Unwell for 2 weeks after vaccinations

[Fluffydino21]

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone out there has any advice or has had a similar experience.

My 10 week old baby got her vaccinations 2 weeks ago and has been unwell ever since. I’m not an antivaxxer in the slightest but I have to assume that either that has been the cause or she caught some kind of virus in the waiting room at the GPs while getting the vaccines!

I don’t know what to do anymore or what I should be pushing the doctors to test for or consider. Or whether all we can do is wait this out. But then it’ll be just about time for the next vaccinations!

There hasn’t been any peak in the illness or any clear signs of improvement. It’s been general symptoms of being unwell that chop and change over the days.

It started as diarrhoea on day 1, that passed and then vomiting followed, that stopped and then it was no appetite, maybe a bit of a cold and cough and extremely sleepy, then the vomiting came back, that stopped and now we’re back to the diarrhoea worse than ever.

We were sent to the walk in centre on weekend 1 for the vomiting then to A&E the second weekend due to blood in her vomit and because she’s now had 10 dirty nappies in 24 hours I’m going to call the GP tomorrow. So far each doctor has just done a basic check for anything life threatening and then sent us on our way no further forward and with no tests or medicine. I appreciate maybe that’s normal and we just have to wait this out but would appreciate some opinions and experience of people who have had children for longer!

So sorry for your baby. Here in Mexico all the pharmacies saying to report any suspected side-effects from any medicine you take, so I would report your baby's reaction

So sorry for your baby. Here in Mexico all the pharmacies saying to report any suspected side-effects from any medicine you take, so I would report your baby's reaction

It's much more likely to be a virus picked up at the GP if baby has cough/cold symptoms. Vaccines can trigger reactions like fevers, headaches, diarrhea (if oral) but not cause congestion, sore throats etc. It's probably covid or flu. Do an at home test, though after 2 weeks it might be too late. In future, I'd spend as much of the wait at the GP outside as possible, rather than inhaling all the infectious particles other people have exhaled, and wear a tightly fitting mask yourself. Ask the nurse/gp to open the window for ventilation and ask them to wear a tightly fitting mask, preferably N95. Health centres and hospitals are sadly terrible at airborne infection control, which is a main route for covid/flu/RSV infection.

Edited to correct typo

Just to add, covid can present as GI issues. And there is a lot of covid in the UK right now. Hope she gets well soon.

Press them to do tests. They can and will do them, they just prefer not to. I have taken a dirty double wrapped nappy to the GP with me before now and asked for stool testing. When my LO had recurrent D&V, they sent off:

First tube
Parasites
Bacteria that cause food poisoning

And then a second tube for viruses
Rotavirus/norovirus/Adenovirus dipstick testing
PCR testing for the most common viruses

It's actually fairly common for infants to get bad DV from the rotavirus vaccine and so the vaccine strain might be detected (big hospitals have a PCR test that tells vaccine strain and while type apart).

Actually my LO turned out to have wild type rotavirus at a year old, despite being vaccinated. I then caught it and it was so awful. LO was definitely better than me, so I guess the vaccine made it milder for them. I thought I was going to end up in hospital with dehydration, I couldn't keep even a sip of water down for 24h.

That rotavirus vaccine was horrid and I remember my DS nappies being awful too. Hoping this passes soon for you both, just keep baby hydrated as poss

Sadly things are no better and we’re close to 3 weeks on now. We’ve been to the GP twice this week because they said they expected her to be fully back to normal by Friday and she wasn’t.. there’s been no improvement at all. They took a stool sample but it’s all so slow, it’ll be a week to get the results.

It’s getting so stressful trying to ensure she doesn’t get too dehydrated. It seems like the doctors can’t or won’t do anything in this situation unless it looks like it could become life threatening.

Also the doctors said they couldn’t advise about whether or not to get the second does of the vaccinations in a week’s time… I’m leaning towards not, and waiting until she’s fully better.

i personally would delay , I know lots would go ahead but for me if the immune system is already impacted, I wouldn’t be comfortable putting it under more strain until fully better.