8-week vaccinations tomorrow. Worried and anxious.

[Gingerbreadpixie]

My 8-week-old DS1 has an appointment for his first set of jabs tomorrow. I suffer from anxiety at the best of times and I'm really anxious about it.

Firstly, I don't want to see him in pain or discomfort from the actual jabs going in. Though I can get past this.

Secondly, and most stressful for me, I'm scared my perfect little boy is going to be "damaged" from the vaccines. I know it's incredibly rare but can happen and I'm terrified. Even the government has a page about vaccine damage compensation. The thought of anything happening from choosing to vaccinate is making me feel physically ill. DH is not worried and wants DS to have them so I'm trying to follow his lead but inside I'm terrified.

I think I've been Googling too much and have scared myself stupid :(

Why don't you delay them for a bit until you are either more ready or have decided not to have them? 8 weeks is too early IMO and I've decided now at 16 weeks that my DS is not going to have any.
I'm not trying to sway your decision but if you took the pressure of time away then you may feel more relaxed. Child health were completely fine when I said I wanted to delay them.
Good luck, it's such a difficult decision ime.

There is risk each way with deciding whether to vaccinate - if i didn't vaccinate ds or delayed and then he caught the infection I would feel worse as the science supports vaccinating imo.

More practically, is there someone who could take your ds so you don't have to stay in the room?

DH doesn't want to delay. And in a way I wonder if it'll just drag out my anxiety about it if I do. I'll talk to him about it tonight.

IBake - DH is coming with us so I may just wait outside

It's a hard thing to do when you know it'll hurt them but tbh you're overthinking it.

Give the vaccine, v v small risk of allergic reaction.
Don't give the vaccine, much bigger risk of childhood illnesses that can kill or disable for life.

Not vaccinating also puts at risk all those who can't have the vaccine for health reasons.

Vaccinations are one of the most wonderful things modern science has to offer. Gather your courage OP and get him to the doctors.

I'm a doctor so perhaps a bit biased. I do also though have experience of seeing children desperately ill from preventable disease and i know the science behind vaccination. I didn't hesitate with either of my 2 but that doesn't mean i enjoyed it or didn't feel anxious.

Take a distraction, both for you and the baby.

DS yelled more at being held still than the jabs (much as DS2 didn't even feel the heel prick, but hated having his foot held over the paper during his heel prick test!), and one shake of a rattle and he was fine.

Some people advocate feeding while they do the jab, but the risk that they'd clamp down makes me scared for my nipples!

Thank you Barberry.

I think I need to stop looking for horror stories on the Internet. I have actually had bacterial meningitis myself and the thought if him getting something like that is terrifying.

OP - the diseases you vaccinate against at 8 weeks are truly awful and they are all very much around in the world today. We don't hear of them much in this country BECAUSE of vaccination. Polio, diptheria, tetanus - all killers. Nothing is risk free - not stepping out of the door in the morning, nothing. However the risk of harm from these awful illnesses is far greater than the risk of vaccination.

Let DP take the baby tomorrow. You won't be letting him down by doing that. I've had three dcs and all that happens at these baby jabs is they look jolly surprised when the needle goes in and then cry in response to that. There's no lasting pain, it's very quick.

Chunky - my little one is bottle fed. Maybe I'll take a bottle with us. Thanks

Good idea to take a bottle. Also I took dd3 in her sling for hers so I could cuddle her all the way home

Not vaccinating has plenty of risk attached to it as well. It's your decision of course, but please do consider both courses of action equally. By not vaccinating you could be leaving your child at more risk of catching these diseases, some of which can potentially be very serious.

The vaccine compensation scheme has paid out 917 times since 1979, for reasons related to a wide variety of vaccines, not necessarily for the 8 week vaccinations. If you consider the vast number of children vaccinated since 1979 for all vaccinations, that is a tiny tiny proportion.

It's not nice to see them having their jabs, and it is also not nice to worry about the potential side effects of the vaccinations themselves. But the risk is tiny and the risk of not vaccinating is larger.

Does your dc have a dummy? If so, give him his dummy as soon as it's all over, perhaps even before he's dressed, hold him tight and gently rock to soothe him. The sucking action helps calm them down. Yes the jabs hurt but the pain doesn't last long. I think they seem to cry more because it's unsettled and annoyed them, rather than because it hurt.
He might be sleepy the rest of the day/night following the jabs but as long as he has some milk, might not be as much as normal, he should be fine.
Give your dh the job of holding ds during the jabs, you get the nice job of holding and soothing him.

