At my son's recent well-child visit, our pediatrician said three little words that made me breathe a sigh of relief: "No shots today." No shots meant no tears and likely an easier dropoff at day care after our appointment. After two and a half years of vaccines at nearly every checkup, it was a welcome break from the needles.
Still, I double-checked with the nurse. Lately, my social media feed has been filled with folks lamenting how many vaccines children get before kindergarten, so I had braced myself for a slew of shots at his appointment. My son was all caught up for the moment, she assured me, which made me wonder: Just how many vaccines does a child get in their lifetime, and is it really dozens more than I received as a baby in the '80s?
To get to the bottom of this question, I spoke with a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and a public health expert to better understand the childhood vaccine schedule and what forces have shaped it over the past few decades.
- Kids today get more vaccines than they did in the '80s or '90s because there are more vaccines available now to protect against more diseases.
- The immunization schedule provides protection against 15 or 16 diseases. Children may get more than 15 or 16 shots by age 2, though, because some vaccinations require multiple doses to provide immunity.
- Getting multiple vaccines at once is safe; children encounter way more immune-triggering components in their daily lives than they do from vaccines.
Do kids get more vaccines than they used to?
The short answer is yes. Kids today get more vaccines than they did in the '80s or '90s, when many of their parents were growing up.[1] Looking back even further, '80s babies like me got more shots than our parents did in the '50s or '60s. Here's a bit more about the history of childhood vaccinations:
Vaccines in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
Just a couple of generations ago, most people were vaccinated against five diseases. My own parents, for example, who were both born in 1949, got diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis immunizations (via the combination DTaP shot) like me and my kids. They were also among the first to receive the polio vaccine, which became available in 1955.
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Polio was eradicated in the U.S. in 1979, but before the vaccine, it killed or paralyzed more than a half million people every year, many of them children.[2] Kids today still get the polio vaccine because the disease remains in other parts of the world.
My parents' generation was also vaccinated against smallpox, a highly contagious virus that killed about a third of the people it infected.[3] Public health experts phased out that shot in the early '70s once vaccination rates were high enough to wipe out the disease.
Vaccines in the 1980s and 1990s
By the time I was born in the late '80s, kids were being vaccinated against eight diseases. I got the DTaP and polio shots like my parents, but I also received the combination measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine and the hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine.
Hib, by the way, can cause serious and sometimes deadly infections like meningitis and infectious arthritis.[4] And before the MMR vaccine, the trio of diseases it protects against were infecting more than 700,000 people each year, causing death in some cases and permanent brain damage in others.[5]
Vaccines today
Fast-forward to 2025, and young kids are vaccinated against 15 or 16 diseases. There's still the DTaP, MMR, polio and Hib shots. They now also get vaccines for hepatitis A and B, varicella (chickenpox), rotavirus and pneumococcal disease, as well as annual shots to protect against the flu and COVID-19 once they're at least 6 months old. And some babies will get the RSV vaccine if their mom didn't receive it during pregnancy or they have certain risk factors.
Kids can get more than 15 or 16 shots by age 2, though, because some vaccinations require multiple doses to provide immunity. The DTaP vaccine is one example: It requires five doses, four of them before age 2, in order to fully protect kids against these diseases.[6] Other vaccines — the flu and COVID-19 shots, specifically — happen annually to protect kids against seasonal strains of the viruses. Babies need two doses of the influenza vaccine and two or three doses of the COVID-10 vaccine when they get them for the first time in order to get full immunity.
All told, kids who follow the recommended vaccine schedule may get as many as 27 shots by age 2. The exact number will vary a bit depending on factors like what time of year a baby is born (whether they're born during flu season, for example), which brand of vaccine they receive (Vaxelis combines DTaP, polio, HiB, and HepB, for example) and which shots their mother received during pregnancy.
This may change, though. Scientists are working to create more combined vaccines (like the DTaP and MMR shots) that can protect against more diseases with fewer needles. And it's possible some vaccines may eventually be phased out if their corresponding diseases are completely eradicated, like smallpox was decades ago
Why do kids get more vaccines than they used to?
Simply put: Kids get more shots now because there are more vaccines available to protect against more diseases.
"As medicine has continued to advance, researchers and clinicians have discovered better ways to protect children against more diseases, resulting in the development of more vaccines," says Wassim Ballan, M.D., a board-certified pediatric infectious diseases specialist and associate director of the Infection Prevention Program for Phoenix Children's.
Over the years, scientists have targeted diseases that pose the highest risk to people, Dr. Ballan adds, either because they're very infectious, cause serious illness (or death) or both. We now have a chickenpox vaccine, for example, because the disease used to infect 4 million people per year, landing tens of thousands in the hospital, mostly children.[7]
"We now have the ability to protect children against more diseases than ever before," says Jessica Steier, Dr.P.H., P.M.P., a public health expert and CEO of Unbiased Science. "Several decades ago, we could only protect against a handful of serious illnesses like polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Today, we can prevent numerous additional diseases that previously caused significant childhood suffering, disability and death."
Do doctors and pharmaceutical companies push vaccines for money?
You don't have to look too far on social media to find more sinister theories about vaccines. Some influencers claim, for example, that the additional shots kids are getting these days produce profits for pharmaceutical companies, or that pediatricians push vaccines because they get kickbacks from these companies for doing so. Neither claim has any evidence to support it.
Myth: Pediatricians get financial kickbacks from pushing vaccines
"Vaccines provide no monetary benefit to pediatricians," Dr. Ballan says. "As pediatricians, we recommend vaccines because they are what’s best for our patients."
