As your kids prepared for a new year of school, you found supplies, made schedules and bought new clothes. But here's a question you might have forgotten to ask yourself: Did they have all their shots?

The list keeps growing. Most states make children get immunizations before they start school.

“Making sure that children have their recommended immunizations is just sensible preventive care. It's one of the most effective ways of keeping them healthy and preventing significant disease,” says Jeffrey Thompson, M.D., board certified family medicine, INTEGRIS Family Care Edmond.

“Because some diseases that were once rampant have become less common in recent years, people have forgotten how devastating illnesses such as pertussis [whooping cough] can be,” he adds. Whooping cough cases in the U.S. have risen in the past 20 years. Illnesses like whooping cough could become pervasive if fewer kids are immunized.

Jeffrey Thompson, M.D., board certified family medicine, INTEGRIS Family Care Edmond

While some folks question vaccine safety, harmful side effects are not likely, Dr. Thompson says. Your child might face a low-grade fever, soreness at the site of the shot or loose stool. Treat such problems with ibuprofen, acetaminophen or other remedies your doctor suggests.

The list of recommended vaccines is provided to the nation's family physicians and pediatricians by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2007 list includes:

• A rotavirus vaccine. To prevent most cases of severe diarrhea caused by this common bug, children get this oral vaccine in three doses at 2, 4 and 6 months of age.
• More flu shots. The yearly flu vaccine is now urged for children 6 to 59 months old. Adults in contact with these kids should get shots, too.
• A second dose of varicella vaccine. To guard against chicken pox, varicella vaccine is now repeated between 4 and 6 years of age.
• A human papillomavirus vaccine. To help prevent viruses linked with cervical cancer, this vaccine is recommended for girls beginning at ages 11 to 12 years. It is given in three doses over six months.

No One Wants to See Their Child Ill, Particularly If It Is a Preventable Illness.
For the full list of recommended shots and more, visit these Web sites:

• American Academy of Pediatrics:
  www.cispimmunize.org
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
  www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule.htm