8 week vaccinations

[McCheese]

My DD has her first lot of vaccinations in t-minus 7 hours!

Ive been advised to have calpol ready so I've bought the infant one with syringe.

I assumed the vaccinations weren't live so wouldn't actually make her poorly?

[octoberfarm]

I couldn't speak to whether or not they're live vaccines but at the recommendation of someone else on here, we have a little routine for post-vaccination afternoons.

We come home, pop baby straight into a warm bath, massage the injection site (gently, obviously!) and have calpol at the ready for as soon as we walk through the door. Then just lots and lots of cuddles and snacks easily accessible for whoever's holding baby. I made the fatal mistake of moving our baby in a bid to locate chocolate cake when he was napping after his 8 week shots, and he screamed for ages after. So now we just do the above and stay very, very still whilst he sleeps it off! He was right as rain the next day Good luck!

[user1485639128]

All I can recommend is give calpol straight away as the nurse says and make sure you don't forget to give the other two doses every four hours. Lukewarm bath, fluids and plenty of cuddles.

My daughter ended up in hospital overnight after her 8 week injections as she became very dehydrated.

Good luck

[Atenco]

Sorry, OP, I'm anti-vaccinations so good real advice, except that I have read that calpol diminishes the effect of the vaccinations

[Nibletmum]

Take the Calpol with you to the appointment. My DS just has his last week - at our surgery they won't give the Men b vaccine unless you have it there for them to give at the same time. Not sure if this is the same practice everywhere.

DS was absolutely fine after his - a small bruise at one of the injection sites but that was it. It helps if you're breastfeeding to let them feed for comfort whilst the jabs are given. Good luck!

[user1485639128]

@Nibletmum your correct in saying they won't give the vaccine unless you have the calpol with you.

[CaptWentworth]

You wouldn't have known that my baby had his 8 week vaccines, he was fine. The nurse gave him calpol just prior to giving them and I followed that up with two doses afterwards. It's wonderful to know they have protection against some horrible preventable diseases.

[user1485639128]

@CaptWentworth can't agree with you more. A day or two upset is worth knowing that you done your best to help prevent. I could never forgive myself if my DD caught any of them.

[escorpion]

Do you bf? Not sure if they allow it in the UK as I am outside of the UK, but after the trauma of seeing my lo's first injections I did some research. BF while they administer the vaccines helps a lot!! Check out WHO guidelines. The difference was astounding, from blood curdling screams to a little whimper, he kept on bf. With regards to parecetamol, if there is no fever, studies have shown repeated doses of parecetamol can diminish the effects of vaccines. However studies showed that ome dose in 24 hrs didnt make any difference. So what I did was, when baby showed signs of discomfort some four hours later usually, I gave one dose. Baby then slept as usual and did not seem to have discomfort thereafter. I also upped breastfeeding which also helped.

[PotteringAlong]

Today 03:50 user1485639128

@Nibletmum your correct in saying they won't give the vaccine unless you have the calpol with you.

No, you're not correct. At your surgery maybe but all of mine (inc my 6 month old who had the new men b vaccine) had them without me having to have a bottle of calpol present! Why would they refuse to vaccinate your baby because you didn't have paracetamol you might not need to hand?

[Penguin13]

I think that the calpol advice is new since the meningitis vaccine was introduced as the advice changed in between DD 2.5 (who just missed out as it was introduced shortly after) and DD 5mo. They did used to advise not giving calpol beforehand as it could slightly reduce the effectiveness but this has changed. I did bring it with me as per advice but in the event the nurse said giving it within one hour of the injections would be fine though from pp's experience clearly the policy varies depending on your surgery. The reason for the new advice is that the meningitis vaccine is more likely to cause a fever although my DD was completely fine. After 30 seconds crying you wouldn't have known she had had them.

[Penguin13]

Forgot to say good luck for later!

[Stellato]

If you stagger the MenB jab the likelihood of a bad reaction is lower (apparently it reacts with the diphtheria vaccine in the TDAP in some cases). We gave DD MenB two weeks later for both the 8 and 16 week vaccinations and had no issues.

If you do stagger just give calpol for the MenB as the calpol can reduce overall vaccine efficacy due to being anti inflammatory, so isn't a good idea except for MenB.

