Help Baby Vaccinations

[twinklelittlestar]

hi my baby is due to have her second lot of jabs as she is nearly 3 months old. we took her for the first lot at 8 weeks and it was very distressing as it was first time i have heard her scream in pain like that and it was really first time she has been so distressed. (we had calm home birth and when she was born she was very alert and calm. we gave vit k orally etc). since the 8 weeks vaccinations she has been very unsettled: cries much more now and on several occasions she has had unconsolable crying which never she did before. She also changed from passing stools 3-4 times a day (she is breast fed) and now goes maybe once every few days. She has also become much more fussy at the breast.

We don't know whether these changes are developmental and just a coincidence of having jabs at same time? We have been thinking of what may have caused her to be more unsettled i.e. overstimulation; whether something wrong with my breast milk now etc although I have not weighed her yet this week she has been putting on a good amount of weight each week. Since jabs she has also had cold x2. We don't know whether it was a case of her just being stessed by the actual process of the injections themselves and the shock etc and whether this has made her unsettled and fussy etc

We are very anxious about having next lot of jabs so we have postponed them to give us time to think. Does anyone have any thoughts and also does anyone know how long we can postpone the shots wihtout having the first ones done again etc We visited GP but she was not very helpful and said that we have to get her vaccinated asap etc she said 'you don't want her to catch meningitis do you?

Can anyone help?

this sounds exactly like i felt ds was after his first set of jabs at 9 weeks - i felt i needed to do something and took him to a chiropractor for some cranial work - it was expensive but i really really believe it made a difference - she said that as the jabs had given him a temp this had caused a tightness in his head, after our first visit he bf so much more calmly, before he was suckling then coming off crying

hv did record my concerns in the red book and said that immunisation prog was not compulsary so the choice was mine but since i knew i had to go back to work and ds would be in childcare i thought he needed the protection - i opted to have the 2nd set at 4 mo but i didn't have everything at the same time, 5 in 1 first followed 2 weeks later by men c - it allowed me to monitor situation better and ds was fine - also had cranial work after each set

he had final ones after xmas at 7 mo (now 10 mo)

its your descision but it did worry me that some childhood illnesses are on the increase and other countries don't have the same immunisation prog as us so could carry illness

gp said was absoltuley fine to pospone jabs (tell them dd has cold as they won't do jabs then) but to try and get them all done before pre school booster otherwise they will have to do them all then when dc is older and a lot more scared

not sure if that makes sense, if not ask some questions and i'll try and fill in the gaps because i know how much i worried about them and its horrible isn't it when you think you might do something to hurt them x

YOu can postpone them for as long as you like- the main problem with postponing is that the longer the gap between the tetanus jabs the more likely there is to be a reaction- so worth asking about that. There used to be a much longer gap though so its not critical. DS2 has had his postponed for 5 years and ds3 for 2 years so far (partly because I'm waiting for singles to be developed).

it is a bit all or nothing- you can't pick and choose baby jabs now, it's pretty much the whole lot or none at all (although more singles become available as your child gets older- no single tetanus available until they're 10 though).

The one thing I would say is to really try and avoid vaccinating if you think your baby isn't 100% well. Surgeries will happily vaccinate a child with a cold and there are a lot of people who think that isn't wise. If you'd rather your dd was given more time to get over her colds then don't be bullied into giving her the next set before you are happy that she's ready.

Wow, another twinkle! I seem to remember that I noticed some of these things after DS had his first set of jabs. He did have his second and third lots at the right times and I don't remember there being the same effects. I do think it could be developmental, but obviously as her mum you know best.

Ds1 had his first at 8 weeks but is now 17 weeks and not had his 2nd lot yet. I have posponed them twice due to him being unwell. He is due to have them next week but I am still not sure if we will take him or not. Our gp is not worried at all and has said as long as there is the minimum gap not to worry.

I postponed DD2's baby vaccinations as she seemed to have a constant cold/cough. (December baby, what did I expect?!) She ended up having them at 3, 5 and 7 months. My mum found my old record card and back in the early 70's we had them at 3, 5 and 11 months and for whatever reason they have moved them up. IMO it doesn't do them any harm to postpone a bit, but I wouldn't want to get the last one in much later than 10-11 months - it is just good to know that they are as protected as possible. Also IMO the benefits of the vaccinations far outweigh the possible risks. It is horrible, and I hated seeing them so upset but far better than catching the disease and being really ill. You have to make your own decision though, that is just my opinion. HTH

Hi everyone. I wanted to say thanks for all of your responses. I read them with such relief as I had been feeling really anxious and pressurised thinking that we had to have them (vaccinations) done immediately.

Although we have not decided yet when we will get the next set done you have given me alot to think about. It's great to know we are not the only ones who have faced these issues. I do feel now that it is possible to postpone these next injections though it was helpful to hear your experiences of doing this. We are going to give ourselves and our dd some time recover and perhaps do them at a later date when we feel she is ready. We were having such a hard time trying to find out form Health Professionals how long we could delay etc and now we have some frame of reference. Thanks again! Twinklelittlestar x