Vaccination Reaction advice please

[Madasajarofwasps]

My dd2 had her preschool vaccinations yesterday, she will be 4 in September. Yesterday her arm where they put the diptheria, polio and pertussis one was a bit swollen. She seemed fine in herself, I gave her calpol and put her to bed. She woke once in the night and her arm was still swollen and I gave her calpol, tucked her in and she slept quite late. She seemed okay so I took her to nursery, told them about her arm and they said they would keep an eye on her. When I picked her up her arm has swollen more, so much so her t-shirt was really digging in. It took a bit of a fight to get it off and now she is not eating and feeling very sorry for herself.

I phoned the triage nurse and she told me to bring her in to the doctor asap. She was quite curt and now has me worried. I just wanted some advice from the nurse on how to get the swelling down. Now her skin has started to split a bit. We have an appt at 2.30.

Has anyone else's dc had this, and how long did it take to get back to normal. Feeling really guilty about sending her to nursery now

I was going to say ds had the same until I read
'her skin has started to split a bit'

Have you tried a cold compress, frozen peas?

if the nurse said asap, I'd have been down there in the waiting room, wanting ot see doc at earliest opportunity.

seems odd she said asap, and then booked oyu in for over an hour later.

I hope your dd is feeling ok - sounds nasty.

oh, and please don't feel guitly for sending her to nursery, you weren't to know.

did they not phone you to sya her arm was worse?

yep. Agree with Silver. Go there now.

Thanks, the nurse said asap but then couldnt find an appt earlier than 2.30. And the nursery didn't phone so I am quite cross with them too.

I'll pop down once I have sorted someone to pick my other daughter up from school in case we are late back. Thank you.

oh and ggirl she has an ice pack on atm. How long before your ds was better?

Dd2 had a bad reaction to the MMR pre-school booster, we ended up in A&E as her temp was so high and she went floppy , she recovered very quickly but it was frightening. I hope she feels better soon.

Gosh does not sound good at all, should you be going to A&E, I guess you are probably on your way to the doctors now, looking at the time. I hope you get some useful advice, and maybe some antihistamine?

Totally agree - get down to the doctors asap. The nurse is probably curt with you as she is concerned about the consequences of having to deal with the reaction. Don't feel worried about sending your daughter to nursery if they thought this was a bad idea at the time they would have said so!

Thanks for the advice everyone. Well the doctor saw her, he was a locum and didn't seem overly interested tbh. He said it was a common reaction , even with her skin splitting and her arm being so huge . He gave her a prescription for ibuprofen and told me to keep it iced. If its not gone down in two days she will have to go back or if it looks whiteish there might be an infection. He said he was pretty confident that it won't get any bigger .

She is a bit happier, and wants to eat now and her temperature is normal which is a relief. I might give her an antihistamine before bed. Thanks again.

did he log it as a vaccine reaction?

I don't know tbh - he was a bit hard to understand IYSWIM. Is that important?

I would want it recorded as a reaction to the vaccination.

you don't seem that convinced by his knowledge or advice - if it does get worse, and (god forbid!) there are long term issues (I am NOT saying there will be, but you never thought her reaction would get htis far, did you?) I think it is important it is logged properly.

also, important ot have on her notes for the future, when she might need/want more jabs.

full information always bettr, rather than her growing up, deciding to go on safari for her honeymoon, and ending up with a very sore arm, and not very exciting honeymooon!

Ah yes Silverfrog I can see where you are coming from !! I do worry about her reactions as she is a funny little thing and is allergic to peanuts in a big way so I always feel on tenterhooks if something out of the ordinary happens as you just don't know what it happening.

If its not gone down any tomorrow I might take her back and see if I can get an appointment with her usual dr (some hope!) I understand that swelling can be a reaction to a vaccination but her arm is twice the size of the other and it just seems more extreme than would be expected of a 'normal' reaction.

Any tips on strapping an ice pack to a 3yo's sore arm would be appreciated tho!!

seriously, I would get it logged aap - can you phone the surgery now to tell them you will be coming in tomorrowto check that it was all logged as a vaccine reaction (the doc should be filling in forms to send back to vaccine manufacturer, etc - this is how they gather details for the info leaflet)

I also seriously mistrust the ability of the medical profession to be honest aboutvaccine reactions, especially if the reactions start looking serious - they tend to get written off as "coincidence".

sorry, no tips on the ice pack - got any bandages, or a scarf amybe to tie it on?

you can log the reaction yourself here

Okay silverfrog will do. You sound like you have had a bad experience of vaccine reactions. I really appreciate the advice.

Thanks

Oh poor thing that really is quite an extreme reaction to a vaccine, and they should yellow card it.

If you have one of those chiller sleeves for a wine bottle they can be quite soothing, or try flannels that have been dampened and then put in the fridge or freezer (don't freeze them completely though) and wrap them around her arm.

Give her regular paracetamol and ibuprofen, and ice pops to suck - they don't help the poorly arm but have magical healing properties!

Hopefully it will all be better within 24-48 hours from the injection.

no problem - hope your dd feels better soon.

Not only do I worry about vaccine reactions but I worry about the nurses hygiene when giving injections or taking blood, the nurses at my doctors do not wear disposable gloves and I am told that this can be a route of infection and that nurses should always wear disposable gloves, bad practice not to.

You don't need to wear gloves when giving injections. Hands are cleansed before doing the procedure, then it's a no touch technique. You don't touch the needle and you don't touch the skin where you are injecting.