Immunizations...A Necessary Discomfort

Next week, Lilah will be getting her 6 month immunizations. It seems like so long ago that I was stressing out about her first round of immunizations at 2 months. I was terrified that they would hurt her, she would cry, she would have some kind of reaction, she would develop a fever, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't eat. You name it, I was worried about it.

Luckily, none of the aforementioned events happened. She was a trooper. She did cry a little a few seconds after the needles went in, but the tears didn't last long. Even though she didn't cry for long, I still nursed her right after her 2 and 4 month shots just to comfort her.

Several people had told us that we should give her infant pain medication before hand to head off any pain and/or fever that might develop. We did this for her 2 month immunizations, however, one of the first things our doctor asked us at her appointment was whether we had given her anything.

Why?

Well, recent research suggests that the immune response that infants have to a vaccine is decreased by pain medication. Our doctor noted that infants should not be given pain medication unless they absolutely need it. We did end up giving her another dose about 4 hours after she received the immunizations because she was truly in pain. We avoided giving her pain medication before her next appointment, but we did give her a dose about 4 hours afterward again when she started to exhibit signs that she was in pain. One dose afterward was all she needed on both occasions.

It is pretty difficult to stand there and watch needles being stuck into your tiny little baby (especially when you have to help hold them still). It gets a little easier as they get older, but they also become more aware of what is going on which is equally hard to deal with. Up to this point, nursing right after has seemed to do the trick and your doctor should be more than accommodating about letting you stay in the room afterward for a few minutes if you would like to nurse.

As we currently live in the U.S., we have been following the immunization schedule here (which is fairly similar to the one in Canada). This requires that Lilah be given 3 injections and one oral vaccine at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. We decided that we didn't want her to be given 3 needles at the same time so we opted to request a follow-up visit about a week later for her to receive 1 of the vaccines. I am not sure if this has contributed to the fact that she has had very little trouble with her immunizations, but it certainly makes me feel better. We have also never had to give her pain medication after these follow-up visits (when she only received one injection) which is a bonus as I would rather not give her medication of any kind unless it is absolutely necessary. Your doctor should be more than happy to accommodate any special requests you may have regarding immunizations (as long as they are within reason). Opting not to have your child vaccinated, for example, does not fall under the "reasonable request" category.

The idea that vaccinations cause autism spectrum disorders was the driving force behind a large group of parents deciding not to immunize their children (which in turn led to outbreaks of measles and mumps). This claim was made in a 1998 paper in The Lancet (a British medical journal). It was later discovered that the author of the paper manipulated evidence and had broken ethical codes. This paper has since been retracted and the author found guilty of professional misconduct (May 2010).

Needless to say, going for the third round of immunizations is old hat. I must say though, I am very happy we don't have to have any more needles until Lilah is a year old!