Vaccine Information

Announcements

FLU VACCINES

Flu vaccines have arrived and are recommended for everyone 6 months and over. You can schedule your child’s appointment online or by calling our office.

COVID VACCINES

We’re now offering the 2024-2025 Pfizer COVID vaccine (ages 12 years and up) and the Moderna COVID vaccine (ages 6 months to 11 years). You can schedule your child’s appointment by calling our office at 703-435-0808.

Current Vaccine Schedule

Immunization and Well Check Schedule

as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics

Age	Vaccines
Birth/2 weeks	Hepatitis B (if not received in the hospital)
2 months	Pentacel (Dtap, IPV, Hib), Prevnar 20, Rotateq, Hep B
4 months	Pentacel (Dtap, IPV, Hib), Prevnar 20, Rotateq
6 months	Pentacel (Dtap, IPV, Hib), Prevnar 20, Rotateq
9 months	Hep B, hemaglobin test
12 months	Hep A, Prevnar 20, MMR, Photospot vision
15 months	Pentacel (Dtap, IPV, Hib), Viravax
18 months	Hep A, hemoglobin test
2-4 years	Hep A (if not done at 18 mos), Photospot vision each year
4-5 years	Quadracel (Dtap, IPV), Proquad (MMR, Varicella), vision, hearing (5yr for Kindergarten)
6-10 years	Vision
11 years	Tdap, Menquadfi (meningococcal), HPV, vision, cholesterol
12-16 years	HPV booster, vision
16-18 years	Menquadfi (meningococcal), Trumenba (men B), Tdap (18yr), cholesterol (17yr)

Our Vaccine Policy

Dear Families of Farrell Pediatrics and South Riding Pediatrics:

To best protect our patients, our immunization policy was updated in 2023. The policy was initially created due to concern about the growing risk of exposure to vaccine preventable diseases due to outbreaks of measles and pertussis in our immediate area. We remain concerned about that risk. As pediatricians, we must ensure that our office is a place that is as safe as possible for those children who cannot get vaccines (e.g. newborns or children with cancer or who have received organ transplants).

We strongly feel that childhood vaccines are safe and effective, and we strongly recommend use of the American Academy of Pediatrics vaccine schedule. In the past we have worked with families who prefer to use an alternative vaccine schedule to the AAP schedule.

We will continue to accept families who desire an alternative schedule; however, to ensure that we are applying our immunization policy fairly for all our patients, we are clarifying the policy:

We do not accept patients who have not received and will not receive any vaccines.

We strongly recommend all vaccines to be given according to the AAP schedule. We will work with parents who prefer to use an alternative schedule with the following minimum requirements:

All patients need to have received at least one dose of all recommended vaccines by the age of 6 months.
All patients need to be up to date per the AAP guidelines by the age of 2 years.
All patients need to be up to date per the AAP guidelines by the age of 6 years.
All patients need to receive a Tdap booster and meningococcal ACYW vaccine by age 13 years.
All patients need to receive a meningococcal ACYW booster by 19 years.

We have the same policy for those patients who are being seen for sick only visits as for those being seen for well childcare. If a patient has not received vaccines per the above minimum requirements, they will be reminded of our policy and be asked to schedule a vaccine appointment. This will be noted in the patient’s chart. If after 6 months, vaccinations are not administered, we will no longer be able to provide care.

Sincerely,

The Doctors of Farrell Pediatrics and South Riding Pediatrics

Q&A with our Doctors

We get a lot of questions about vaccines from parents. Here are some answers to some of the most common questions.

Why should I vaccinate my child?

The use of vaccines has led to major improvements in child health over a relatively short period. Immunizations have helped children stay healthy for more than 50 years. Many of the infectious illnesses you or your parents had as children, from chickenpox to polio to measles, no longer affect most children today. If you follow the immunization guidelines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), you can help make your child healthier than was ever possible in earlier generations. Vaccines are safe and they work. In fact, serious side effects are no more common than those from other types of medication such as antibiotics and fever reducers and pain relievers. Vaccinations have reduced the number of infections from vaccine-preventable diseases by more than 90%!

Why should my child get the poliovirus vaccine?

A little history: A 1916 polio epidemic in the United States killed 6,000 people and paralyzed 27,000 more. In the early 1950’s there were more than 20,000 cases of polio each year. Polio vaccination was begun in 1955. By 1960 the number of cases had dropped to about 3,000, and by 1979 there were only about 10. No wild polio has been reported in the United States for over 20 years. BUT the disease is still common in some parts of the world. It would only take 1 case of polio from another country to bring the disease back if we were not protected by vaccine. If the effort to eliminate the disease from the world is successful, someday we won’t need polio vaccine. Until then, we need to keep getting our children vaccinated.

I lived through chickenpox as a kid, why vaccinate my own child against it? Would it prevent shingles later in life?

While most people have survived chickenpox (varicella), before the vaccine, about 12,000 people were hospitalized for chickenpox every year due to complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (brain infection). About 100 people died from the disease. The chickenpox vaccine protects most children from getting chickenpox. Since the vaccine was licensed in 1995, millions of doses have been given to children in the United States. Many studies show the vaccine is safe and effective. Research is being done to see how long protection from the vaccine lasts. Though the vaccine doesn’t guarantee you won’t get chickenpox or shingles, it can reduce your chances of complications and reduce the severity of the disease.