First Jabs - blue light to hospital

[fairyannie]

I'm so worried. At my wits end.

My grandson has been rushed to hospital just now.

He had his 8 week 'jabs' today. Two hours later he started crying/very unsettled.

This evening whilst feeding he stopped breathing and his lips and face turned blue. My daughter blew on his face three times before he took a breath. She said it was ages between blowing on his face because she was absolutely frozen and petrified and at first didn't know what to do.

She rang his outreach nurse who said ring 111. They sent an ambulance. They are being blue lighted to hospital because of temp and resps (paramedic's words).

Has anyone else encountered such a reaction to these jabs?

He was 7 weeks premature. He's literally 1 wk old - adjusted age.

My heart is beating out of my chest

Happened to a friends son, he was ok, 11 now. Hope your GS is ok. Feel for you. In his case there was a history of a particular illness in his family that put him at higher risk of side effects from the vaccine.

Sending you a great big hug, how scary for you. Your daughter did amazingly. I’m glad he’s doing ok now and he’s absolutely in the right place. I hope you’re able to get to the bottom of what happened.

My son suffered a horrible reaction to the 8 week jabs, he started having febrile seizures before becoming floppy. Was blue lighted to hospital where they did a lumbar puncture to check for actual meningitis. It was horrifically fighting but after a couple of days he was discharged and absolutely fine, now a terror at age 5

Any update? 🙏

God I read this with a lump in my throat. Praying for a positive update. Take care x

You're right, it should be 2.5ml, the nurse was wrong. Unless baby was born less than 32 weeks then GP should dose by weight.
I'm a practice nurse who gives these vaccines to babies, I always check they know the dose and stress that the vaccine will give them a fever. Shocked to hear so many have had bad episodes with it though, I'm really glad they were all OK.

Yes

So relieved.

They returned home at 7am this morning. The hospital wanted to observe the next few feeds.

They have said it's simply the high temperature due to the jabs which caused it and he just overheated.

It's official - the 'little monkey' is a 'breath holder'.

His temperature, which was 38.8 (with calpol), caused him to hold his breath. My daughter said his lips were so dark and his face was purple/blue. She doesn't know how long she 'dithered' before she blew in his face as she said she was frozen with terror. His 'resps' were 56 per min while recovering and he was pulling his ribs in, struggling to get his breath back. This was still happening when the ambulance arrived 20 min later.

It happened at hospital (fortunately?) again whilst feeding and he was brought around more quickly with oxygen. He's had more infant paracetamol and his temperature is now at 37.4. His outreach nurse will visit him this afternoon.

My daughter was told she did the right thing - blowing in his face, but if this doesn't start him breathing, she's to blow in his mouth. She's now anxious about feeding.

It's the first time he held his breath (last night). Apparently it's common in premature babies. They suggested his next 'jabs' go ahead as normal.

As you can imagine - not looking forward to it.

Bloody jabs!

My granddaughter was only 5lb in weight when she had her first 'jabs' last May and she was fine. So nothing to do with 'prematurity' I suppose.

We have had two premature grandchildren born last year. Both in lockdowns.

I've watched both daughters struggle in isolation.

This 'bubble' business doesn't work in theory. There are both sets of grandparents wanting to help. So sad.

Just a nightmare year for everyone worldwide.

Im going to pm you

So glad he's back home. Why does he have an outreach nurse? Is that because of prematurity?
The next lot of jabs won't have Men B, the next one of those is at 16 weeks. Could always ask for it to be given separately as it may be the interaction between the Men B and the 6 in 1 vaccine that makes the fever worse and giving it alone may reduce the risk.

@CatVsChristmasTree

You're right, it should be 2.5ml, the nurse was wrong. Unless baby was born less than 32 weeks then GP should dose by weight. I'm a practice nurse who gives these vaccines to babies, I always check they know the dose and stress that the vaccine will give them a fever. Shocked to hear so many have had bad episodes with it though, I'm really glad they were all OK.

He was 32 wks 6 days when born. This was (we're told) due to my daughter testing positive for covid two weeks prior. She's been asked to take part in a study into this infection in third trimester.

