What You Need to Know

What You Need to Know

• COVID-19 can make children—including babies and infants—very sick. It can sometimes require treatment in a hospital.
• You can protect your baby, toddler, or child from COVID-19 by making sure they stay up to date with all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses.
• The COVID-19 vaccines approved in the U.S. are safe, effective, and recommended for all eligible children, including babies and toddlers 6 months of age or older.
• Your child can't get COVID-19 from any COVID-19 vaccine, including the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines.
• The vaccines cannot cause fertility issues for your child, and the vaccines cannot change their DNA.
• Your child may get a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines at the same visit or at separate visits, without any waiting period between vaccines.

Keep Your Child Safe From COVID-19

COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool to keep babies, toddlers, and children and teens of all ages safe from COVID-19 and its complications.

Getting eligible children vaccinated against COVID-19 can help keep them:

• From getting really sick if they do get COVID-19
• In school or daycare
• Safely participating in sports, playdates, and other group or family activities

Just like adults, babies, toddlers, and children of all ages can:

• Get very sick from COVID-19
• Develop both short- and long-term health problems
• Spread COVID-19 to others, including at home and school
• Children with underlying medical conditions including diabetes, obesity, sickle cell disease, and asthma or chronic lung disease are especially at risk of getting very sick from COVID-19.

Getting Vaccinated Helps Prevent Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)

• COVID-19 vaccination reduced the likelihood of MIS-C in children ages 12–18 years by 91%. 
• Data from July to December 2021 show that 95% of children ages 12 through 18 years hospitalized with MIS-C were not vaccinated.
• Children who get COVID-19 can develop serious complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).
• MIS-C is a condition where different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.
• Since the beginning of the pandemic, thousands of cases of MIS-C have been reported, including in New York State.
• Children ages 5 through 11 years are most frequently affected by MIS-C, with almost half of all reported cases occurring in children in this age group.
• In addition, Hispanic or Latino and non-Hispanic Black children are disproportionately affected by MIS-C.

Children Can Experience Ongoing Health Problems after COVID-19

After getting COVID-19, children—including babies and toddlers—and teens can also experience a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems. These include physical and mental health complications that may occur four or more weeks after initial infection. These complications can appear after mild or severe COVID-19, or after MIS-C.

Symptoms that children and teens may experience after COVID-19 are like those seen in adults and include:

• Fatigue
• Cough
• Muscle and joint pain
• Headache
• Trouble falling or staying asleep
• Trouble concentrating

Post-COVID symptoms can affect your child’s quality of life, including:

• Limitations in physical activity
• Mental health challenges
• Feeling distressed about symptoms
• Decreased school or daycare attendance
• Missed opportunities for participation with family or in sports, playdates, or other activities

Learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine for children from trusted sources:

• 6 Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccination for Children
• Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination for Children and Teens
• Getting Children and Teens Vaccinated Against COVID-19
• COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations for Children and Teens

Vaccines available for children are based on age and health status. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are available for children 6 months of age and older, and the Novavax vaccine is available for children 12 years of age and older.  For more information, please see CDC’s information about how to Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines.

• Get tips for how to support your baby or child before, during, and after the visit.
• Talk to your child before the visit about what to expect.
• It's okay to ask questions. Talk to your child's doctor, health care provider or a trusted licensed medical professional in your community about concerns you many have. You can also visit the dedicated resources and FAQs.
• Tell the doctor or nurse about any allergies your child may have.
• Comfort your child during the appointment.
• To prevent fainting and injuries related to fainting, your child should be seated or lying down during vaccination and for 15 minutes after the vaccine is given.
• After your child’s COVID-19 vaccination, you will be asked to stay for 15–30 minutes so your child can be observed in case they have a severe allergic reaction and need immediate treatment.

Safety is a top priority in the development of any vaccine and COVID-19 vaccines are no exception. The U.S. has a robust vaccine safety system in place to ensure that all vaccines are as safe as possible. Safety is always closely monitored during clinical trials of vaccine candidates. After a vaccine is authorized or approved for use by the FDA, vaccine safety monitoring systems watch for adverse events (possible side effects). This ongoing monitoring can pick up on adverse events that may not have been seen in clinical trials. If an unexpected adverse event is seen, experts quickly study it further to see if it is a true safety concern. Experts then decide whether changes are needed in U.S. vaccine recommendations.

COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone ages 6 months and older. The FDA expanded its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines.  Millions of Americans have already been vaccinated, including millions of adolescents ages 12-17.

Possible Side Effects

Your child may not notice any changes in how they feel after getting the vaccine. But it’s also possible to feel a little “under the weather.” This can happen after any vaccine.  After the COVID-19 vaccine, your child may have:

• A sore arm where they got the shot
• A headache
• Chills
• Fever
• Tiredness
• Nausea and vomiting

These side effects are not dangerous and are just a sign of your child’s immune system doing its job. They are easily treatable with over-the-counter pain medicine and fever reducers, and usually only last for a short period of time. If your child still doesn’t feel well after two or three days, you can reach out to their health care provider.

Myocarditis and Pericarditis

Myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.  Most patients with these conditions after COVID-19 vaccination responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly. The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks, including the possible risk of myocarditis or pericarditis. 

Adverse Event Reporting

The CDC tracks adverse events using their Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is an early warning system used to monitor adverse events that happen after any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccinations. It is the frontline system of the nation's comprehensive and robust vaccine safety monitoring program. The CDC and the FDA use VAERS to help ensure all vaccines are safe.

VAERS collects reports of possible adverse events that happen after vaccination. As a condition of a vaccine’s use under Emergency Use Authorization, the FDA requires healthcare professionals to report to VAERS certain adverse events that occur after COVID-19 vaccination. However, anyone can submit a report to VAERS, including patients, family members, healthcare providers, and vaccine manufacturers, even if it isn’t clear if the vaccine caused the health problem. Learn more about VAERS.