I think that a particular risk of not vaccinating is that, depending on where you live in the country, your baby is more likely than ever before to come in to contact with children and adults from overseas who have not been vaccinated. Illnesses that we might have been able to think belong only to faraway places can now come right to our door through increasing population mobility. Kind of a reverse effect from centuries ago when western populations took measles and smallpox to populations which had never met it before.

I am a practice nurse and every week I do baby imms clinics - I'm doing it tomorrow, are you coming to mine?

I'm a mum of 3 as well as a nurse and fully understand how hard it is to see or hear your baby cry as a result of something you've "allowed" to be done to them. Nobody likes giving babies injections (and contrary to popular opinion we're not nasty nurses that like sticking needles into tiny babies!) but I always think how much worse it could be if my baby had meningitis, or pneumonia, or whooping cough, or measles etc etc.

It's a moment of pain for them, they cry, have big cuddle and then it's all forgotten. They won't remember or hold it against you, honestly! And hopefully you'll be reassured afterwards that you've taken them for something that will significantly reduce their risk of contracting some serious diseases.

Bottle is a great idea. At our 8 week vaccinations DS was a lot braver than I was! I tried to stay calm on the surface to avoid freaking him out, and I think that actually helped both of us :-)

He was absolutely fine, a little bit of a temperature in the evening and right as rain. My family friend's baby girl died following pneumonia and organ failure after getting whooping cough (passed on by an unvaccinated toddler ) - by doing this you are helping to protect your child and others from outcomes like this. Google tends not to be your friend with vaccinations as although the evidence is firmly in favour (see the NHS pages or things like the Cochrane Reviews of all research available), there are a lot of special interest groups with minimal scientific training or evidence but very strong emotions and opinions.

If you tell the nurse that you are nervous they will usually be very understanding and supportive, it's very usual for mums to be anxious! It will all be over before you know it, good luck!

It won't be as bad as you imagine, honestly. My lo has has his 8 and 12 week injections and yelped initially but quietened down very quickly. By the time I got out into the waiting room afterwards he was absolutely fine. I was really surprised how little fuss he made!

But he could be damaged by a nasty disease if you don't get the jabs. There is no perfectly safe option.

You have to get used to some level of risk in your life. There's only so much you can do to minimise risk. By letting some risks in you let some variety & nice surprises happen, too.

Thanks for the replies I appreciate the pep talks!

I will go armed with bottle, dummy and get DH to hold during the jabs and I'll soothe him afterwards. I have calpol and a thermometer at hand for afterwards.

I also fully intend to talk to the nurse about how I'm feeling too.

I'm going to get him vaccinated with the 5-in-1 and pneumococcal as I know those illnesses they protect again can be fatal. I'm going to take a bit more time to think about rotavirus as I really do only want to vaccinate against the most serious of illnesses and as I understand rotavirus is not one of these.

I think the parents of children hospitalised with rotavirus might disagree with you there!

Of course the vaccine is not compulsory but do bear in mind rotavirus can be very serious for tiny babies, and you have quite a small window in which to give the oral Rotarix vaccine.

Oh I'm sorry if I've offended anyone! I thought rotavirus was not at the same level as polio, diptheria, meningitis etc. is that not the case?

It's just very different - rotavirus can be really bad and tiny babies often end up hospitalised on IV fluids

Of course they are all horrendous serious illnesses, I don't think you should feel bad for thinking any one is worse than another. It's entirely your choice but I just wanted to let you know that there is a small window for vaccination and if you change your mind and want your baby to have it later he might not be able to.

Hi - just to clarify re rota virus ( I am a student HV and have just researched it for an assignment and a mum whose DS was hospitalized at 9 months with rota virus - horrendous!) in deciding to add rota virus to the imms schedule WHO and the DoH examined infant mortality and morbidity and identified that rota virus was very significant. It is very dangerous - I nearly lost my son.

Rotavirus is horrid and spreads like wildfire - I've looked after many sick,sick kids with it. It is a live vaccine, so clean your hands really thoroughly after nappy changes for a few days.

Best tip I was given about vaccines is to put the babygro/trousers straight back on after the second one - then they know nothing else is coming. Feed, cuddle and all is swiftly forgotten. Have a dose of Calpol ready just in case of fever and discomfort afterwards.

Thank you. I am going to talk to the nurse about the rotavirus one. Hopefully she'll alleviate my fears. Or maybe I could take another week or so to consider that one. I'm so nervous about vaccinations. I had a terrible reaction to a swine flu one a few years back. Very scary.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!