What happened to my baby???? Adult needle used for immunisations.

[MyRubyEagle]

When my youngest daughter received her first lot of vaccinations, I knew straight away that something was wrong.

The needle went in and then they injected her but then clear fluid started to spill from her leg followed by blood.

This was nothing like I had ever seen on my other child’s vaccinations, and so I asked what was happening. They said that someone had attached an adult needle. Obviously my baby was screaming at the time and they said we were fine to leave. I think I was in shock about it, so I just left but am now wondering how this can have happened? I have no medical knowledge so I’m wondering if anyone can explain how they ended up using the wrong needle.

This happened a while ago but it’s been on my mind lately. Can anyone help?

its not unheard of blunt fills being used...

There’s a difference between needles used for vaccinations and needles used to take blood. Obviously babies and adults have different sized veins / arteries so different sized needles are used to withdraw blood.

There aren't adult and child sized needles for IM injections - needles come in different size gauges which are colour coded, and blue needles are used for IM injections for adults and children. Because babies are much smaller, the needles can look huge in comparison, though, especially if you're already nervous. If you think a mistake was made, you can ask your GP or health visitor to look back at the records and go through things with you - that might give you some reassurance.

Some blood after an injection is quite common, and can sometimes be due to a capillary (small blood vessel) being burst under the skin. This isn't really preventable or predictable, but also isn't a big problem - while it can look like a lot of bleeding, it's not really and usually stops pretty quickly with some pressure.

For the person mentioning butterfly needles, the needle gauge uses the same colour coding so the sizes aren't for adults or children - a butterfly needle is one with a different grip and tubing attached. They're often used for tricky veins in adults and in children, as they can allow for a bit more precision and control.

Small gauge needles are used for blood samples from children, so if someone is using a small gauge butterfly needle, they may be using what they normally use for children.

ii am surprised they told you