She didn't want her older daughter to return to school in September but was told her daughter would lose her school place if she didn't attend. Her daughter's bubble was closed at October half term and all the children had to have two weeks off instead of one. Then there were further cases among relatives of the children in this bubble.

Changing the subject - my younger daughter had her first baby 6 weeks prematurely at the beginning of the first lockdown. Her baby was only 5lb in weight when she had her first jabs and she was told to give three doses of calpol at 2.5ml.

My older daughter, not wanting to go against advice, only gave 1.5ml. Her baby is 3lb heavier at first jabs.

Or perhaps it would've happened anyway.

Hello my love, this was my ds2, he's now 26 years old.
It was very scary I'll never forget it, you never do.
The upshot was we were told he wasn't to have anymore until at least yr reception. I'm not sure what they'll say as obviously this was some time ago.
He had them when he started school and was fine after that having all boosters and other imunisations throughout childhood.

I know it's hard not to worry but he's in the right place and they'll get to the bottom of it.
My ds was on the border of fitting when he had a temperature.
I say border as it was never bad enough to need hospitalisation but it did happena couple of times during pre school age.

My eldest was also 7 weeks early weighing 2lbs 14oz. He never had a reaction to his jabs other than a high temperature and fussiness but he held his breath every feed from 3 weeks till 21 weeks but hes perfectly fine now.
It is extremely scary but 99% of babies who do this ard perfectly fine in the end. We found side feeding and pacing helped a lot with it

My ds developed erythroderma after his 8 mth jabs. Ended up in and out of hospital for a year. He went on to develop serious allergies to wide range of foods.

So glad to hear the good news. My sister and I both suffered from febrile convulsions when we get a temperature, and I have recently been diagnosed with epilepsy at 51 due to seizures happening again. My daughter, the little madam, used to pass out doing the breath holding thing when she didn’t get her own way, she would go limp and floppy, it went on for about two years then she grew out of it. Apparently called pallid attacks when they pass out, always did it when she didn’t get her own way!

What a year your family has had. Must be so hard to have to stay at arms length when you just want to help and you can see the help is needed.

Yes. After having DS's at 8 weeks. I put him down for a nap in the afternoon after having the jab. On returning he was blue and clearly not breathing. DH was here and we thought he had died. Blue lighted to hospital. DS came to by himself on the table in A&E.

They called it an ALTE. An apparent life threatening event but of which couldn't be explained.

Not sure if related but DS then went on to have sleep apnea and had very large tonsils. These were removed at 3 after lots of problems with stopping breathing through the night.

After having them removed no further problems.

I am sorry it is awful and I did have PTS from the incident for a little while so your DD may be shaken from the incident.

One thing I noted is that the sun was coming through the room and it had gotten unexpectedly warm and combined with a fever maybe he had become overheated?

awwww so sad reading this.. hope he’s okay.. the sunken soft spot is dehydrated in between bottles give him so water that’s been boiled in kettle and cooled :( x

Hope he’s ok.
The paracetamol dose will have been worked out on his weight.....all babies over 4kg can have the 2.5mls....but under 4kg the dose is weight dependant.

@CatVsChristmasTree

So glad he's back home. Why does he have an outreach nurse? Is that because of prematurity? The next lot of jabs won't have Men B, the next one of those is at 16 weeks. Could always ask for it to be given separately as it may be the interaction between the Men B and the 6 in 1 vaccine that makes the fever worse and giving it alone may reduce the risk.

Yes

Outreach nurse has been visiting because they oversee all premature babies for 3 months. Two weekly visits at first. Then weekly. Now three weekly. But because of last night the nurse will visit this afternoon.

In the first lockdown, my younger daughter's outreach nurse would ring up and ask if all was ok and if so would not visit and just say I'll ring you next week. They only saw her four times at the beginning. This was because baby went home on oxygen (at five weeks old). When the oxygen was removed she stopped visiting because my daughter would say No everything is fine. When is wasn't. She had very little support despite baby having had major life saving surgery within 12 hours of birth. But I suppose that was when no one knew what they were doing in the first lockdown. She had very little HV support over the telephone. My daughter is now having therapy over zoom because of the trauma surrounding this set of circumstances. She was totally without support with a very vulnerable premature baby. No one was allowed to visit. She had very little sleep for the first six months or so because she was up all the time nursing a colicky reflux baby and struggling with breastfeeding.

