•  First Aid & Emergencies (Children)

It depends on her age. Experts recommend vaccinating your child when she's 2 months old, with follow-up shots at 4 months, 6 months, after her first birthday, and again around age 5. After this initial series of shots, she'll need a booster at least once every 10 years. (You may hear your pediatrician call this shot a "DTP" OR "DTaP"; it also vaccinates against diphtheria.) Your pediatrician may also recommend a booster shot if your child hasn't had one within five years and has a bad cut that's prone to tetanus.

All breaks in the skin caused by dirty objects run a risk of tetanus. (Minor burns and scrapes or cuts from clean objects -- a kitchen knife or a piece of glass, for example -- usually aren't a worry.) Keep this in mind: Tetanus is caused by bacteria that multiply only in the absence of oxygen, so it occurs only in deeper wounds. That's why deep puncture wounds especially pose a risk.

It's not an emergency situation: So long as you've been following a regular immunization schedule, you can wait up to three days without increasing the risk of tetanus.

The tetanus booster itself sometimes causes minor side effects such as fever, fussiness, or soreness at the site of injection. An aspirin-free pain reliever can help ease most symptoms.

In extremely rare cases, the pertussis part of the DTP vaccination -- the series of shots your child get between 2 months and 5 years of age -- can cause more serious side effects, such as severe allergic reactions, long-lasting seizures, loss of consciousness, and swelling of the brain. Fortunately, those are exceedingly rare -- approximately three to six cases per million doses given - and the new DTaP vaccine is believed to cause fewer worrisome side effects than DTP. It's also reassuring to know that even when severe reactions occur, virtually all children recover without lasting harm.

-- Peter Jaret is a medical writer and book author whose work has appeared in Health, National Geographic, and many other publications. He is the recipient of the 1992 American Medical Association award for medical reporting and the 1998 James Beard Award for journalism.

Further Resources

National Institute of Child Health &Human Development

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/default.htm

References

First published July 27, 1999
Last updated February 26, 2007
Copyright © 1999 Consumer Health Interactive

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