AIBU to not take my son for his 8 week jabs..

[Princesaebs]

My son is due for his 8 week jabs in two weeks and with this virus going around I honestly do not want to take him..the gp is just across the street and I would wrap him up& I would wear a mask and gloves. But what about when we get inside the gp. I'm meant to strip his legs down for the jabs...symptoms take 7 days to show. What if the doctor has the virus and doesn't yet know and is breathing over my baby. If he was to get sick I would NOT take him to the hospital. For them to separate us & tell me I cannot see him?? No way I would keep him home and give him calpol before I let them separate me from my baby. I feel like it's a big risk taking my son out to the doctors surgery to get immunisations. I know it's important..to protect baby from other viruses..flu etc. My 16 month old has had all of his jabs. I haven't left my house in 2 weeks..and my partner hasn't been at work either for the past week although he is a key worker.we have been completely self isolating for the sake of our kids. Am I being unreasonable to think I shouldn't take my son for his jabs? Am I being stupid ? I feel like it is a VERY big risk and wouldn't forgive myself god forbid my baby got sick afterwards

My sons birth mother chose to indefinitely delay his vaccines, he contracted an illness they would have prevented, he was very lucky to survive. Due to her neglect he is hearing impaired and he lost toes, he became very close to losing his feet completely.

Not taking him to hospital if he is ill? There are so many things wrong with that idea, which you will realise when you’re in less of a panic.

I’ve heard from a lot of medical professionals that the rumours that you’re separated from your child if they go into hospital with the virus just aren’t true so please don’t not get medical help if he got ill for that reason

The current advice is that you should take children for their vaccines.

Ditto the other posters, the information about children being separated from parents if they catch coronavirus is a load of sh*t that is being spread about on Facebook. The local hospital for me has now banned all visitors EXCEPT birthing partners, end of life and children.
I would go for your baby’s jabs, can you take them in the pram with the rain cover over it, then take baby in some loose pants that you could simply pull down for vaccination, quick cuddle and straight back under rain cover?

I understand your concern but my local doctors is only open for baby vaccinations, the door is locked, they let you in, straight to nurses office and straight back out, no waiting in the waiting area, they are important and you wouldn’t forgive yourself if baby did catch anything preventable x

I work in a GP surgery and we have discussed this. As another pp said (and I realise GP's may vary ) but these immunisations are very important and we are doing 90% of work on the phones; advice calls, prescriptions, general enquiries etc. The door is closed and operating via an intercom system if you have an appointment like baby imms. The nurses are wearing masks, aprons and gloves. They are ringing parents on the morning of the appointment to make sure mother and baby are well with no symptoms then invite them in making sure only one patient is in the surgery at any one time. I understand your concerns and it's okay to postpone for a couple of weeks but we don't know how long this will go on for. If it was my baby I would definitely get them done especially with all the extra precautions being taken that hopefully your practice is adhering to as well.

There is a only the smallest chance he could be exposed to any of the vaccine preventable diseases in lock down, however this could go for years so it won't be a matter of just getting them a month or two later. When or if it ever came time to get them it would be years late and there would be a big queue of others trying to book in for the same thing. So for that reason I would get them.

DS 3 year immunisations were due last week. We all currently have symptoms so we have delayed 3 weeks, but we are still going ahead. When this is over and kids start mixing again it’s going to be like the first weeks of nursery all over again whilst they share whatever germs they have!!

I'll be getting my son's pre school jabs done. GP surgeries are pretty empty, sterile places and I want to make sure he's protected once life gets somewhat more normal.

Please take your baby to be vaccinated. Vaccination is one of the few things that doctors are still doing face-to-face, almost everything else is now done remotely at present. I sadly lost a cousin who was too young to have received a particular vaccine, caught a disease & died. I have 2 other family members with permanent, serious health issues from contracting serious diseases that have since had good vaccine programmes introduced (polio & meningitis).

To me it sounds like you are mixing up in your mind the 'stay home stay safe' mantra to think that is applies to everything.

There is a lot of hysteria on Facebook, in certain newspapers and on here about the situation and when you have been self isolating it's easier to forget about the real world.

But the vaccinations will protect your baby from several diseases which will be far more deadly to your baby than Covid 19. Have you researched what the 8 week vaccinations are, and how damaging to babies the diseases can be?

You are very sensible to weigh up the risks, and your not wanting to be separated from your baby is totally normal, but overall I, personally, would get the vaccinations.

Immunisations are basically the only thing our GP's office is still doing, which shows how important they are. DD has her MMR tomorrow and we are going. We've been given instructions to stay in car till they call us and then go through side door etc, so the risk will be minimal, and I'd much rather she was protected from other nasties that are way more of a risk for her.

If he was to get sick I would NOT take him to the hospital. For them to separate us & tell me I cannot see him?? No way I would keep him home and give him calpol before I let them separate me from my baby.

I think you need some mental health support and quickly. Not seeking medical attention for an ill child could be disastrous, especially at that age. The vaccines are the least of your worries while you are thinking like this.