In fact, a 2009 study in Pediatrics found that more than half of pediatric practices either break even or lose money on providing vaccines due to the cost of purchasing, storing and administering them.[8] A more recent 2017 study in Academic Pediatrics found similar financial struggles tied to vaccines for healthcare providers.[9]
Myth: Big pharma makes more vaccines so it can make more money
As for big pharma? "Vaccines actually make up only about 8% of pharmaceutical industry revenue, a tiny fraction compared to chronic disease medications," Steier says. "Treating preventable diseases like hepatitis B or HPV-related cancers generates far more revenue."
She offers the example of the hepatitis B vaccine, which was added to the childhood vaccine schedule in the '90s: "A complete three-dose series of hepatitis B vaccine costs $81 total ($27 per dose), while the annual cost of medications to treat hepatitis B infection averages $11,500. The economics clearly don't support the narrative that vaccines are pushed for profit."
Is it safe for kids to get multiple vaccines at once?
With the current vaccine schedule, it's possible for a baby or toddler to get up to six shots at one well-child visit. Is that safe?
For generally healthy kids, yes. Getting multiple vaccines at once is safe and well within their body's ability to handle.
A child's immune system can handle many more antigens than the amount found in vaccines
Antigens are the parts of a germ that the immune system responds to. "A healthy child's immune system is capable of responding to thousands of antigens simultaneously," Steier says. "Research estimates that a baby could theoretically respond to 10,000 vaccines at once based on their immune system's capacity."[10]
The handful of vaccine antigens given at a single visit is much smaller than the microbes babies encounter daily from their environment, food and even breastfeeding, she adds.
Dr. Ballan agrees: "Our immune systems encounter a huge number of pathogens on a daily basis," he explains. "The immune system is equipped to handle this. Vaccines will not overwhelm your immune system because our immune systems are exposed to more than that every day."
Vaccines only target specific immune cells, not the entire immune system
It may be helpful to know that each vaccine isn't necessarily triggering a response from the entire immune system, which is made up of trillions of immune cells.
"When a particular pathogen enters our body — like a harmless form in a vaccine — only the handful of immune cells that are specific for that pathogen will respond and the rest remain at ease waiting for their target to enter the body," Steier says. "The saying 'too many too soon' is simply untrue based on the fact that the immune system is composed of trillions of cellular specialists who only engage when their target has entered the body."
There are fewer antigens in today's vaccines than before
Vaccines today expose kids to far fewer antigens, or immune-triggering components, than they did in the past. "For example, in 1980, the smallpox, polio, DTaP and MMR vaccines contained over 3,000 antigens combined," Steier says. "Today's entire childhood vaccine schedule contains only about 320 antigens in total while protecting against more diseases, making them safer and more refined than before."
What about vaccine side effects?
"Children might experience temporary, mild side effects like fever or soreness at the injection site but those are signs the immune system is properly reacting to the vaccine," Dr. Ballan says. And if they happen, he says, they're much better than the alternative: "Any adverse effects seen with vaccines continue to be less common and severe than the infection itself."
Common side effects of the MMR vaccine, for example, include a fever and a mild rash, while the actual measles virus can cause pneumonia, brain damage and even death.[11]
Serious vaccine side effects are rare, and when they do occur, they usually show up within minutes of getting a vaccine; research shows that for most immunizations, only one or two people experience a severe allergic reaction for every million doses given.[12]
"Multiple large-scale studies involving millions of children have consistently demonstrated that vaccines are safe and that the benefits far outweigh the potential risks," Steier says.
Is it okay to delay or skip some vaccines?
Neither Dr. Ballan nor Steier recommends delaying or skipping vaccines if your child is generally healthy.
"The vaccine schedule is developed by a group of medical and public health experts, primarily the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Dr. Ballan explains.
The ACIP experts review extensive safety and effectiveness data, Steier says, and they consider many factors to determine the optimal timing for each vaccine dose, including:
- When children are most vulnerable to specific diseases
- How well their immune systems respond at different ages
- How to provide protection when it's needed most
- How to minimize the number of visits and shots needed
"Following the recommended schedule is important because it's carefully designed to protect children when they're most vulnerable," Steier says. "Delaying vaccines leaves children unprotected during the periods they're most likely to be harmed by these diseases."
That said, there may be medical exceptions for children with certain health conditions, in which case, a health care provider can determine the safest approach for that individual child.
"Instead of refusing a vaccine for your child, I recommend parents talk to their pediatrician about the vaccine and what to expect after your child receives it," Dr. Ballan says.
No one would argue that vaccines are fun for kids or their parents. But Dr. Ballan says there are a few ways to make them more tolerable: "To make the experience as easy on your child as possible, you can provide comfort aids like a favorite toy or blanket, which can also serve as a distraction technique. After the vaccine, consider providing small rewards and praise."
FAQ
How many vaccines do children get?
Young kids today are vaccinated against 15 or 16 diseases. Children can get more than 15 or 16 shots by age 2, though, because some vaccinations require multiple doses to provide immunity.
Do doctors get financial kickbacks from pushing vaccines?
No, vaccines provide no monetary benefit to practicing doctors. Research shows that more than more than half of pediatric practices either break even or lose money by providing vaccines.
Can kids get multiple vaccines at the same time?
Yes, a child's immune system can handle many more antigens (the parts of a germ that the immune system responds to) than the amount found in vaccines. The handful of vaccine antigens given at a single visit is much smaller than the microbes kids encounter on a regular basis from their environment.
Yes 
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