Baby's first vaccinations in the morning

[amazedmummy]

I'm absolutely dreading it, I actually feel sick. He's sleeping so peacefully just now and I know it's going to make him cry and probably give him a fever as a minimum. I'm expecting to have a horribly upset baby for the next few days and my heart is breaking for him. I wish I could somehow take them instead.

How quickly should he be ok again?

[wintersdawn]

Neither of mine reacted to any of their injections at any point. The fever etc isn't in every case. He'll cry when it's done but a good cuddle and he'll quickly forget it.

[Miljea]

Didn't affect mine in any way. Bit cross at the moment of inoculation, but, job done.

[PhilipJennings]

Baby was outraged in the moment, baby fell asleep shortly after, baby woke up a few hours later totally over it.

First jabs are sleepy ones. Pick something you want to see on tv, it'll be the last thing you get to watch to the end for a while.

[SometimesSquircles]

My son cried before the nurse even touched him but calmed down as soon as she'd finished. He hated the 3 doses of Calpol you have to give them and cried during those but other than that he was completely fine. Good excuse for lots of cuddles. Good luck, I'm sure you'll both be fine

[Selfsettling3]

DD1 slept a bit. DD2 was fine.

Remember to take calpol with you.

[Bobbiepin]

Give the first dose of calpol before the injection, will go some way to avoiding a fever.

Remember, this is immeasurably better than meningitis.

[avocadoze]

Dd didn’t even cry. It’s fine, it really is! And your dc must be giving you sleep deprivation anyway so don’t give yourself any more by worrying about it. To be honest, each set of vaccinations was a weight off my mind, as it made my dc less vulnerable to all the various illnesses that they get protection from.

[amazedmummy]

Oh I absolutely know that getting them is the right thing to do but I'm still not looking forward to it. He is the most laid back little guy. What's the best thing to do with Calpol? Give it before or after? Or take it with me to give it immediately before/after? Sorry, I'm all in a flap.

[SocksForceFive]

Give calpol after - if you give it before it can mask a fever by artificially bringing their temperature down. Take the Calpol with you and you can give it straight away afterwards.

[neverornow]

Calpol afterwards.
It's horrible but he will be absolutely fine. My 2 cried for barely a minute. Just give him a good cuddle when it's done and he'll be A ok.
The nurse will explain everything to look out for and the calpol doses etc.

[DownWhichOfLate]

Have a treat for yourself afterwards. What time is your appointment?

[Oct18mummy]

Mine had a fever was ok by next morning. As above make sure to give the calpol.

It’s so upsetting thinking about the injections and hurting them (I’m not going to lie but I cried in the doctors surgery) but try and focus on the positives how you are protecting him from any much worse illnesses etc that could happen if he doesn’t have them- that’s what I focused on and helped me get through it (after the crying during the first lot).

Good luck to both of you x

[Wigeon]

My two cried when it was done but were fine by about 2 mins afterwards with cuddles/being fed. No fever with any of their jabs. Definitely not miserable for days either!

[pastabest]

Both of mine cried for about 4 or 5 seconds with all of their jabs and it was more a HOW DARE YOU STAB ME WITH THE JABBY THING cry than an owww I'm really hurt cry.

[carly2803]

calpol straight after (not before). I gave mine calpol while still in the room. They will be fine. Harder for us

[Xyzzzzz]

Mine really cried and I gave her calpol she had a fever but after a couple of days was back to normal. I remember when she cried I cried 🙄

[mynameiscalypso]

Yup, exactly the same as a lot of people here. No reaction other than an indignant squawk when poked with the needle and he absolutely loves calpol (I guess he's bored of the taste of milk!) so that made him happy. For all his vaccinations, we went straight to our regular baby sensory class thing and DS was fine.

[newmummy8789]

We had ours today.
I cried more than he did.
He woke up when she injected him, cried a bit, she gave him the medicine in his mouth, he stopped crying and went back to sleep!
He's been a bit grumpy since but has had an early bath and is asleep. I have calpol when we got home and before bed.
It was awful for me but nothing to him xx

[MrsWhites]

My son screamed the surgery down but only for a minute, I must admit to shedding a little tear myself too, the nurse was very nice about it. By the time we got out of the surgery he was fast asleep and stayed that way for hours. When he woke up he seemed totally over it all!

We once had a nurse that insisted on administering one jab at a time, she waited for him to settle each time and then did the next one so it went on for ages. It was awful and I felt like jabbing her with a sharp stick by the end of it. Since then I’ve always asked them to do them all one after the other as quickly as possible which is much easier!

[eddiemairswife]

I had mine before became an essential ingredient part of a baby's diet. They all (4 of them) gave an aggrieved yell and were fine afterwards.

[Bobbiepin]

Just my opinion but giving calpol 20 mins before made a world of difference to my dd (obviously speaking from my own experience only). Masking a fever isnt a concern if it is an expected vaccine fever rather than an unrelated illness. Best to avoid fever at all if possible.

[Bobbiepin]

But like always, take the advice your healthcare professional gives you!

[DownWhichOfLate]

Oh! The rotavirus medicine might make your baby have a gurgly stomach afterwards. My baby had a fever afterwards but I think he was more upset that his tummy was a bit out of sorts.

[Graphista]

Days?! Couple of hours at most!

He’ll be fine BUT if you’re tense and anxious he’ll pick up on that so you need to calm down.

What helps you?

Give calpol about an hour before, you don’t need to worry about masking this fever as it’s sort of artificially induced, be prepared to feed straight after to soothe or have dummy or whatever calms him ready.

My dd didn’t even notice! She turned to see what the nurse was doing but didn’t register the actual jab really. Nurse cleverly had a toy in other hand as distraction and waggled it at dd who smiled, meanwhile nurse finished the rest dd never even bothered her shirt.

Later jobs were worse as dd became more aware of things but distraction —bribery and corruption— worked a treat.

At least until hpv jab by which point she was too sodding wise to it all! 😂

Although I did bribe on that one too - hot choc and cake at favourite cafe after.

As an ex nurse who has seen babies and young children who weren’t vaccinated suffering the diseases they protect against I can absolutely assure you this is AS NOTHING compared to the utter terror on the faces of parents of a child with encephalitis or sepsis!

And I agree it’s best to get them all done and dusted no hesitation. I HATE hesitant nurses it helps nobody (bit of a bugbear of mine as I’m a ‘tough stick’ myself and hesitant nurses make it 100x worse! Just bloody get on with it!)

[amazedmummy]

Thanks everyone, I know I need to calm down, I'm trying. DH will also be with me so if I'm still flapping he can hold him rather than me. I'll pick up a bottle of pre-made formula in case he wants fed straight after, faffing about cooling a bottle would be an added drama. That's all I can think of to calm him down as he doesn't have a dummy and we never figured out breastfeeding.

He's a real cuddle monster so I'm hoping that might keep him happy enough. We don't have anything else planned for the day just home for cuddles. The appointment is at 9:20.