I'm so angry still because we all followed the rules religiously and were told, anecdotally, recently that this was exceptional circumstances and we could've visited and supported her.

I've felt traumatised because she is.

It's been so incredibly hard to be a grandparent this last year. I'm so upset. I feel incredibly guilty for what both my daughters have gone through in the 'crappest' year in all time. I just want this 'hurt' to stop.

@shazzz1xx

awwww so sad reading this.. hope he’s okay.. the sunken soft spot is dehydrated in between bottles give him so water that’s been boiled in kettle and cooled :( x

He's breastfeeding. She doesn't think he was taking as much as usual as she was full to bursting last night - really uncomfortable.

Glad to hear he's ok now OP.

My premature baby was still in hospital for his 8 week jabs and ended up back on the ventilator as a result (& several other similar babies were the same). They couldn't say why, but the men B element of the vaccine is known to raise the temperature more, so perhaps linked to that?

Either way, it's good that they're keeping an eye on him & your daughter shouldn't hesitate to contact someone/call 999 if it happens again.

It's a hard journey, even once home, so if she feels like she needs counselling/PTSD therapy she should definitely ask for it.

@felineflutter

Yes. After having DS's at 8 weeks. I put him down for a nap in the afternoon after having the jab. On returning he was blue and clearly not breathing. DH was here and we thought he had died. Blue lighted to hospital. DS came to by himself on the table in A&E.

They called it an ALTE. An apparent life threatening event but of which couldn't be explained.

Not sure if related but DS then went on to have sleep apnea and had very large tonsils. These were removed at 3 after lots of problems with stopping breathing through the night.

After having them removed no further problems.

I am sorry it is awful and I did have PTS from the incident for a little while so your DD may be shaken from the incident.

One thing I noted is that the sun was coming through the room and it had gotten unexpectedly warm and combined with a fever maybe he had become overheated?

Gosh how awful.

Yes! He was overheated!

But they've almost made it sound as if he's doing this 'deliberately'????

Oh the little tinker he's a breath holder.

As if he's doing it on purpose? I feel like they've 'made fun/light of it' when it was the scariest thing ever to happen.

I can't bear to think of it happening again.

They said 'Oh next time blow in his mouth'

How would you know how to do that properly?

I'm even more anxious now.

@greyinganddecaying

Glad to hear he's ok now OP.

My premature baby was still in hospital for his 8 week jabs and ended up back on the ventilator as a result (& several other similar babies were the same). They couldn't say why, but the men B element of the vaccine is known to raise the temperature more, so perhaps linked to that?

Either way, it's good that they're keeping an eye on him & your daughter shouldn't hesitate to contact someone/call 999 if it happens again.

It's a hard journey, even once home, so if she feels like she needs counselling/PTSD therapy she should definitely ask for it.

Thank you for that.

My younger daughter is having therapy (zoom) because of her experience of having a premature baby during the first lockdown.

I think we'll all end up requiring some therapy. It's been the worst year for worry - what with both daughters giving birth prematurely.

• Oh the little tinker he's a breath holder.

As if he's doing it on purpose? I feel like they've 'made fun/light of it' when it was the scariest thing ever to happen.*

Don't read too much into this - I've heard many neonatal/paediatric nurses use this language. In my experience it means that there's nothing serious underlying this (e.g he's "playing tricks"). There's no doubt that it's horribly stressful & they know this, but it's their way of reassuring you.

@Mammyofasuperbaby

My eldest was also 7 weeks early weighing 2lbs 14oz. He never had a reaction to his jabs other than a high temperature and fussiness but he held his breath every feed from 3 weeks till 21 weeks but hes perfectly fine now. It is extremely scary but 99% of babies who do this ard perfectly fine in the end. We found side feeding and pacing helped a lot with it

Oh no! Every feed?

Side feeding? Is that under the arm?

Hoping it won't happen again.