Are vaccinations generally required at daycare centers?

Yes, it is common for day cares to require children to have their shots up-to-date. My daughters both started day care at 8 weeks, and did fine. Children in day care centers tend to pick up cold-like illnesses, but not anything serious. Ours required that we provide the center with an updated immunization certificate after each round of shots.

Check with your day care center and ask them what their policies are.

It actually depends on what you mean by “daycare.” If you mean a licensed daycare center, then yes, the children will be required to have their vaccinations. If you mean a licensed home daycare, then yes, the children will be required to have vaccinations.

If you mean a local babysitter who is not licensed, then you have no way of knowing because the parents won’t have to submit paperwork and keep it updated, the sitter won’t care because there’s no one from the state coming in to check her paperwork, and if some of the kids are behind on their shots the sitter will have no way of knowing it.

Also, just because the other kids at the daycare are current on their vaccines doesn’t mean your baby won’t get sick. I worked in daycare for several years, and no matter how careful we were about washing hands and sanitizing toys and surfaces, kids got sick. Mostly the illnesses consisted of runny noses, coughs, and ear infections. Sometimes a stomach bug would go through the center, or some other kind of common childhood virus. When you have groups of young children together, no matter how clean the place is or how hard the teachers work to stop the spread of germs, kids will get sick. It is one of the drawbacks of group care. The good news is that by the time the kids go to kindergarten, their immune systems are champs and they rarely get sick. My two oldest kids were in daycare as infants and they’ve hardly had any sick days from elementary school.

You will have sick days because your child will get sick. There’s no way around it. If you are worried that his little system won’t be able to handle it, talk to your pediatrician. You might want to try to find something other than group care until your baby is a little older if he isn’t ready to fight off typical childhood germs.

It is most important for children to get the flu vaccination (as opposed to parents) if there is a forced choice (obviously both would be best). This is because parents usually get the flu from their kids, not the other way around.

Our children went to licensed daycare from age three months until kindergarten. They had their vaccinations on the prescribed schedule. I think most of the kids in their daycare also got vaccinations on that schedule. Obviously, every child has to have a period during which they are at higher risk for the disease since they haven’t been vaccinated for it yet.

I believe that at our daycare, we had to submit evidence of vaccination signed by our pediatrician. I think there was a way to opt out, but I’m not sure about that. There are certainly enough people who think there is an autism connection or think the mercury is a problem for some to not vaccinate.

But what can you do? You can never know for sure. It’s really a question to ask your day care provider.

I just wanted to say- good for you! We have had a lot of anti-vaccination nonsense going around and I was afraid this would be another such question. Thank you for being a responsible and informed parent! Good luck with finding the right daycare.

Thanks to all three of you- I appreciate it.
Yes, I am aware that there is still a chance my son will get an illness. However, I feel it is best to eliminate as much probability as possible.
I am mostly concerned with serious illness. He is my first child and I am sure I am being overly cautious, I can’t help it.
It was more of me being curious than anything else- and thanks for the tip, I will definitely check with my individual care provider! I was just wondering how common it is.
@wundayatta – I agree, having my son receive the flu shot would be best. However, they will not give it to him until he is 6 months. I don’t know if this is b/c of his medical history or if this is common practice.
Thank you all for your feedback!
On a sidenote, @wundayatta, the autism connection is sort of what I was getting at… I do not believe there is a connection. And, while I believe everyone has the right to their opinion, I believe not vaccinating your child is irresponsible and dangerous.

thanks, @crisw !

@jenandcolin I think it is standard not to give babies the flu shot until the age of six months. I assume you have a pediatrician? They will give you the schedule—if they haven’t already. Ours gave us a little pamphlet so we could check off the vaccinations as they happened. I’m not sure if my wife still does that. Our youngest is 10 now.

@wundayatta Thanks! Yes, I have the card with the schedule printed on it. His flu shots aren’t on it, though. I think I will just write them in (starting at 6 months).

Yes, professional, licensed child care centers have a policy, however, the one I worked in didn’t require the workers to have theirs, so be careful.

If your baby is susceptible, I would advise you get an in home nanny rather than day care. This is much safer.