BCG vaccination

[Vickster]

I would be interested to know what others thoughts are on the BCG vaccination for small babies. We have been sent an appointment for this week when my daughter will be 4 weeks old. It strikes me that this is very young for such a nasty jab, and we are still in the process of establishing breeatfeeding so would be reluctant for any side effects of the jab to interfere with this.

Has anyone else had their baby vaccinated at this age, and if so, how did they react?

Thanks in advance.

[buggie]

I postponed my daughter's jab until she was nearly 4 mths old, but purely because she was low birth weight and her arms were so so tiny (she was only just over 5.5lbs at 4wks) I was concerned it would be problematic (potentially turn into an abcess).

She instead had it begining of January, and in the last few weeks it has come up as a lump and pink/purple-ish mark - am expecting it to pop at somepoint and be a bit gunky - nearly all of my NCT group's babies have had the jab already (before bugglet did) and all seem to have healed well and not caused any bother. The jab doesn't cause any bother immediately as it's done just under the skin rather than into the muscle so is absorbed slower and they apparently don't notice it even when it comes up - bugglet doesn't seem to mind me touching/pushing on the site which indicates it isn't painful.

We had problems establishing br/feeding, but haven't noticed any change/problems with feeding after any of the jabs.

[duchessofdulwich]

I did not want my daughter to have this vaccination and refused it, i still kept recieving appointment letters for her and had to keep ringing them to tell them I did not want her to have it. She has had all her other routine jabs though. I think there have been previous threads on this topic before, if you search?

[Beagle]

My baby had it at 5 weeks and I breastfed her while she had the shot and she didn't flinch or even notice. The scab is still there but it has never been particularly scabby or troublesome and has certainly never bothered her.

The reason the shot is being advised is due to the rise of drug resistent TB within some London Boroughs.

I was vaccinated as a baby, it never worried me to have my baby vaccinated and it was certainly the least invasive and painful of all her shots so retrospectively I was pleased it was the first one I had done.

[Vickster]

Thanks everyone. I did recall a previous thread on this subject, but when I searched nothing came up. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction?

[ClareC]

I was in two mind's whether to have it done but decided to go ahead on the basis that although my daughter is very unlikely to catch it in current circumstances, in the future when she goes to play groups / nursery / school etc there is a risk given that we won't know who will be there too and Southwark is a high risk area. Also the vaccination means you can travel eg Australia.

Also, if everyone is vaccinated the disease dies - which is what happened in the UK when we were all vcaccinated as kids. Most area's in the UK no longer vaccinate as the disease is extremely uncommon, unfortunately it is not in Southwark given the high number of immigrants in the area from countries that do not have a TB vaccination programme.

When we had it done it was absolutely fine, she didn't even cry. By far nice than the 8, 12 and 16 week jabs!

My daughter had a small red mark which has never scabbed / turned into a lump or developed pus. No bother at all. I think most children do end up with a lump that scabs over /has pus in in time. The reaction is definitely lessor the younger the child though.