New tool: a child immunisation schedule calculator for SA parents

Health and wellbeing
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I have added another free tool to the site, this one for parents of young children.

The clinic card lists vaccines by age, like “6 weeks”, “6 months” and “18 months”, which is fine until you are trying to remember what is actually due and when. So this tool does the maths for you. You enter your child’s date of birth and it turns the official South African schedule into real calendar dates, every clinic visit from birth to twelve years, the vaccines given on each day, and which visit is coming up next.

A few things worth knowing about it.

The data is the EPI-SA revised schedule that took effect in January 2024, taken from the National Department of Health, so it shows the current wording, the combined measles and rubella vaccine at 6 and 12 months and the Tdap booster at 6 and 12 years, not the older measles only version.

It flags the timing rules that matter, like the rotavirus vaccine that must not be given after 24 weeks.

You can tick off each dose as your child gets it, and the ticks are remembered on your own device, and you can print the list or save it as a PDF to keep with the Road to Health booklet.

Two honest notes. The state schedule is shown by default, and it is given free at government clinics. You can now switch on a toggle to also see the commonly recommended private extras, such as chickenpox, hepatitis A, the yearly flu shot and the meningococcal vaccines, which you pay for privately or through a medical aid, so ask your doctor about those. HPV sits in between: the state gives it free to girls in Grade 5 through a school campaign, so it is not only a private vaccine. And if a dose is ever missed, do not start over, you can switch on the overdue check to see what may be outstanding for your child’s age, then go to the clinic and a nurse will catch the schedule up. This tool is for information, it is not medical advice.

Try it here: SA Child Immunisation Schedule Calculator

If you are a parent, I would love to know if the dates line up with what your clinic told you, and whether anything is unclear or missing.

Update, 4 June 2026: added two toggles, one for the commonly recommended private extras (with HPV clarified as state funded free for girls in Grade 5), and one that checks which doses may be overdue for a child’s age using the national catch-up schedule.

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This is exactly the kind of thing parents in rural areas need, because the clinic card is confusing even for educated people. Half my learners’ parents cannot tell you when their younger children’s next jab is due, not because they do not care, just because the card is not user-friendly. The only thing I would ask is whether it works on a cheap Android with a slow data connection, because that is the reality for most families I know in Limpopo.

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Thanks Lerato, that is exactly the use case I had in mind. It should be fine on a cheap Android, the page is deliberately light, mostly text with no images or heavy scripts, so it loads small. Once it is open it does all the date maths on the phone itself, so it does not keep eating data, and your ticks are saved on the phone too. The only real data cost is that first load. If you do get a chance to try it on a slow connection in Limpopo, I would love to hear how it holds up.