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.

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Yoh Daniel, this is the kind of thing I wish more people were building. In my shop I see it every day, parents come in with a cheap Android, 2GB of RAM, half the storage full of WhatsApp, and a clinic card folded up in the back of the phone case. The fact that it does the maths on the phone and saves your ticks offline is the real winner, because data is the silent killer of good ideas in this country. Lerato is right about the rural angle too, but even here in Soweto people share one phone in a household, so anything that loads once and just works after that is gold.

Quick thought, have you made it easy to add the next jab date to the phone calendar so it pings them, even when they are offline?

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Yoh, the folded clinic card in the back of the phone case, you have described half the country there.

Honest answer, not yet. Right now it does all the dates and the ticks offline, and you can print or save the PDF, but there is no one tap add to calendar. That is a really good shout though, because a small calendar file for the next visit would ping a parent through the phone’s own calendar app with no data needed, which is exactly the offline win you are talking about.

Let me look at adding an add the next jab to your calendar button. I think it is very doable and it fits the whole point of the tool, so thanks for the nudge bra.

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Right, done. Your nudge got me to build it the same evening.

There is now an Add upcoming visits to calendar button on the tool. You tap it, it makes a small calendar file right there on the phone, no data needed, and adds every visit that is still coming up. Each one gets a reminder the morning before, so the phone pings the parent even when they are offline. If you import it again later it just updates the same dates instead of making duplicates.

Give it a go on one of your cheap Androids in the shop and tell me if it drops straight into the calendar app the way it should. Thanks for the idea bra.