Vaccinations get missed for many reasons: the child was often ill, the family moved, or the parents simply had doubts. The good news is that a missed vaccination is almost always a solvable task — and it is never too late to deal with it.
Why vaccinations end up missed
The most common reasons are acute illnesses on the appointed date, moves, lost documents, and sometimes a deliberate refusal the parents later reconsidered. None of these situations calls for excuses: the doctor's job is not to judge the past but to build your child's protection from today onwards.
The main rule of catch-up vaccination
As a rule, an interrupted course of vaccination is not restarted: the doses already given keep their value, and the course continues from where it stopped, observing the minimum intervals. This is the general principle, but the specific scheme — which doses and when — is set by the doctor: much depends on your child's age, the documents and their state of health.
How the individual plan is built
At the appointment the pediatrician studies the vaccination documents, checks them against Georgia's national schedule (set by ministerial order №52/n of 13 July 2023) and notes the gaps. Then a plan is drawn up: which vaccinations come first, at what intervals, and what can be combined into one visit.
When a vaccination is postponed
There are situations in which vaccination is temporarily postponed — an acute illness with a fever, for example. This is not a refusal of the vaccination but a change of date: the doctor will find a new time when your child is ready. All questions about contraindications are resolved only at an in-person consultation.
Keep the age limits in mind too: some vaccines have a maximum age beyond which they are either unnecessary or given under a different scheme. So it is better not to drag out the catch-up: the earlier the pediatrician goes through the documents, the simpler and shorter the plan will be.
If vaccinations were done in another country
A common situation for families after a move: some vaccinations were done under another country's schedule, and the vaccine names in the records don't match the Georgian ones. This is solvable: the pediatrician will map the records onto Georgia's national schedule and determine what is already done and what is missing. Bring every document to the appointment, even incomplete ones or ones written in another language.
If the documents are entirely lost, don't try to reconstruct the list from memory on your own: the doctor will ask you questions, assess your child's age and propose a safe course of action. In some cases, to clarify protection against specific infections, a laboratory antibody test may be needed — the doctor decides this individually.
How not to lose the schedule again
- after each vaccination, check that the date and vaccine name have been entered in the card;
- photograph the vaccination card after every visit and keep copies in the cloud;
- mark the date of the next vaccination straight into your phone calendar with a reminder;
- when travelling or moving, carry the original card with you in your hand luggage.
What to do right now
- gather every vaccination document you can find, including photos of cards and stickers;
- write down what you remember about any past reactions to vaccinations;
- book an appointment with the pediatrician — no special “preparation” is needed, going through the documents is the first task;
- once the plan is drawn up, mark the dates in your calendar so the new vaccinations don't get lost.