Vaccine Information

Our Vaccine Policy

Effective 01.01.2026

Dear Families of Farrell Pediatrics and South Riding Pediatrics:

To best protect our patients, we have updated our immunization policy in response to the growing risk of exposure to vaccine-preventable diseases, including recent local outbreaks of measles and pertussis. We remain deeply concerned about these risks. As pediatricians, it is our responsibility to ensure that our office remains a safe environment—especially for our most vulnerable patients who cannot be vaccinated, such as newborns, children undergoing cancer treatment, organ transplant recipients, and those who are otherwise immunocompromised.

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

We strongly feel that childhood vaccines are safe and effective, and we strongly recommend all vaccines to be given according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) schedule.

These are our practice’s minimum vaccine requirements:

All patients need to have received their first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine by the age of 1 month.
For parents that wish to split up the 2-, 4- and 6-month vaccines, we require that all 2-month vaccines are completed by age 3-months, all 4-month vaccines are completed by age 5 months and all 6-month vaccines are completed by age 7-months.
All patients need to have received their first dose of the MMR and Varicella vaccine by the age of 15 months.
All patients need to receive two doses of the Hepatitis A vaccine by the age of 2 years.
All patients need to be caught up per the AAP vaccine schedule by their 6th birthday.
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 age 18 years.
We understand that these timing guidelines may need to be modified slightly to account for appropriate spacing in between vaccine doses.

We have the same policy for those patients who are being seen for sick 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 30 days, vaccinations are not administered, we will no longer be able to provide care.

Sincerely,

The Doctors of Farrell Pediatrics and South Riding Pediatrics

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)

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.

Are vaccines safe?

Concerns related to the safety of vaccines vary. Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania offers trusted resources that address common questions about vaccine ingredients, potential links to other conditions, and other vaccine safety concerns.

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.