[CaptWentworth]

I think the vaccinations get easier each time. DS particularly hated getting anything orally at his 8 week ones. So the calpol and rotavirus upset him more than the injections! By 4 months he did cry a little but it was definitely easier.

[McCheese]

Thank you for all your advice. It's good to see most of you are rightly way more worried about diseases such as polio and menagitus that a micro possibility of autism 🙄
She had a good nights sleep so that's something at least if today is a bit fraught!
I shall definitely make sure I take the calpol just in case and will also ask if I can b/f her through the injections...that's a brilliant idea

[riddles26]

As others have said, there is a high probability of fever following men b vaccination which is why paracetamol post vaccine is advised.

I took the paracetamol with me to appointment so nurse could help me give it. My daughter is ebf and I had never given anything with a syringe - if I had attempted it alone, I'm pretty certain it would have ended up all over her face instead of inside her mouth. She advised me on the best way of giving it and that was really useful.

[thepatchworkcat]

My DS has been absolutely fine after all his jabs throughout, no fever or side effects whatsoever so you might be fine, not all babies react to them.

[ImDoingLaundry]

It's because they've started (in the last few years) incorporating the MenB vaccine into the standard 8 week vaccine.

It's currently best practice but the MenB vaccine can make little ones temperatures go quite high for 24 hours.
We've been advising parents to give the first dose of calpol 10-20 minutes before the appointment, 2nd dose after 4 hours, 3rd dose after another 4 hours.

The calpol is given to prevent febrile convulsions, which can be very scary but usually don't cause any harm.

[BroccoliOnTheFloor]

If you can't bf during, try to do calpol+boob straigt after. Some surgeries have private rooms or can give you a quiet corner to calm the baby down.

Plan a day with plenty of tv for you and sleep for the baby!

[Creatureofthenight]

I'm so glad you started this thread OP, my LO is going for 8 week jabs this week and I've had no advice at all about giving paracetamol from GP. Will be popping out for Calpol later!

[orangeowls]

Sometimes they won't let you feed them during the vaccination because they may then associate feeding with pain and stop feeding properly.

I didn't have calpol with me, I gave as soon as I got home and that was fine with my health centre. (My LO has had 8 week, 12 week and is due 16 week vaccines next week.)

Calpol doesn't impact the effectiveness of the vaccination. It is for the Men B vaccine which can cause a temperature, not because it is live but because the body responds as if it has the infection. (A temperature often helps to combat illnesses as it helps to denature the proteins in the pathogens.)

The only vaccine which is live (but attenuated) is the one they swallow and you just need to be careful with nappies as it can be passed onto you when you change them.


There is no proven link between vaccinations and autism, just a lot of unfounded rumours and a doctor who lost his medical license.

[WiIdfire]

Rotavirus is a live attenuated vaccine but the others aren't. The Calpol advice is due to the new Men B vaccine which frequently causes a temperature afterwards. My nurse had some ready in case we hadn't given it (we had).

[arbrighton]

We've just been. Certainly was allowed without calpol. Although i have (attempted) to dose Ds. some went in.

He cried, went to sleep on walk home and on boob for the time since. Holding him for it wasn't that bad

[IDoDaChaCha]

I give calpol 30mins before an injection as it's established in the system by the time the injection happens. Only gave it afterwards once (the 8wk jabs) and DD was very distraught, for a day or two afterwards. Subsequent jabs having given it half an hour before have been much calmer and she's forgotten about it very quickly. Good luck if you stay calm and reassuring baby will be less bothered. The meningitis jab can make the site of the jab swell and go red but this is within normal reactions. I freaked out and took DD back to gp when this happened but she was fine. Calm, quiet, lots of love and reassurance. Don't let baby see you look distressed, they make connections between our reactions and events.

[confused123456]

We were told after certain ones that they need to have calpol. But mostly it's only if they need it. We were very lucky, after all his injections, including his bcg at the 6 week check, our ds never got a temperature or anything, so he never needed it.

[IDoDaChaCha]

confused calpol is recommended for the pain. Ibuprofen liquid is for raised temperature. DD bled from her first injection sites and was visibly in pain. She wouldn't have been OK without calpol.