Frantically, I shot out of bed. My stomach was in knots, as it often was during those first few months of motherhood. My imagination on overdrive, I braced for the worst. I bent over my newborn’s crib and placed my hand on her chest. With a sigh of relief, I watched it move up and down.

Earlier that day, my infant daughter had received yet another round of what felt like endless vaccinations. I was an anxious, postpartum mess. I bawled each time the doctor poked her squishy thigh.

When Rachel Adams-Kaplan heard that the Covid-19 vaccines would soon be available for her children, she knew she would get her 7-year-old son vaccinated right away. She wasn’t so sure about her 11-year-old daughter.

Children between 5 and 11 years of age began getting Covid-19 shots last week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.82% and BioNTech SE’s BNTX -1.32% vaccine for that age group. Some 900,000 children in that age group had received a first dose through Wednesday, White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said.

After the data submitted by Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine for children received a thumbs up by the FDA panel last week, the anticipated nudging of parents began.

Anthony Fauci said, “Even though the chances of (a child) getting sick and seriously ill are small, why do you want to take a chance of that with your child, when you can essentially protect the child by an intervention that is proven to be both highly effective and very safe?”