Children's BCG - any tips

[susanmt]

I remember my bcg at 13 as being a ghastly experience - the boy in front of me in the queue fainted!
I am taking my 3 children (age 4.5, 2.5 and 10 months) for skin test this week and bgc the following week and I am dreading it. Is it as bad as I think it is going to be. I wish I had had them done at birth now, we knew we were going to travel abroad at some point and now I am stuck with placating a 4.5 year old who remembers her boosters from a few months back and is going to be a nightmare!

[charliecat]

I took a present with me to the doctors to wave in front of my dds nose to distact at age 3 or 4...it worked brilliantly. I was having a fit and she was fine. Its worth a try!
We opened the pressie right away and sat outside the docs doing a jigsaw, I was in shock at how bad it WASNT.

[MiriamR]

Another vote for a pressie. Took ds1 to get a jab (aged 5y) with the promise of a trip to Woolies straight afterwards. Was absolutely dreading taking him but he was great - have to say the nurse was wonderful, which also helped. Good luck

[susanmt]

I suppose what I'm wanting to know is how bad is the actual jag - its not just a quick one, it takes a minute or so as it is a large volume and it is injected in between the skin layers. Does it really hurt as much as I remember? They are all having to have a lot over the next couple of months due to our travels (bcg, hep b (x3), hep a, typhoid and d2 also mmr) and am am imagining a lot of trips to woolies!

[lailag]

don't think they (dd and ds, 3 mo old)were more upset than with the other vaccinations. Although it may seem like a minute it wasn't that long either.
Now, do you need any antimalaria prophylaxis, because that is what I am dreading . DS went abroad in March and is likely to go again in November.

[suedonim]

Dd2 had BCG to go to Indonesia, when she was 6yo. It was probably the least difficult jag of all the ones we had! I remembered a needle the size of a drain pipe from my bcg but it's now a teeny-weeny thing and it was over very quickly. The Hep B was by far the worst for us, out of HepA&B, typhoid and Jap Enc. Dd2 was an absolute star, she really was, at needing repeated vaccination. Mind you, when I told dd we had to go to the Immigration Office in Jakarta for our permits she said sadly, 'Oh, no not more needles.'

A tip to help the medicine go down is to give them chocolate (if you don't mind giving sweets). A choc button at room temp popped into their mouth just as the needle goes in works wonders. Good luck!

[susanmt]

Thanks peeps, I feel a bit better about it now (though you have made me dread the first of the hep B on Friday!

I will definitely go the chocolate route.

lalaig, we do need malaria prophylaxis but only the once weekly chloroquine in Guatemala, thank goodness, though I know it does taste foul. There is a syrup for kids so we'll hopefully be able to give it to them that way. Its not even that we are going to spend much time in a malarial area, but we will pass through a few times so it will be worth it.

[suedonim]

Eek sorry, Susan - I was assuming you'd had the rest of the jabs!! Don't forget to give yourself some choc buttons, too.

[Aero]

Susanmt - you can buy over the counter at boots a local anaesthetic cream if you are that worried. It's a small tube called Ametop Gel and costs £1.90 per tube (one per jab). This isn't widely known, but well worth the expense IMO. DD just had her booster (see other thread - reaction nothing to do with gel btw as we've used it before). You need to apply it and cover with cling film about 45 mins before jab and I'd draw a circle around where you put the gel so they know where to put the needle as they have to rub it off before the jab. Both my kids have used it for various innoculations and blood tests and it's been a total godsend. HTH

[SofiaAmes]

susanmt, the bcg jab has changed since we were kids. It is no longer the horrible thing it used to be. Don't worry. Also, I had the skin test a few years ago and it was really pretty painless.