Immunisations, a Necessary Evil

I had to take the twins for their immunisations last Monday which was a pretty horrible experience kicked off by a really long wait in a hot, stuffy doctor's waiting room followed by the what feels like cruelty of putting my two little babies through three jabs each. Horrible injections which caused inconsolable tears and their poor little legs to bleed, leaving little bruised marks. The way they looked at me, how they cried so much, clearly not making sense of how, or why Mummy was letting someone hurt them not just once but repeatedly. I know the jabs are necessary but sometimes they just feel barbaric. If only there was an alternative. 

Side Effects
I hate the injections process but what follows is worse if side effects kick in like they have for my little Zoey-Bean. My poor baby girl started showing symptoms on Thursday evening and she barely slept that night clearly feeling unwell. By lunchtime Friday a high temperature kicked in which I've been trying to keep down with baby nurofen and plenty of fluids and this has lasted all night again. My usually happy, smiley little girl is clearly feeling rubbish and the only thing I can do apart from administer nurofen is hug and cuddle her.


Here we are in the early hours of Saturday morning and I'm hoping this is the worst it will get and the other possible symptoms following MMR vaccinations don't hit either Zoey or her twin brother Zachary in the weeks to come. Here are the side effects direct from the NHS website:

MMR is made up of three different vaccines (measles, mumps and rubella) and these can each cause reactions at different times after the injection.
After six to ten days, the measles vaccine starts to work and may cause a fever, a measles-like rash, and loss of appetite.
Two to three weeks after the injection, the mumps vaccine may cause mumps-like symptoms in some children (fever and swollen glands).
The rubella vaccine may cause a brief rash and possibly a slightly raised temperature, most commonly around 12 to 14 days after the injection, but a rash may also rarely occur up to six weeks later.

Lots of possible side effects over quite a long time period after aren't there? I know jabs are necessary and I wouldn't dream of risking my babies later on in life by not getting them immunised but right now it really does feel like they are a necessary evil.