Why don't they do the BCG injection in the leg?! So the scaring isn't seen?

[omikron]

My friend has just mentioned this and we can't work out why they wouldn't do it in the leg?!

I had my smallpox jabs in my lower back, "so that the scars would not be visible when she wears a bikini". Needless to say, by the time I was an adult, bikinis were much skimpier than they had been, so my scars are actually much more obvious than they would be had I been jabbed on my upper arm. Same for my friend who had her smallpox jabs on her upper thigh for the same reason. Another friend had them on the sole of her foot. Hers are never visible!

I have a massive scar on my arm from the BCG at 13. My dc who had BCG at 6m, also on their arms, also have substantial scars. All three of us had the huge boil reaction, with explosions of gunk resulting in raw, tender wounds. Not infections. It would have been much harder to keep wounds on legs clean and exposed to the air.

What's wrong with a scar?

Ah! The scar on the sole of my foot is smallpox then, not BCG...

Soles of your feet? I don’t think I’d like that at all. And then when it’s healing you’d have to step on it a million times a day. Makes sense for the scar though. I hate my TB scar.
Only one of my children has it as it depends where you live now and we moved about a mile away and changed London boroughs. I feel pretty bad for her as it’s just so noticeable. I guess if she’d had it on her leg though it might have rubbed against the nappy for the weeks / months it was an open sore?

No scar on arm here. But DC don’t need to have them in our town now so hopefully not a worry anyway

nothing wrong with a scar.
but my bcg scar is large and ugly.

Most injections are given into the deltoid these days (arm) to avoid the risk of damaging the sciatic nerve.

I have a very small scar on my left arm ,my Dad has a large indented scar what would that have been ,smallpox?

Upper outer quadrant cptart!I remember drawing diagrams as a student nurse!

The deltoid also has more blood vessels apparently, so better uptake and distribution of the vaccine.

I.think one of the reasons we gave injections in the upper buttocks was because some patients had regular "depot " injections (mental health) and there was a risk of scar tissue we used to alternate the sides ie right buttock left buttock etc .

Cookit, smallpox vaccine would have been given before most babies could walk. But in the foot can't have been pleasant!

Ive never had a bcg jab. My siblings did but me and my younger dbro never have. I didnt know they were still done.

Most injections are given into the deltoid these days (arm) to avoid the risk of damaging the sciatic nerve.

BCG is subcutaneous, not intramuscular.

I had the BCG jab when I was a baby (I'm old and my parent had TB).

I have a small scar on my arm which I've never given a second thought to.

The six pricks!!

Mines on my arm, but it’s covered by tattoo so not visible anyway, so I’m not so sure about the medical professionals looking for it thing

I had a huge reaction to the 6 needle test (and still have the scar from that). I remember being rushed to the chest clinic for an X ray the same day ( by the geography teacger- I bet she was thrilled). I didn't need the BCG vax and was told I probably had tb as a small child but it just looked like a cough. My sister reacted in exactly the same way, so that sounds likely. We were brought up in a poor area of the East Midlands in the 60s.

I had the jab in the mid 90’s at school.
Big mark on my arm which oozed green puss. The scar was raised for years but is actually pretty flat and hard to notice now.

BCG is intrademal, not subcutaneous. But the main reason for it given in the arm is convenience.