Wednesday 18 January 2012

MMR

For all his other vaccinations and blood tests, he's been an absolutely perfectly behaved little boy. He's smiled, coo-ed and sat perfectly still for the blood to be taken and only grizzled a bit for the vaccination itself.
For any who don't know, we're taking part in a vaccine study looking at the meningitis vaccine given to children. They want to find out if little ones need as many boosters as they currently have and to do that you need blood samples.
Perhaps it's his teeth. He's got two little bicuspids breaking forth in his lower jaw and they're probably making him uncomfortable. All I know is that when I got out the plasters and analgesic cream to get ready, he took one look at them and howled. As I squeezed out the cream onto the plasters he howled. As I put the plasters on his elbows and hands he howled and as I covered them up with some fetching bright green long socks he howled some more.
Nap time wasn't good. I think he slept for an hour altogether, with breaks for howling. If you ask me, he jolly well knew what was coming next and was letting me know how he felt about it. It's funny, but he's not found it stressful before, even when they've had several attempts at putting needles in and no blood was forthcoming. He's sat on my lap quite content whilst being punctured without success.
Today, I got him up from his nap and he was ok until they arrived and he - guess what- howled. He pretty much howled the whole way through.
However, a small miracle occurred. He actually had some blood in him! No paltry 1ml sample this time. Despite the protestations we had a whole syringe in no time at all.
I really am not sure why today he should suddenly yield up the red stuff. Perhaps as he's had a small growth spurt his veins are just a tiny bit bigger. Perhaps with all the crying his blood pressure was raised and that helped. I don't know, but perhaps the assistant who was called Lucky, is worthy of the name. Poor chap, Joseph howled at him the whole time despite all the toys.
Next came the final jab, the big one, the three in one, the MMR.
It's had a bad press in the past. My mind was made up when I saw the results of a Scandinavian (I think) study where the uptake is low and they discovered that the incidence of autism is exactly the same in kids who have and haven't had the jab.
I do know that if you don't get immunised then the chances of having measles in particular is quite high and 1% of cases have serious complications. I don't like those odds. Also, Andy has never had mumps and if Joseph were to catch it and give it to him then Andy could potentially end up seriously ill, not to mention incapable of giving Joseph a sibling. All in all, safer to have the jab.
And he'd just calmed down. Boy did he scream when the jab went in, poor chap he was shaking.
No reactions though, and he calmed down as soon as I handed him one of his cheesy biscuits. He had chicken curry with coconut and almond for his lunch and had a little go at feeding himself (I was still holding the spoon) which went rather well.
He's got fussy with some food again. He wont eat penne pasta any more, nor cheese. He's gone off canned fruit which at first he absolutely loved. Now all I give him are bananas and fruit pots. Curry, however, still seems popular and I can't help but wonder if he'll live on keema, tikka and masala for a while. I don't mind, I like curry. If it wasn't for the heat I'd live in India for the food.

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