Vaccine delay

[eggsnmarmite]

Wobbled about the Meningitis B being given at the same time as the routine ones for DS2's first set of jabs on Tuesday. Declined in and asked if I would be able to get that one done separately. This meant that DS2 had a much smaller chance of side effects. He had no fever and I didn't have to give him paracetamol.

Although I'm troubled by this being a 'black triangle' new, first-time-rolled out vaccine, the thought of my baby boy being one of the 100 in 600,000 to catch that terrible illness is enough to make me take him down and ask for the men B one.

Has anyone else given this separately and what interval did you have. The nurse will just want to give it to him ASAP. It will have been almost a week when I phone/visit to sort it out.

The Men B jag wasn't on the schedule when mine was done, but we spread out the one year ones for the reasons you describe - to minimise side effects and avoid the use of Calpol which can lower vaccine effectiveness. When we had the one year ones separately we had to leave 4 weeks between jags and I suspect it will be the same with the first ones.

You are already aware of the statistics for Men B so I hope you can take some comfort in the fact that it is actually incredibly rare, and prevalence was dropping even before the introduction of the jag. Your ds is less likely to catch it than mine, and no one worried about it then. For what it's worth, I would make the same choice (to spread them out) if I had another.

Also, I think I read that if a baby is slightly older when they get the first one, they don't need as many - could be worth checking if that's true.

The nurse giving my ds the whole set actually declined to give him men b at the same time as she thought it was too much. Came back a week later and he had the men b. No issues.
However I think she was worrying unnecessarily, and it was probably more stressful for my ds being stabbed on one additional occasion.

Thanks so much for your responses. I'm going to chat to the nurse on Monday and ask her when is best to give him the Men B. I know that in the trials it was given along side other injections and separately so presumably the nurse can find out about the interval they recommend. A month delay would mean giving it at the same time as 12 week vaccines, which is what I wanted to avoid in the first place. Maybe 2 weeks? Glad I'm not the only one who separated them a bit. xx

I gave my baby all jabs separately with a 3 wk space between each. I won't go into my reasons but this was the arrangement I was most comfortable with. I wrote out a schedule to ensure all done as necessary and with the Men B one I saw also the research you raised (drastically reduced risk of side effects). The only stipulation on Men B vaccine is it cannot be administered at same time as Men C and must have at least 1 weeks gap. That is the reason the government put it in with the 2 and 4 mth injections (it misses the Men C one and they also didn't trust parents to come in for further appointments so decided to lump it in with the current ones and advise paracetamol - something they've never done before. Doctors have been voicing disagreement with that stance online from what I've seen)

I'd have it. I've nursed very ill kids. You cannot comprehend the suffering. Honestly, if I had small kids rn, I'd be desperate to have them immunised.

Sorry forgot to say in above post that my schedule ensured the second Men B jab still given 2 mths after first. I also declined Rotavirus after researching it.

Where my baby had one jab every 3 weeks she literally didn't bat an eyelid after the 3rd visit and laughed at the nurse while being jabbed! She just got used to the routine and the needle didn't phase her!

Just asked this as I do not want him getting it along with his other jabs but they said I have to otherwise My son will not get it at all!

That's incredibly irresponsible of them butterfly! As my HV said, the important thing is that they get vaccinated, she wasn't bothered how we did it. It also reflects badly on them to have lower vaccine take up rates so it's a very bizarre stance to take.

I would complain about that. Am sure you have a choice.