To consider splitting 12 month vaccines?

[TheGoogleMum]

A friend of mine just had her child vaccinated(12 month jabs), she didnt realise it as 4 vaccines and her child had a high temp and is now in hospital as they are worried he still isn't right 24 hours later. Apparently this isnt unusual and the 4 vaccines are a but much for some babies? I am pro vaccinating but wonder if it's kinder to split them up, but can also appreciate that getting it over with in one go might be kinder :s

High temp is very normal after vaccinations, especially the MenB. DS2 has not long had his. Had a fever on and off for 4 days, off his food, fussier than usual. Now back to normal. It really is better to get them all over and done with. If your baby is not going to react well to one of the vaccines, then they'll not react well regardless of them being done all in one go or separately. In my opinion anyway.

We split them for all our dc and it was fine. Did it over 2 appts for most and one dc had the 12 month jabs over 3 sep appts
V glad we did too as he had a nasty reaction after the last ones which was a shock as none of our dc had a reaction before or since so was scary (he was fine but it wasn’t nice)

It goes beyond normal high temp though as they went back to GP and were reccomended to go to hospital and have been there all night.

We did mmr at 12 months a month later men b then a month after that men c/hib and pcv
Then a month after that got the c pox one privately

For some reason the men c/hib and pcv ones caused a bad reaction
Other dc were all totally fine with those ones I was honestly most worried about mmr but that caused no issues whatsoever

The reaction more likely was caused by one of the vaccines than the fact they were given together. Split them if you want but there are good reasons for doing them all at once and any potential downsides have been considered by immunology experts, so I wouldn't personally.

Part of the reason they're all together is because some parents wouldn't be bothered to take the child multiple times so it wouldn't be an issue in the OP's case.

I'd split them if you're worried.

We split them - especially when they had the mmr

There is no reason to split them. It makes no difference to the immune system to be asked to respond to several vaccines together. You can have a reaction in the way of temperature to a single vaccine, and sometimes a child coincidentally becomes ill for another reason. You will gain nothing by splitting them. You need to get your information from immunology experts, not anecdotally, vaccs forums or MN

Splitting them should be fine. It can also help a bit to narrow down which jab causes problems (if any)

Sorry to hear your friend's baby is unwell and hopefully they'll be better soon, hospitals tendsto be very cautious with little ones if their fever goes very high but hopefully it is just precautionary. If your child had a bad reaction to their earlier vaccines then definitely talk to a nurse to get advice. In any event, you should make sure your baby is healthy before the vaccines; they say no fever but I think it's best with no slight cold or anything because there's a lot for little bodies to handle. I think if you can it's best to stay healthy by missing any baby groups the week before if possible and planning not to do too much in the first 2 days after. It's your baby and you need to decide what you think is best. I think it's better to get it over with but just be aware of all the dates to comfort your little one if they feel a bit ropy on and off over the following weeks. Our nurse said for some reason it's better to give Hib first and then PCV (in the same session), it sounds bonkers but research shows it's less painful for babies, so get the injections in that order!

The timing for symptoms from the vaccines varies because of natural incubation periods, so it's already all spread out and having a reaction to one bears little relation to the others. You can look up expected symptom timings online, our experience was something like within the initial day for the Meningitis B that can cause a fever though is usually controllable by calpol doses (you'll have done this twice already?), PCV and Hib/Men C are I think in the first 2 days [I don't think DS got symptoms but he had a tummy bug caught separately so we were dealing with that], MMR then has 3 times when you might get very light symptoms; measles 7-11 days after [DS got a very snotty cold, fever and rash; we expected it because my family are very vulnerable to measles but he did need a lot of cuddles and sleep for a few days plus difflam for his throat and calpol for fever] then rubella 11-13 days after [about 5 light spots for 2 days for DS but he was happy because the measles symptoms were gone], then finally mumps about 3 weeks after the vaccine [no symptoms here]. If you get chickenpox vaccine at 13 months then again symptoms about 3 weeks after the vaccine [snotty here and a couple of spots for 2 days then all gone].

My twins have just had their MMR and 16 week innoculations at the same time, so 4 inoculations in total - they are a bit older than the recommended ages but that was done with medical advice as they were preemie and low birth weight so we wanted them to be the average weight of a 1 year old before we went ahead.

Only two days after and there have been temperature fluctuations but manageable with a bit of calpol where required, appetites have gone down massively so i'm keeping them as hydrated as possible and apart from a bit of fussiness/sleepiness, they're doing fine.

Some can display high fever and to be safe the recommendation is a hospital visit to help keep the fever monitored, fluids up etc but as I'm sure a PP has mentioned, they are very cautious with babies and toddlers. If you can afford to pay privately for the split injections then i'd suggest a conversation with your DC's GP and if they can't see any viable reason not to, then do .

I was very nervous when told my twins would be getting their MMR alongside their 16 week jabs and I'm currently being rather twitchy with the thermometer but they seem to be doing fine so far :D

You cannot get single vaccines on the NHS so would need to pay if you wanted to split but also be aware that it isn't that simple. When I tried I couldn't get the measles as a single vaccine (none available in the country at the time not sure if there is now) so I had to have it as the combined.

YANBU if that would make you feel more comfortable. As a PP said, they’re all given together for convenience.

Personally, if my child had a reaction, I’d like to know which vaccine they reacted to so I could be prepared for future boosters etc.

We split them as well with no issues

With both of mine they asked if I wanted to split as I had seizures after the measles vaccine (single vaccine) as a child so my children are apparently at increased risk of febrile convulsions. I went just ahead as per the schedule and they were fine. Dc1 didn't get the Men B vaccine as he was just born before they rolled it out. Dc2 did and had temperature issues, took 3 days for her temperature to return to normal but no seizures. Based on her responses to all her vaccines, I think it's just the Men B she reacts with and so splitting them would have meant she still would have had the temperature after that one regardless.

My kid got 5 jabs - I elected to give him the chicken pox one at the same time. He was fine. I will do the same for my next baby. I wouldn't split, I'd always rather get them done asap so they're covered. What happened to your friend is quite uncommon, I wouldn't let that put you off.

It's partly convenience and partly to ensure that the baby isn't exposed to the illness when they are unprotected. Splitting them gives rise to a higher risk of exposure. Still not a high risk but as the research is on the side of there being nothing gained from splitting them (ie. the "immune system overload" has not been perceived with the vaccination schedule), as I said, I don't see that the risk/benefit analysis pays off.

I thought 3 of the vaccines at 12 months were actually boosters and the last one was the MMR. If they were fine with the first and second doses (8, 12 and 16 weeks vaccine) they would be fine with the booster which has less adverse effects than the original dose.

So splitting up the vaccines wont help reduce the chance of a reaction as only one I thought was new and having it on its own wont reduce the chance of a reaction.

In any case there are actually numerous scientific studies showing spreading out the vaccines has no positive benefit to the child but there are factual negative benefits including more NHS resources and unprotected by vaccines for longer.

I can see why you're worried as it's close to home but vaccine reaction like this is very very rare and may even be unconnected (it is very common for a 1 year old to get unexplained temperatures)

@richteasandcheese how did you split them?