Baby Vaccination Schedule: Tips to Prevent Pain & Discomfort
In order to build a baby’s immunity to certain diseases, immunisation is a must. However, vaccination days strike fear in parents. The injections might turn a happy baby into a wailing one, with post vaccination effects of fever and discomfort. This article helps you prepare for the vaccination day. Informed parenting will in turn ease your baby’s discomfort after the dreaded immunisation.
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Immunisation is mandatory. Through vaccinations, medical science has managed to control and eradicate many deadly diseases. To ensure the best of health for a baby, timely vaccinations are a must. A record book of vaccinations is usually given by the hospital at the time of discharge. This helps one understand the vaccinations and its schedule. Maintaining the time line, specified in the record book, is important for the vaccination to be effective. When I was discharged from the hospital, with my new-born son Kabir, a similar record book was given to us. In our vaccination record book, both the mandatory vaccinations and the optional vaccinations are mentioned.
Mandatory vaccines are what is recognised by the Indian Govt. as mandatory to be given to every Indian baby, there are many factors considered before this classification is done. So our recommendation will be to get both mandatory and optional vaccines for your baby. We followed the record book to the tee, giving Kabir both sets of vaccinations. A little discomfort is worth bearing ,when it comes to building a long term safeguard against deadly diseases.
You will have a choice between painless and painful vaccines, unlike the popular belief, painless vaccination does not mean that there would be no pain or after effects to the vaccination. Even after a painless vaccination, a child might have fever and other effects. The main difference between a normal vaccination and a painless one is that, a painless vaccine has fewer antigens compared to a whole-cell painful vaccine, also multiple doses of different vaccines can be combined and since the science behind it is constantly improving there could be other differences at the time of you reading this article. We chose the painless injection to reduce Kabir’s discomfort. However, do note that painless vaccinations are far more expensive than the normal one and it is believed that their effect on the body stays for a lesser time. Hence, it’s a personal choice that one can exercise during immunisation.
To ease a child post vaccination is the top priority for parents. At the same time it’s important to note that since the baby’s body is adapting to the injected vaccine, one must let the body heal at its desired pace. Typically the effects of vaccinations can occur up to 2 days, post the vaccination. Asking your paediatrician about the effects to prepare oneself, will ease much of the stress.
For our son Kabir we used the following steps:
- To ease discomfort and fever, we orally administered Baby Crocin drops, especially during the night. Every baby is different and hence the medication and dosage should be recommended by your medical practitioner.
- We didn’t massage the area where the vaccination was injected. Also we kept the area covered by making him wear loose clothes. Any pressure on the area will trigger pain .
- In case of a swelling in the area, a cold pack is recommended. Take ice in a clean cloth and gently apply on the area. It will help reduce the pain and the swelling.
- We kept Kabir engaged with toys and activities. Speaking and playing with the child keeps it distracted from the localised discomfort.
There is not much that can be done by the parent in such situations. The above points should significantly reduce any discomfort. To assist you further, I have shared Kabir’s vaccination record book. Feel free to take a look at it and tally your own records. I reiterate, proper recording of vaccination data is a must. Plan and maintain the vaccination timeline.
MomComIndia is a platform for happy parenting. Do share your vaccination stories and challenges. Together we can lend a helping hand to each other. The above content is also available in a video format (link). Comments, questions and feedback are most welcome. Let’s enjoy simplified parenting.
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