Sleep disturbed after vaccinations in my 12 week old baby

[brockleyD]

My baby daughter had her 12 week jabs on Thursday and since then her sleep pattern has completely changed for the worse. She was doing between 5-7 hrs straight and then 2-3 hrs till the morning. Now she is waking several times a night, sometimes after only 30 minutes. She doesn't seem to have a temp and is fine during the day but I am sure it is due to the vaccinations.

Anybody else experiencing this? I am now starting to worry I made the wrong decision to vaccinate (my parents are very anti but my husband very keen and he convinced me it was right)..

Thanks,

Hi Brockely

sorry you had no reply, you must be very worried

I think you should feel reassured as your baby is in all probability absolutely fine and just feeling the after effects

if you've had vaccinations as an adult you know how you feel - sometimes there's a headache, nausea, pain at the site and so on - they can all disturb sleep and once disturbed it's hard to get back into a routine

However I am someone innately suspicious of vaccinations (so you can read all the next comments in that light) and I think you are probably right that vaccinations are the cause of your baby's sleeplessness. On the one hand, it's good, it's better than sleeping all the time afterwards. On the other hand, it's plainly quite a longer lasting discomfort. Her immune system is trying to manage the effects of quite a significant trauma in some ways, three viruses at once plus the ingredients of the vaccine. I think it would be very sensible to make a note of all the reactions she has had and is having.

Also, if it were me, which it isn't, I would slow down the pace of the jabs. Many mums have done this, delay by a week, or a fortnight, or a month. It just gives the immune system a little more time to develop. And if you are breastfeeding do it like mad! it all helps.

And although this is an awful thing to say, I would watch and put her in the room with me. I hate so much to read of small babies having these reactions as it is so much for them to cope with. If she is in pain Calpol will help, ie use it as a pain killer not an anti-pyretic. But at the same time it can mask symptoms - and pain is a symptom of something. It's hard, because she needs sleep to recover, and the discomfort or pain is stopping her sleeping, but on the other hand you don't want to mask what she might be going through in case you need to take her back to the doctor.

I wish I had something more helpful to say. Is she screaming, as if in pain? I would be very tempted to take her back to the GP and mention your concerns. I really would. It will be dismissed as nothing to do with the jabs of course, but you need to have that on record.

Thanks so much Gooseberrybushes, that is very kind of your to leave a message even though you are not currently experiencing the same problem. She seems to be getting a little better, last night she did 4 hrs and then woke every hr and a half which is an improvement so hopefully she is on the mends. But I think I will take your advice and take her to the GP and discuss the effects and possibly slowing down her jabs (especially as they want her to have her TB one before four months so that means next week and then 2 weeks later her 16 weeks jabs!!!)

Thank you again.

Oh my goodness. There was a thread not that long ago about the ineffectiveness of TB jabs which it might be helpful for you to read, with the links to fruther info (as in proper studies and so on!)

I'm in between a rock and a hard place now - it's against my principles to tell people what to do re: jabs but wrt TB I would - how shall I say it. Research very heavily and consider how much contact your child is likely to have with TB (and for that matter diptheria and tetanus).

I know what the GP will say. I wish more people would come on because it's a very lonely place deciding about jabs and when there are many people saying "I did this, or didn't do that" it can be very heartening to know that others have walked the same road.

I delayed my third child's infant ones and none of them have had any beyond that. KIn fact there is a thread, in the last month or so, where a bunch of mums do just say "yes me too non vaccinator here"for a bit of moral support.

You will Not saying you are one,and most people go on and do it without problems. But there's so much to read up around the subject and some of the women here are incredibly knowledgable and well informed.

All the best whatever your choices

BrockleyD - It's so interesting that your DD is like this, as DS had his 12 week jabs (at 13 weeks) last Wednesday and his sleep and mood has gone tits up since then .

Like your DD, before the 12 week jabs he was sleeping after his last feed at night at 11pm, until up to 4 or 5am, having a feed, and then going back to sleep until 6 or 7am. Now he has been waking 2, 3 or even 4 times in the night, and is has been hard to settle. He doesn't have a temperature either, but has been a bit grumpy, and not sleeping well during the day either, meaning he's been hysterical and tired.

I took him to the doctor this morning to have him checked over and he appears fine, but i'm starting to wonder if the jabs have something to do with it? Very worried, and I was always someone who didn't think anything of vaccinations before now! Might start doing some more research... Let me know how your DD is now, would be interested to know...

Hi Posset, sorry for late reply but didn't check all mumsnet all weekend. Its been 11 days now since my DD had her injections and she is beginning to have more rhythm to her sleep but she is only doing 2.5-3 hour stretches as a time, which is less then half what she was doing before. I don't know whether it could be a growth spurt of whether its purely the jabs..Hope your DS is sleeping better.

No change here i'm afraid! last night woke up 3 times, at 2am, 3.30am and then 5am. Same as your DD, DS was sleeping well at night and would only wake for one feed then sleep- here's hoping it's a growth spurt and nothing more!

Here's the same, my baby's sleeping patterns and feeding patterns for the day completely changed after 8th week's vaccines, and it's been almost a month since then that he refuses to nurse during the day.

And the worst thing is from the night he had 12 week's vaccines, he started to wake up 6-10 times a night and became difficult to go back to sleep after nursing.

He was sleeping at least 3-4 hours during the night since he was born until then... I'm not anti-vaccine, but am so afraid to take him for the 16 week's jabs now.