Today, children in the United States routinely get vaccines that protect them from more than a dozen diseases such as measles, polio, and tetanus. Most of these diseases are now at their lowest levels in history, thanks to years of immunization. Children must get at least some vaccines before they may attend school.
The recommended immunization schedule below is designed to protect infants and children early in life, when they are most vulnerable and before they are exposed to potentially life-threatening diseases.Check the schedule for the age or age range when each vaccine or series of shots is recommended.
These recommendations must be read with the footnotes that follow. For those who fall behind or start late, provide catch-up vaccination at the earliest opportunity as indicated by the green bars in tables below. To determine minimum intervals between doses, see the catch-up schedule. School entry and adolescent vaccine age groups are 4-6 yrs and 11-12 yrs.
| Range of recommended ages for all children | Range of recommended ages for catch-up immunization | Range of recommended ages for certain high-risk groups | Range of recommended ages during which catch-up is encouraged and for certain high-risk groups | Not routinely recommended | |||||
| Vaccines | 18 mos | 19-23 mos | 2-3 yrs | 4-6 yrs | 7-10 yrs | 11-12 yrs | 13-15 yrs | 16-18 yrs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hepatitis B1 (HepB) | ←3rd dose→ | |||||||||||||
| Rotavirus2(RV) RV1 (2-dose series); RV5 (3-dose series) | ||||||||||||||
| Diphtheria, tetanus, & acellular pertussis3(DTaP: <7 yrs) | ←4th dose→ | ←5th dose→ | ||||||||||||
| Tetanus, diphtheria, & acellular pertussis4 (Tdap: ≥7 yrs) | (Tdap) | |||||||||||||
| Haemophilus influenzae type b5 (Hib) | ||||||||||||||
| Pneumococcal conjugate6 (PCV13) | ||||||||||||||
| Pneumococcal polysaccharide6(PPSV23) | ||||||||||||||
| Inactivated poliovirus7 (IPV)(<18 yrs) | ←3rd dose→ | ←4th dose→ | ||||||||||||
| Influenza8(IIV; LAIV) 2 doses for some: See footnote 8 | Annual vaccination (IIV only) | Annual vaccination (IIV or LAIV) | ||||||||||||
| Measles, mumps, rubella9 (MMR) | ←2nd dose→ | |||||||||||||
| Varicella10 (VAR) | ←2nd dose→ | |||||||||||||
| Hepatitis A11 (HepA) | ←2 dose series, See footnote 11→ | |||||||||||||
| Human papillomavirus12 (HPV2: females only; HPV4: males and females) | ←(3 dose series)→ | |||||||||||||
| Meningococcal13 (Hib-Men-CY ≥ 6 weeks; MenACWY-D≥9 mos; MenACWY-CRM ≥ 2 mos) | See footnote 13 | ←1st dose→ | Booster | |||||||||||
Note: The above recommendations must be read along with the footnotes of this schedule.