Write-Ups

Paediatric Protocols For Malaysian Hospitals

Positive Parenting

Distance Learning Programme

Welcome to our site

The President

Committee members

Fellowships

Dr Siti Hasmah Research Award

Q&A : 2 Months Old Baby

Question
Dear Sir / Madam,
My wife just recently gave birth to a baby boy & now he is 2 month old.

I would like to know what vaccination should by baby receive from the day he was born.

Please send me a list of vaccination which is compulsory & optional. Also the time when he has to take.

Your cooperation is highly appreciated.

Regards,
MITESH H DOSHI

Answer
Dear Mr Doshi,
I am responding to your email regarding vaccination for your newborn child. Thank you for your question and congratulations on the birth of your son. Although we do not usually answer questions that you should be discussing with your regular paediatrician, I shall give you a quick list of the vaccines that are required (and given by Malaysia's Ministry of Health) and the optional ones.

The required vaccines that your child would have to get are as follows :

Birth	Hepatitis B # 1
	BCG (for tuberculosis or TB)
2 months	Hepatitis B # 2
	DTP + Hib + Polio # 1
3 months	DTP + Hib + Polio # 2
5 months	DTP + Hib + Polio # 3
	Hepatitis B # 3
12 months	Mumps, Measles, Rubella (German measles) (MMR)
18 months	DTP + Hib + Polio booster
Primary school	MMR + DT booster

[DTP = Diphtheria, Tetanus ('lock jaw'), Pertussis (whooping cough)]
[Polio vaccine is available in live oral preparation or inactivated polio vaccine by injection given as a single dose with the DTP+Hib vaccine. The injectable inactivated polio vaccine is safer. If oral polio vaccine is given, there has to be a gap of at least 2 weeks before the next dose of rotavirus vaccine].

The optional vaccines are as follows :

2-6 months	Rotavirus vaccine (2 or 3 doses depending on the vaccine brand)
2-24 months	3 or 4 doses of pneumococcal vaccine
14-15 months	Chickenpox vaccine
24 months	Hepatitis A # 1
30 months	Hepatitis A # 2

[Rotavirus vaccine is given orally]

If you or your paediatrician or family physician were to combine the two together to give a comprehensive vaccination schedule, it would look like the following (Blue are optional vaccines, Black are required):

Birth	Hepatitis B and BCG
2 months	Hepatitis B and DTP+Hib+Polio
3 months	DTP+Hib+Polio and Rotavirus (oral)
4 months	Pneumococcus and Rotavirus (oral)
5 months	Hepatitis B and DTP+Hib+Polio (+/- Rotavirus - depending on brand)
6 months	Pneumococcus
8 months	Pneumococcus
12 months	MMR (mumps, measles, rubella)
13 months	Pneumococcus
15 months	Chickenpox
18 months	DTP+Hib+Polio booster
24 months	Hepatitis A
30 months	Hepatitis A

Primary school MMR and DT booster.

You can decide to include the optional vaccines as shown above. If you think it will be hard for you to afford the more expensive pneumococcus and rotavirus vaccines, please do not feel guilty.

I hope we have managed to answer all your questions on vaccination. There are other vaccines that can be given but these (like meningococcus, Japanese encephalitis, etc) are not priority.

~Dr Zulkifli Ismail~
President
Malaysian Paediatric Association