16 week vaccinations

[Hoosey]

DS2 had his 16 week jabs today at 10am. He then slept for 4 hours and has been screaming almost solidly since 2pm. He’s had his second dose of Calpol and his temperature isn’t going above 37.3, he’s just so miserable. Is this normal? I can only see guidance related to allergic reactions and fevers and some guidance about irritability. But this seems quite extreme. I tried to speak to our GP but they aren’t available and 111 won’t take over until the surgery closes at 6. Am I being overly worried or is this abnormal. It is a really clear pain cry.

From what I've heard, that can be a normal reaction. All babies react differently though. I think the 8 week and 16 week ones are particularly bad as they are the meningitis ones.
How's he getting on now?

111 dismissed it as fussiness but he had a strange episode at about 2am and ended up in hospital. It was a hypotonic-hyporesponsive reaction to the vaccination so we’re lucky we took him in. He seems to be doing well now thankfully.

Oh my goodness! I'm glad he's ok.

Can I ask if you will be continuing with further vaccinations such as the 1year vaccine? I'm going to be crucified on here but my LO is due his 16 week vaccines and I'm considering cancelling the appointment. I'm a little wary of the dangers of vaccination and the 16 week ones are just second doses of the 8 week ones anyway. My LO did not fare well with his 8 week vaccinations. He's absolutely fine now but I'm terrified of going back to square one with his wellbeing.

Doctors make you feel so ridiculous for even being concerned but they are essentially injecting babies with poison. Hearing your experience has definitely cemented my unease.

We haven’t had the detailed conversation about that, the full conversation will happen in an outpatient clinic. The very outline plan at the moment is that he will have the others in hospital and be kept in overnight. I would still like him to have the others. I’ve had Meningitis, for example, and it was brutal. H-H reactions are seemingly very rare and we were very unlucky. What I do think really needs to happen though is better information for both parents and HCPs on what exactly to look for in a vaccine reaction. 111 said he was just fussy and even the first doctor and the nurses who saw him at the hospital thought he was fine. Thankfully he has a H-H episode in front of a second doctor who realised what it was. They all admitted they had never seen it before and were more used to high fevers and fits as a reaction to vaccines.

I definitely agree with there needing to be more information about vaccine reactions. So many parents spend days/weeks following vaccines worried sick.

Glad your LO is ok.

Hello, this happened to my 9 week old at her 8 week vaccines. Did you carry on your other vaccines? I’m so scared for the 12 and 16 week ones too. She came back around by the time we got to a&e but it was so scary.