with far more challenges from everyday life - feeding, crawling, colds - than from the vaccine schedule.
Missing an appointment is common and almost never means starting again. Vaccination programmes have 'catch-up' schedules that get a child back on track with the fewest extra doses. Contact your GP surgery, clinic or health visitor, explain which doses were missed, and they will work out the plan. It is worth doing sooner rather than later, especially before starting nursery or school, or before travel.
Childhood vaccines are among the most studied medical products in use. They are tested in large trials before approval and then monitored continuously once in use, with systems in every country for reporting and investigating suspected side effects. Serious reactions are rare. The common side effects - a sore leg or arm, a mild fever, being unsettled for a day - are signs the immune system is responding and usually settle within 48 hours. The risks from the diseases themselves are far greater than the risks from the vaccines that prevent them.
MMR is a single injection that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Measles is extremely infectious and can cause pneumonia, deafness and swelling of the brain; mumps can cause meningitis and, after puberty, painful testicular or ovarian inflammation; rubella (German measles) is usually mild in children but causes serious birth defects if a pregnant woman catches it. Two doses give around 99% protection against measles. The claim of a link between MMR and autism came from a single discredited 1998 paper that was retracted; it has since been investigated in studies involving millions of children and no link has ever been found.
It depends where you live - schedules differ. Chickenpox vaccine is routine in the US, Germany, Australia and several other countries, and is usually mild-but-occasionally-serious reasoning: most cases are uncomfortable rather than dangerous, but a minority lead to skin infection, pneumonia or, rarely, brain inflammation. Flu vaccine is offered to healthy children in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere because young children are among the most likely to be hospitalised with flu and are major spreaders. Your local schedule reflects your country's assessment of the balance of benefit.
Yes. A minor illness such as a cold, a runny nose or a mild cough - with or without a low fever - is not a reason to delay vaccination. Vaccination is usually postponed only if a child is acutely unwell with a high fever, so that the illness is not confused with a reaction to the vaccine. If in doubt, keep the appointment and let the nurse decide.
Expect some redness, swelling or tenderness where the injection was given, a mild fever, and a more unsettled or sleepy child for a day or so. For the MenB vaccine specifically, infant paracetamol is recommended around the appointment to reduce fever. Contact a doctor if your child has a fever above 39C that does not come down, a fever lasting more than 48 hours, a fit (seizure), or any sign of a severe allergic reaction such as swelling of the face or difficulty breathing - the last is very rare and clinics are equipped to treat it immediately.
For many vaccines, one dose 'primes' the immune system but the protection it builds is incomplete or fades over time. Extra doses in the first year build the response higher; boosters in the toddler years and again before school and in the teens top it back up as immunity naturally wanes. The schedule of doses is designed around how each specific vaccine behaves - which is why, for example, MMR needs two doses but the teenage meningococcal ACWY vaccine needs only one.
Yes. Giving vaccines together is well studied and is how national schedules are designed. It does not overload the immune system, and it does not make side effects worse beyond possibly a bit more fever. Spreading vaccines out over extra visits simply leaves a child unprotected for longer and means more needles overall.
Premature babies should be vaccinated according to their actual age since birth, not their corrected age - so a baby born two months early still has their first vaccines at 8 weeks of chronological age. Because premature babies are at higher risk from infections like whooping cough and RSV, on-time vaccination matters even more. Some countries add an extra dose (Germany gives an additional hexavalent dose at 3 months for babies born before 37 weeks). Very premature babies may be monitored for a short pause in breathing after their first vaccines, which is why the first set is sometimes given before hospital discharge.
Modern childhood vaccines in routine schedules do not contain thiomersal (a mercury-based preservative) - it was removed from routine infant vaccines years ago as a precaution, though it was never shown to cause harm. Some vaccines contain a tiny amount of an aluminium salt as an adjuvant to strengthen the immune response; the quantity is smaller than what a baby takes in from breast milk or formula over the same period, and aluminium adjuvants have been used safely for over 70 years.
When enough people in a community are vaccinated, a disease cannot spread easily, which indirectly protects the people who cannot be vaccinated - newborns too young for their first doses, children having chemotherapy, people with certain immune conditions. The percentage needed varies by disease: measles is so infectious that around 95% coverage is required. This is why keeping uptake high matters even for families whose own children are fully protected.
No. The personalised timeline estimates dates by adding the recommended age for each set of vaccines to your child's date of birth. Real appointments are set by your clinic and can be a few weeks either side. Use the estimate to know roughly what is coming and to set a reminder, then book the actual appointment through your local service.
Bring your child's official vaccination record (the paper booklet or a printout from your country's immunisation register). A doctor in the new country will compare it against the local schedule and give any doses your child is missing - there is a catch-up path for children arriving from elsewhere. Vaccines given abroad count; your child will not have to start over. Comparing the two countries' schedules in advance (this site has a comparison tool) helps you know what to expect.
Yes. Almost every childhood vaccine has a catch-up option for older children, teenagers and adults who missed it. MMR in particular can and should be caught up at any age if someone has had fewer than two documented doses. Speak to a GP or travel clinic about catching up.
Each country's schedule is built from that country's official government immunisation programme and cross-checked against at least two further sources - a national health agency, a paediatric professional body, or the ECDC Vaccine Scheduler. Every source is listed on the country's page. An automated job re-checks all of the source links on the first of every month and flags anything that has changed for human review.
No. Child Vaccine Tracker is an independent reference site. It has no affiliation with any government, health service or pharmaceutical company, and it does not sell anything. It is funded by advertising. It presents official public-health information in plain language; it does not give medical advice and is not a substitute for your child's doctor.
Source links are checked automatically every month. The full content of each schedule is reviewed against its sources at least twice a year, and straight away whenever a country announces a change (for example a move to a single-dose HPV schedule, or adding a meningococcal B or ACWY dose). Each country page shows the date it was last verified.
Still have a question?
If your question is about your own child - whether a symptom is normal, whether to delay a dose, how to catch up - the right people to ask are your GP, practice nurse, health visitor or paediatrician, who can see your child's history. For anything about this site, including a correction to a schedule, use our feedback form.