My son is 18 months old but is behind on his vaccinations. He just received his 15 month shots yesterday. He has been fussy all day and while I was giving him his bath I noticed that there is a hard lump about the size of a golf ball under both injection sites. They are hot and red and it hurts him when they are touched. I have already called the nurse hotline and am expecting to talk to the doctor tomorrow. Has anyone else's child experienced a reaction like this?
Yes but my daughter was 4 when it happened and it was just one site (her arm). She also started running a fever. It's quite common and I think they call it cellulitis. Treatment included icing it for 15 minutes at a time 4 times as needed (or more if it makes her feel better), pain reliever as needed (for the discomfort and/or fever if necessary) and antibotic. The doctor may want to see her but could prescribe the Rx without it.
Yes. It's just the medicine. The medicine needs help being distributed, so a gentle massage to help do that will also help relieve soreness. You can also give him some Infant Motrin to relieve soreness.
Yes, I have. If he's not popping a high fever or you don't see any other signs of discomfort, this is pretty normal. You can use warm compresses on the injection sites, try to massage them gently, and give an appropriate dose of ibuprofen for a day or so.
It is alarming at first, huh? But pretty typical.
Yes. My daughter had this kind of reaction every time she got immunizations her first year, and once developed symptoms of an infection as well. We were living on a small military base at the time, and the doctor was our neighbor. He told me that while many doctors will say this is normal, the truth was that it was the fault of the person giving the injection. If the injection is not administered properly, the vaccine just pools in one place instead of distributing, causing reactions. After the third time I had to come back in because of this, and after other parents on the base had the same issue, the doctor stopped allowing the corpsman who had been doing it to give vaccinations.
This happens to my son as well. My ped told us to have him go run around immediately after he gets his shots to help the medicine disperse -- it helps.
