HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -National Infant Immunization Week is April 24-30 and events will be taking place statewide to encourage parents to stay up to date on their child’s vaccinations.

National Infant Immunization Week serves as a reminder about the importance of staying on track and ensuring infants are up to date on recommended childhood vaccines.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, remind parents that now is the time to make sure that your children are up to date on their well-child appointments and routine vaccinations following disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

NIIW highlights the importance of protecting children two years and younger from vaccine-preventable diseases.

On-time vaccination is critical to providing protection against potentially life-threatening diseases.

“So one of the first things we’re really trying to make sure is that all children are up to date on all of their vaccines, including the polio vaccine,” said Dr. Thomas Murray, Yale Pediatrics Infectious Diseases Physician.

Children routinely receive vaccines that protect them against 14 diseases in the first two years of life, and staying on track and receiving all their vaccinations in a timely fashion helps protect them and their communities by preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases.

“I do feel like regular vaccinations are a good thing. It not only protects our kids and us it protects everybody around us who maybe can’t get vaccinated because they have an autoimmune disorder or something like that, said Jennifer Dube, a mother of two kids.