Our daughter has never had a bad reaction to an immunization in her life. She gets her shots and keeps on trucking. It doesn't even phase her. So, when our son came along we expected more of the same. Especially, because by comparison he is such a brute next to our daughter. Little did we know. He's the kid who when he received his MMR shot had such a horrible and frightening reaction that we rushed him to the doctor and she had to report him to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) because apparently only 4/10ths of 1 percent of the population had ever had that type of reaction.
Because of this, we have to make multiple trips to the doctor to get him immunized. With most kids they'll give 3 or 4 shots at a time, but with him they can only give one or two, wait for the reaction to die down and then return a week later for the rest of the batch. Yesterday he received a Hep A and Hep B shot (both of which he's received before). He didn't cry at all; he just looked at the nurse like, "Hey, what are you doing?" Last night he was really cranky and just not himself which we attributed as a side effect of the shot. In comparison to previous reactions it was nothing.
Then today he kept holding his arm and saying "ow". So, I went to change his shirt and when I took his shirt off his left arm from his shoulder down past where his elbow bends is horribly swollen, red, and hot to the touch. It is seriously 3x the size of his other arm. I was shocked. I called the doctor who said that a rash or redness is not unusual but what I was describing certainly was. So, for now we are to just watch it and call back tomorrow if it is not improving. He seems to be fine other than minor discomfort which is reassuring but I have to admit that I was pretty stunned when I saw the condition of his arm. Could they have not injected the shot correctly? Or is it just another one of his weird reactions? I don't know.
Do your children experience any strange reactions to immunizations?
2 comments:
Poor little guy!
Thankfully, Bear has NEVER had a reaction to anything. I had never even thought about staggering his immunizations until he was over one year (and by then I figured he had handled them all really well anyway).
My two never had a reaction to immunizations. That swollen arm sounds alarming though! Maybe put cool compresses on it, a little tlc. Hope he's better soon!
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