Also yes, are you OK generally, OP? Your comment about just keeping him home and giving him Calpol etc worries me a bit. You aren't going to be separated from him but you do need to seek medical help if he becomes unwell, not try to treat things at home with Calpol. But the things he's being vaccinated against are way more deadly to a baby than Coronavirus. In fact I don't think any children under 9 have died of Coronavirus in the world, but I'm sure that more than a few have died from the things you're vaccinating against in the same time frame.

The jab tables seconds no one will be leaning into baby for long at all.

It will be over in seconds and then baby is protected.

My issue with getting my daughter’s booster done is that I don’t really want to risk her immune system having potentially to deal with covid at the same time.

Before you all scream at me that I’m the worst human ever to walk the planet for even questioning a vaccine, which is what usually happens on MN, we don’t really know much about this virus.

Give op a break... Worried about her mental health!! Bugger off.

Op of course we all want to be avoid hospital right now! No ppe, cross infection everywhere!!

There's a difference between wanting to avoid hospital and saying you wouldn't take your sick 8-week-old baby to get medical help and just give him Calpol, like it's some magic potion! No one wants to go near a hospital right now, but OP's thoughts around not taking her baby if he needed help are irrational, and given she's not long given birth, are a flag for PPA or similar.

I took my daughter last week. We had to wait outside the surgery then escorted through when it was our turn, not touching anything.
The nurse was in full PPE. I undid the legs of her baby grow and breastfed DD as she did the jabs in about 6seconds. We were out very quickly and the nurse only touched DD for the bare essentials. I'm glad I went.

It's obviously up to you, personally I would. I took DS for his jabs last week, and it was fine. The surgery had lots of measures in place to keep people safe, and as they aren't doing triages in person and have cancelled lots of routine appointments, we were the only ones in the waiting room. My concern with waiting would be that whilst he is likely safe while you are inside, how much of a delay and wait there will be when when something which resembles normal service resumes. I would go, take clothes off and wash hands as soon as you are home and have a shower, wash door handles etc that you have touched for the outside door and then you can go back to isolating. In the very unlikely event he requires medical attention, they also have procedures in place. It likely varies everywhere, but here the children's ward is actually really quiet- remember though, the chances are so so so small that you would need to.

I took my son for his (delayed, for other reasons) jabs yesterday. I was really anxious about it but it was totally fine.
Everyone had to wait in their own cars or outside and were called in one by one (via mobile). You were asked only to take necessary items (I.E just the baby) into the room, and they sanitised their and your hands before you went in. They did the little warning about risks etc that they have to do and told me what to put in the red book (which they said they weren't handling right now) I then popped my babies legs out (left coat etc on him still), sat him on my lap and they gave him the injection. I'm not even sure they touched him tbh. Possibly just the skin on his leg but they'd literally sanitised their hands immediately before and touched nothing else. And at no point was he in contact with anything but me, and I was only in contact with the chair I was sat on.
Then I got up and left. As I left they sanitised the chair I'd been sat on and waited until I was out of the building to call the next person in.

Hopefully that helps alleviate some of your anxiety, but babies can have their jabs late. My son is nearly 6 months and having his only just now due to a compromised immune system, as recommended by his consultant so it's not a big deal, but it does obviously mean your baby is at risk of those illnesses in the meantime.

DS had his pre-school jabs last week. I didn’t want him to be in a queue when all this is over, possibly with temporary shortages due to overstretched NHS and increased demand from everyone who stayed away.

Call your surgery and ask what measures they have in place. Ours made us wait in an area on our own, only one adult allowed in the surgery with him, only people with appointments allowed in at all. It felt very safe.

Just to reiterate, it’s highly unlikely that he would be hospitalised with Coronavirus. And if he was, he wouldn’t be separated from you- that’s a Facebook rumour, it’s not true.

Practice nurse here still doing baby vaccines. It's the one thing we've been told we absolutely must do. The surgery is practically empty otherwise.
Starting late may mean your Dc misses out on the Rotavirus vaccine. And if this drags on the whole 'catch up' business often means children have more vaccines over the age of one to give sufficient dose since of those they missed when younger. I also suspect our clinics will be rammed when all this is over, with difficulties getting appointments to complete missed vaccinations. You don't want any child needing a hospital bed anytime soon.
Just get them done on time.

I’ll be totally honest I would postpone
I am VERY pro vax but.......
They say you need to have them to prevent babies needing medical care at the moment but all my dc has reactions (high temp as expected and rashes etc afterwards and on 2 occasions we needed to go to hospital
For that) so I think it’s much more likely you’d be needing to potentially seek medical attention at this time for some kind of (albeit expected) reaction than anything the vaccines are protecting from
If you’re staying at home anyway I’d Walt till things settle and do they ASAP when you can

I understand why you are worried. But I would definitely get the vaccinations, on balance of risk.

Coronavirus is an illustration of the world without vaccinations for just one disease.