Pediatric professionals, how do you approach the topic of vaccination with hesitant parents, and can you give an example of a successful conversation?

As a pediatrician, I often encountered parents and families with vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines are inherently scary as they are injections, and families have difficulty with their child's distress while receiving vaccines. Like all medical interventions, informed consent with nonconfrontational questions and patient and family education is the best way to promote successful vaccination for hesitant families. Many families have concerns about the side effects of vaccines. For those families, I point them to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) which is an ongoing registry of side effects associated with vaccination. The risks and benefits of vaccines also are fairly easy to explore with families. While reactions can be quantified by VAERS, the benefits of vaccines are the prevention of diseases, many of which have permanent or late sequelae. For example, Haemophilus influenzae type B which can easily be prevented by vaccines can result in pneumonia, sepsis, and meningoencephalitis, at times with irreversible brain injury with the potential for developmental delays, spasticity, and seizures. Measles, while being fairly ubiquitous until the development of the vaccine, results in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis for a minority of patients as a delayed complication up to 10 years after measles infection and at a higher rate in unvaccinated patients. Currently, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis has no curative or disease modifying treatment, and patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis generally die shortly after diagnosis. By educating families about the wealth of knowledge available about vaccine side effects along with the risks of contracting the infections that the vaccines prevent, most families are willing to consider and often do utilize vaccines for their children.

When approaching vaccine-hesitant parents, I listen to their concerns with empathy and without judgment. I validate their desire to protect their child and acknowledge that it's okay to have questions. I'll open up discussions with statements such as "I understand you're worried about the measles vaccine. It's natural to have questions about anything that goes into your child's body. Could you tell me more about what concerns you the most?" Then, I provide evidence-based information from credible sources like the CDC and the AAP and explain how vaccines work to build immunity. I offer to address any specific concerns they have.

When addressing hesitant parents about vaccinations, it's crucial to engage with empathy and build trust. Begin by establishing rapport through open-ended questions that acknowledge their concerns. Actively listen to their hesitations, which may stem from fears or misinformation. Finally, provide evidence-based information to address these concerns and reassure them about the benefits of vaccinations for their children.