Vaccines spaced apart

[L0ngg0ne]

24+5 weeks, first time mum and thinking about options regarding this whole vaccine thing.

Did any parents have their child(ren)'s vaccines spaced apart?

Was this an easy process? Did it take much convincing the doctors/midwives/nurses, or did you have to put up a bit of a fight?

What were your reasons for deciding to have them spaced apart, and [how] do you feel this spacing apart benefitted your child?

Also, were there any particular vaccines you decided against, and for what reason?

I know I've asked a lot of questions, but I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories.

I understand that this is quite a touchy/personal subject, so please only answer the questions you're comfortable with answering.

Thank you.

I didn't spread out the vaccinations for my DD.

I thought that it would be less traumatic for her to have the jabs at the same time compared to spacing them out over a few days/weeks.

I didn't know you could do this till after ds had been vaccinated otherwise I would have. A friend did and had no issues.

Nope DD had her injections as scheduled and not all injections are available on NHS as singular and can be very expensive private.

We did ask question regarding MMR for daughter as I had mumps when younger and my mum had such a bad reaction to measles as a child we didn't get it. The risks are too high as all old viruses are returning and we decided to get them as scheduled.

The day after I had my daughter I got my MMR and rubella booster since I can't make the antibodies well- better safe than sorry.

Imho- speak to your GP and get some advice there, they can guide you to official research and not stuff from Wikipedia and scare mongering you'll find on websites.

Be prepared though- on MN this is a tough subject.

My DS had all his jabs and at the usual schedules. Our family are very pro-vaccine though as my husband's family has a baby who died from measles in the generation above him.

My understanding is that split vaccines have to be done privately so are more expensive. The only vaccine I'd be inclined to give privately will be for HPV when DS is a teenager. I feel strongly that boys as well as girls should get it.

The routine pre-school jabs we got as part of the usual roll out.

Most practitioners are not allowed
to support this without a very good reason. They're taught to administer
to the schedule because that's the best way so they don't generally deviate. I did ask if I could stagger that MMR and MenB but no. And that's fine, I get it.

Oh and actually splitting the vaccines - I don't even think they stock them singularly on the NHS.

Nope. There's no science basis for thinking it's better to space them, it's less traumatic to have as few appointments as possible, and it gets the child protected sooner.

Which ones would you want to space and why?

The intervals are guided by epidemiological studies and disease prevalence in the country, and the baby's risk and waning natural immunity. They're not just booked in willy-nilly.

It can seem overwhelming to have multiple vaccines in one go, but IME (I have been vaccinating babies and children for 18 years) dragging it out over repeated visits is harder for you and the baby, and leaves them unprotected for so much longer (many vaccines have to be given at least 4 weeks apart). Also many vaccines can't be obtained singly.

If you're concerned about vaccines Have a look here - the Oxford Vaccine Group has sensible advice in an impartial manner

Some vaccines aren't licensed if you split them, for example MMR isn't licensed in children if they have measles, mumps and rubella separately. Also, some single vaccines (i think polio) aren't available as singles. There isn't any proven benefit to having vaccines spaced out and it means that baby has to have more injections and that they're unprotected for longer periods of time.
Also, people think that if they have more than one vaccine on the same day it increases the chances of them feeling poorly after it. This isnt true, babys immune systems can literally cope with thousands of vaccines in one go, and none of the vaccines (apart from MMR) are live so you aren't exposing them to the diseases. The UKs vaccination schedule has been planned to be the most effective and efficient it can be, by all means look into pros and cons of spacing out vaccines but please only look at reliable sources (NHS and the governments 'green book' for immunisations)

No medical reason to space them out and it would be frankly irresponsible to take up so many extra nurse appts when the NHS is so stretched. don't listen to the anti-vaxx nutters.