Two days ago Ryker got the DPT vaccine. I've never been one to worry about vaccines, really. Even though I am aware of their correlation with autism and some adverse side effects, I truly do believe that they do more good than harm. For every 1 child affected negatively by vaccinations, there would potentially be over 100 cases of polio and diphtheria, and many more with whooping cough if vaccines didn't exist. So I can weigh out my child's risks, and assume it is safer to go with the vaccines.
However, as the day progressed I became more and more concerned about Ryker's behavior following these shots. Ever since he hit his 3rd month he has been a very happy baby, sleeping full nights and crying only when hungry or poopy. These past two days he has spent the majority of it screaming on the top of his lungs. I've never heard this before. It's not a cry, it's literally a scream. I first attributed it to "normal reaction" and gave him a little bit of infant Tylenol and expected it to ease his apparent discomfort. However, he progressively got worse. His body is so rigid and he arches his back and stretches all the while he's screaming. When I talk to him and try to console him he looks like he wants to smile and tries to but can't. He will only sleep for (very) short periods at a time- we're talking under 10 min. Then another unnerving thing, he was crying so hard and I was just rocking him trying to console him and his cry faded off. When I looked at him, he was sleeping but his eyes were open. It made me so uneasy, I actually closed his eye lids and then he jolted right up and started screaming all over again.l Although I am not a worrier per say, I have been just sick over my fear that he might be having some strange reaction to the shots. I must add though, physically he has no symptoms. No rashes, fever, or site inflammation. I don't want to bring him in, have them look at him and say "oh he's fine" and without any physical symptoms that's what will happen.
I'm sure my motherly fears are getting in the way of logic and he's perfectly fine. But none the less, I can't help but worry. I don't want to even research the side effects of vaccines, because honestly I don't want to be scared out of getting these very important vaccinations. Plus, I don't want to drive myself into a tizzy, and convince myself that something is seriously wrong when I have nothing but a healthy growing baby on my hands. After all the absurdity of my pregnancy, I know all too well how you can get too immersed into the what if's when everything ends up fine.
Anyway, Ryker is sleeping now finally (hasn't had a nap all day) so I'll just be checking him to make sure he's okay every 15 min like a crazy person.
It is NO fun when something worrisome like that happens! I hope he is back to his fun little self soon!
ReplyDeleteMaybe this isn't the best advice to give you right this minute, but if you feel like something is wrong, don't ever let anyone tell you "it's all in your head." If I were you, I'd take him in. If there isn't anything wrong with him, you'll have your mind put at ease. But you know that he's not acting normally, and there's clearly something bothering him. It doesn't hurt to have it checked out.
ReplyDeleteI was freaked out because Gilbert's West Syndrome symptoms started after his 4 month shots. But in retrospect, I don't think they were connected. But I WOULD talk to the doctor. Especially before getting more shots. Most doctors are open to discussion about vaccines. One thing we did with Gilbert, once I had the courage to give him vaccines again, was to do one at a time. My doctor tended to give 3 shots at a time. And since most vaccines are blended/combined (like DPT covering 3 illnesses) your baby's immune system is getting 8 different diseases to work through and create anti-bodies for. Seems a bit over the top. So talk to your doctor about how upset he got, acknowledge it might be entirely coincidental, but you would rather not chance 2 or 3 days of constant screaming again, so you would rather give one shot at a time. Unless your doctor is some vaccine nazi, he or she should be pretty okay with that. And it might make life easier for everyone. We didn't do any shots at ALL for nine months and Gilbert was still caught up on his shots by 2.
ReplyDeleteHope Ryker is all better now!
I was always under the assumption that they gave them all at once for some sort of medical reason, until I found out that the only reason is to ensure every child gets them and it's easier to ensure that if they just have one appt to get them all. Next time I will DEFINITELY stagger the vaccines. . . Ryker is okay and all better but if what was happening was a reaction to the shots I do not want to have a repeat or worse next time! You are right, though. Nobody can ever be sure if it's due to shot reaction. I'm sure everybody who has a child become ill or worse around 4 months might attribute it to the vaccines, whether related or not, but nobody will ever know for certain which case is a true causation vs coincidence. With Tucker it was smooth sailing thankfully, and he did get them all at the same time each visit. Tucker never even had as much as a cold until he was well over a year old. . . but Ryker had RSV at just 9 weeks which leads me to believe his immune system may not be as strong, therefore making it harder for his body to break down the diseases and create anti-bodies for like you were talking about. Oh Bet, I don't know how you handled that back when Gilbert was having seizures and you were so in the dark about what was wrong doing your own research. That would be incredibly stressfull- I think I would lose my marbles. Speaking of which, has he ever had an episode since then?
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