Do Both Parents Have to Consent to Vaccinations? It Depends.

If you don't have a custody order, it's likely that either parent can consent to the child getting vaccinated. Your child's pediatrician may not seek consent from both parents.

However, in a divorce or custody case, the court specifies whether one or both parents have the right to make medical decisions for the child going forward. You have to follow the order.

What are vaccines?

A vaccine helps someone fight off a specific disease. Vaccines for various diseases have been mass-produced for about a hundred years, and new vaccines are invented as needed.

For example:

• Vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis were developed separately in the early 20th century, and since the 1940s, these three vaccines have usually been administered together. You'll hear it called the DTaP vaccine.
• The HPV vaccine prevents a sexually transmitted infection that causes cervical cancer. It's given to young teens (boys and girls).
• After covid appeared in 2020, scientists took about a year to develop and widely distribute the covid vaccine for adults, and regulators took about another year to approve it for use in children.

Does a vaccine stop you from catching a disease?

Some vaccines have long-term effect and usually prevent you from getting a disease altogether. Widespread vaccination of this type can result in eradicating the virus.

For example, smallpox was once an extremely contagious disease, and one-third of the people who got it died. However, because of a widespread vaccination effort, no one anywhere in the world has gotten smallpox since the 1970s, and no one needs to be vaccinated for it anymore because the virus isn't spreading.

Other vaccines have short-term effect. They help your body fight off the virus if you're exposed to it. Though you may still catch the disease, when you have less virus in your body, your symptoms may be lessened and you may be less contagious to others.

The flu vaccine works like this. What we think of as "the flu" is really multiple viruses that are always mutating. The flu shot (even if it doesn't exactly match the version of the virus you catch) helps you fight off the flu. It's recommended to get an updated flu shot every year.

Who can get a vaccine?

Scientists design vaccines to be safe for people with normal immune systems. Some vaccines are recommended for babies and others are only intended for older children, given that a child's immune system develops as they grow.

Your doctor will know at which age your child can receive a specific vaccine. Their office may notify you automatically when it's time.

Immunocompromised people may be told to avoid certain vaccines. They also need to avoid getting sick during the course of their normal day at school or work, so they depend on other people making an effort not to spread disease (e.g., by staying home if they're sick or by getting vaccinated). If your child has a weakened immune system, their medical specialist can advise you what to do.

Most health insurance policies cover the cost of basic vaccines.

When your child reaches the age of majority (usually 18), they can make their own decisions about vaccinations.

Since some diseases are found only in certain areas (e.g., mosquitoes carry yellow fever only in certain parts of Africa, Central America and South America), you don't have to seek a vaccine for them unless you live there or will be traveling there. Travel clinics can advise you.

Married parents and vaccinations

People often have opinions about which members of their family should or shouldn't get vaccinated. For example, if one parent is immunocompromised and is worried about getting sick but can't be vaccinated, they may want their child to be vaccinated to reduce the chances that they'll bring a certain virus home from school.

Married parents who haven't been to court for a child custody issue are typically assumed to share legal custody of their child, including the right to make their medical decisions. This means that both of them (separately or together) can decide whether to vaccinate their child.

When married parents disagree about the child's vaccination, they may simply delay making a vaccination appointment. They may understand themselves as not yet having made a final decision about whether their child will ever receive that vaccine. Since vaccines are preventive, on any given day it may seem there's no rush and that the parents can make a decision "tomorrow."

One way to end an argument is for both of you to agree you'll stop trying to "be right" about vaccination and instead will simply follow the pediatrician's recommendation about whether, when and how to vaccinate your child.

Divorced parents and vaccinations

In a divorce or another case involving child custody, a court will determine a legal custody arrangement. Legal custody refers to the right to make major decisions for your child, typically including healthcare as well as education and religion. This is standard procedure, regardless of whether it was a divorce over vaccines or whether the couple split for some other reason.

Joint legal custody means you have to make these major decisions together or at least consult each other. Sole legal custody means only one of you will make the decisions, likely with no requirement to consult the other.

Sometimes the court gets a bit more specific. For example, a court could give two parents joint responsibility for all major parenting decisions, except that one parent could receive sole responsibility for the child's healthcare decisions. A court might do this because both parents agreed to it or because the court found that one parent couldn't be relied upon to make good medical decisions.

When you prepare for court, write a parenting plan (separately or together) with important details. This communicates your wishes to the other parent and to the court. If the court finds it will serve the child's best interests, your proposal is likely to be approved.

You can customize this to fit your situation with Custody X Change.

A court (or a child support agency) could order either or both parents to pay for the child's health insurance. This would likely be based on their ability to pay. The obligation to pay for health insurance is separate from the right to make medical decisions.

Joint legal custody and vaccinations

If one parent wants to vaccinate the child, they have to consult the other parent who shares joint legal custody with them.

Your child's pediatrician may request signoff from both parents before any invasive medical procedure on your child. They may do this if they know you've received a court order giving you joint responsibility for healthcare decisions.

Sole legal custody and vaccinations

Tell your child's pediatrician if you've received sole responsibility for healthcare decisions. Give the doctor's office a copy of your court order. They may have a way to put an alert on your child's medical records so that, if the noncustodial parent tries to make a medical decision, the doctor is aware that this would violate the court-ordered arrangement.

A parent who's authorized to make their child's medical decisions is expected to take this responsibility seriously. The purpose is to help keep the child healthy. While a parent can make many choices, they can't choose to neglect their child medically. Medical neglect could involve denying the child access to a doctor (including by refusing to pay), not following the doctor's advice or not administering prescribed medication.

If the noncustodial parent suspects that the custodial parent is committing medical neglect, they can take them back to court to modify the legal custody arrangement.

Vaccines in custody disputes

Even if one parent has sole custody, the other is generally allowed to call the doctor to request their child's medical information. That's because a parent who loses custody is still a legal parent, and their basic parental rights include the right to access their child's medical records.

Neither parent should withhold medical information from the other. That can be a basis for one parent to take the other back to court.

If you use the Custody X Change app, you can store your child's vaccination dates for each type of vaccine in the "child info" tool. If the other parent also subscribes, you can link accounts to share this info.

You can customize this to fit your situation with Custody X Change.

However, if a parent's rights have been terminated, they're no longer a legal parent. This happens in stepparent and second-parent adoptions and sometimes in abuse cases. The former parent is no longer entitled even to know whether the child has been or will be vaccinated.

The easiest way to manage co-parenting

Regardless of how you choose to co-parent, a parenting app is an invaluable asset.

The Custody X Change online app has the tools you need to stay on top of all the moving parts of co-parenting.

• Create a parenting plan to set expectations for both parents.
• Make a parenting time schedule that meets your child's needs.
• Keep a custody journal to make note of your child's behavior and interactions with your co-parent.
• Message your co-parent to encourage civil conversation.

You can customize this to fit your situation with Custody X Change.

Whether you're collaborating or doing your own thing, Custody X Change can help.