Moving to Saudi with 2 month old should I give immunisation here or there?

[Lililala]

Hi all,

As the title says I will be moving to saudi with my 2 month old baby. My husband works there and will be for the next 3 years. We are set to fly in the next 10 days.

After doing some research I found out that the immunisations given here and in saudi are not the exact same. I’m scared what the implications might be with giving my baby the 8 week immunisation in the U.K. and giving the rest in Saudi despite them not being the exact same.

Could mixing and matching different immunisations cause her harm?

On the other hand I’m also scared about taking my baby on a plane without being immunised :(

She’s 9 weeks now and didn’t get her 8 week immunisation as I wanted to think about it a bit more. GP said it’s fine for me to do it saudi as long as we don’t delay it by too much.

What would you do? This whole topic is making me feel anxious as I’m scared I’ll be putting my baby in harms way.

Thanks in advance for responses xx

I don't think mixing and matching ought to be a problem. If you're breastfeeding then it might be less of a risk as she should have some immunity from you?

I wouldn't be on a plane with an unvaccinated baby.

I'd find out if they do combined or single vaccinations in Saudi. Then you could mix and match.
Some of the differences will be due to some different health concerns being more prevalent there than in the UK,such as there focus on hepatitis vaccination from birth.

Ring your GP and ask?

I decided to give her the vaccines after speaking to our GP again. I decided ultimately I wouldn’t feel comfortable flying with her otherwise.

@BertieBotts

I don't think mixing and matching ought to be a problem. If you're breastfeeding then it might be less of a risk as she should have some immunity from you?

Breastfeeding cannot provide anything like the benefits that vaccinations can.

Hi OP,
We lived temporarily overseas, and our kids were born in Uk and then we took them back aged 8 weeks.

We were lawyas recommended to have their first vaccines before they flew, hence the 8 weeks, when we would rather have flown at 6 weeks.

We then followed the immunisation programme of the country we were in.
Keep very careful records, and if posisble transfer them into your red book. Get them translated if needed.
I just wrote most of ours in with the date (in the red book) and kept the record tucked in the back.)

Then each time we returned to the UK my GP practice nurse went through it and sorted out any gaps.

the only problem we had was with MMR, as where we were didn't do MMR for boys, only MM, and UK won't give separate vaccines to catch up on the R bit.

Mine also got some extra, eg Hep B which was good for where we were.
They also all had TB as babies.

Good luck with your posting. I lived in Jeddah as a kid, it was a fascinating place.

TB vaccine that is

Definitely do the vaccines in the UK. Getting set up there may take time and if you don't immediately have access to a doctor, your child will go longer without being immunised. You don't need that kind of stress when you get off the plane. Plus, moving to a new country, you won't have immunity to the local bugs so will possible be unwell more often than usual at first as you acclimatise.

We moved countries with 11 month old and there were a couple of jabs which were different. We got caught up with the country we were living in and paid privately to finish the courses she had already started in the UK. Think it was one of the Hep. Jabs which was different.

The only issue we had was that the red book was so badly filled in by our GP that it was difficult to know exactly what they had and when so if you can get an international vaccination book,it is much better. We got them in Austria and they work perfectly now we are in France too

@Suzi888

Ring your GP and ask?

Exactly.

Ring your GP and ask?

well, yes and no.

The GP has no experience of bringing up a baby in Saudi and how they will do their vaccinations. Or experience of children having different vaccination schedules, unless they are in an area with a lot of people moving in from outside of the UK.

Other posters who have brought up babies overseas can give a helpful perspective as to whether this is possible and practical

You can find other countries immunisation schedules here apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary/