Cocooning your baby

Cocooning ia a way of protecting babies from catching diseases from people around them. Cocooning is important because babies under 6 months are too young to receive all the vaccines that are necessary to protect them from dangerous disease.  You can provide indirect protection by making sure that anyone around the baby is vaccinated against whopping cough, influenza and other vaccine preventable diseases.

What is the importance of the Tdap vaccine ?

The Tdap  vaccine protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Getting this vaccine is the best way to avoid getting whopping cough. Whooping cough is a highly  infectious respiratory infection. It is spread through sneezing  and coughing. This  infection  can be fatal in newborns. Newborns are most vulnerable because they lack the vaccine protection.

You can send friends and families a nice email telling them the importance of you having to cocoon your baby. It may feel over top for some people. However you do not want to risk your baby’s life to this deadly infection.

Getting vaccinated with Tdap is especially  important  for adults who are around the infant . These include  grandparents, nannies, babysitters and health care professionals.

NOTE

Since cocooning does not completely protect the baby from getting whooping cough, it is important to get the vaccine while you’re pregnant. This will pass some short term protection to the baby until she gets her own vaccine .