8 week immunizations for premature baby

[Jodiesmum]

DD2 was born 9 weeks early and is now due her first lot of injections. My health visitor and GP both say to go ahead immediately but my instinct is to wait a bit - she's still not due until next wk and I can't help thinking her system needs time to mature, also to recover after 7 wks in hospital, on antibiotics and IV feed the whole time, etc. I guess the bottom line is I'm scared of another medical intervention and would like to put it off for at least a month. ANy views?

hi jodiesmum my ds was 7 weeks premature and i felt like you,after all the injections in hospital i didnt want to put him through any more but i had to especially as theyre more vulnerable to disease,your dd will be fine

I was told the same, which did seem a bit odd in view of the fact that you fill in all their other details (weight / height) according to gestational age not actual age. Dd was 9 weeks prem, had her jabs at 8 weeks, etc. and no problems.

How are you both, by the way - I presume from your post that she is now home?

my dd was 7 weeks prem and I delayed her jabs by 3 weeks just as a precaution-gut instinct.It didn't do her any harm and I'm glad we delayed as she had a reaction to the first set.For her later jabs they had to be put on hold as she was in a hip spica cast(try getting a needle through 4 inches of plastercast was my comment each month when re-appointements kept arriving!!!)again no problems but she is now up to date.....
In hindsight I would probably delay again if I had another prem babe
Big deceisions...small babe...lol..Good luck...whatever you choose it's the right decision

oops decisions-that is

My 2 DDs were born 9 and 7 weeks early and they had their jabs at 8 weeks old. They had no problems but I did delay the MMR till they were about 14 months old, just because I felt they were too young.

my GP mate delayed both her (full term) kids till 12 weeks, and then proceeded as normal. Just thought they were big doses for little bodies, took a calculated risk.

1. Are you BF her? If so you can definitely wait !

2. The reason immunization is at that age is because they know mums still come regularely at surgeries at that age... so they are keen to have it done - and that you will have it done.

I would delay personally. Expecially if she has been on antibiotics.

The risks from the diseases:
diptheria- pretty much gone from the UK
tetanus- not a risk until crawling (unless she got bitten by a dog but I think you would know about that- and then you could get the antibodies anyway)
pertussis- this is a risk for young babies. However most whooping cough that was around last year was a new strain not protected by the whopping cough vaccine (read this in the New Scientist- so a reliable source)
polio- very rare in the UK (all cases are vaccine related) and when caught by a young child (under 3) usually gives gastroenteritis rather than full blow paralytic polio
Hib- babies are the risk group- however 95% (or something like that) of cases are in children in day care so she shouldn't be at risk until she starts nursery.
Meningitis C- mainly a disease of teenagers. A baby is 8 times more likely to die from cot death than meningitis C.

Hope that puts the risks in context. I can't see that delaying a month is going to make much difference. Whooping cough is mainly a Spring condition anyway - so she should be fine on that score. HV etc are always very keen to get that first lot into them. Personally I think 8 weeks is very young for any child let alone a prem child. Wait unitl you feel comfortable that she is healthy enough to receieve them.

As pupuce said BF makes a big difference as well. My unvaccinated bf ds2 was exposed to whooping cough at 16 week- I was slightly concerened to say the least- nothing he was fine (at he had repeated exposures). Recently at 15 months he's been exposed to his brother with rubella- again nothing.

Do what makes you feel more comfortable jodiesmum. I am afraid I am not a very good professional at towing the party line as fas as vaccinations are concerned. The recommendation to start vaccinations at 8 weeks came after I had had 2 children who had started theirs at 12 weeks. I was more comfortable with that, so I just told my HV and doctor that was what I would be doing. DS no.3 was 5 weeks early so I delayed his although the medics said otherwise. Remember she is your baby, not theirs, and you have the right to make your own decisions.

well, i've had 2 prems - 9 wks and 12 weeks early. My dd (31 wks) was vaccinated on time but my ds , 28 wks, we had done 3 wks late.

How big is she now? ds was only 4.5 lbs when he was vaccinated at 11 wks but he coped fine. How is she doing now? Delighted you've got her home, hard isn't it? Have you got a good neonatologist ? I'd always only listem to them for advice on prems .

Hi Jodiesmum, I had a long chat to a Gp friend of mine about vaccinations as we were going overseas, and he told me that they used to do them all starting at about 5 or 6 months, and they only brought them forward a few years ago, so i can't see it would really matter. I would trust your gut instinct. My ds had one set at 8 weeks and then set 2 at 16 weeks and hasn't had set 3 yet! (not really through choice, just circumstances) This gp friend says that it doesn't matter if they are spread out more, or even if they end up with 4 doses instead of 3 (in Germnany they have 4 doses anyway) So it seems to me you can be flexible with them and do it they way you feel happy with. (the only warning he gave was against having them too close together)

Thanks so much everyone, I've learnt a lot reading your responses - really interesting about the risks of each illness JimJams and the the thing about the 8 weeks being a recent invention. Decided to brave it out with our very fierce GP and told her today (at the 8 wk check) that we would be postponing injections until the end of this month. Actualy she was OK about it, to my surprise - perhaps sensing I would be likely to burst into tears if challenged. DD2 has only been home 2wks (due yesterday!) and although everything has been fine, I'm still feeling over worried and over sensitive, also very sad at times thinking of everything she (and we ) have been through.

GP's are usually OK jodiesmum. They used to spread them out more as well (so for example polio was given at a different time from DTP in the 1980's). Just do what you feel comfortable with.

jodiesmum, just wanted to say how lovely finally being home with your dd, I didn't realise you'd only been back 2 weeks, you must still be feeling a bit wrung out after scbu etc. I do hope you are enjoying being home now, lots of hugs to you.