Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Fever After MMR Shot

My little guy has been running a fever since Monday and last night was rough. I, personally, did not go to bed/sleep until 6AM!! We got him in to go see the doctor today and they checked several things... not an ear infection (possibly a minor one, but not one that would cause this kind of fever), not urinary / bladder, not strep, and there are really no other symptoms. Just a fever. It spiked last night and the Tylenol did not break it. I was concerned. It was not just the typical low-grade teething type. Poor guy. The only other symptoms were some greenish poopie diapers lately - ever since he had his shots two weeks ago. Then the doctor said that all of this, the fever and the diapers, could be a reaction to the MMR shot. From two weeks ago?? Huh? I would have thought it would be out of their system in a few days. He said usually if kids have this reaction, it takes place on days 8 - 10 after the shots were given. We had them two full weeks ago, but he said he had seen that before & even up to three weeks after the shot, some children can still have a reaction. He also said to look out for a rash, possibly. And then after saying all of this can happen as a reaction to the MMR shot... he said that they consider this to be a normal reaction. WHAT? I don't get that. My little guy has not been feeling well and it kind of upsets me to think that it could be caused by the shots. What do you know about this? As a new Mom... each time your child is sick or something is different, it's my FIRST time dealing with it so I feel a little unprepared. Have you ever heard of a child running a semi-high fever, or a fever for several days as a reaction to the MMR shot??

I want to thank my wonderful Mama for coming along today and helping me out so much.

7 comments:

Darren and Tara said...

Hi Ann. I actually had the shot about 5 1/2 years ago and developed a high fever plus joint pain. It's just a reaction that can occur. I think mine started a few days after wards and lasted about 2 days. I was miserable, so I can only imagine how your little guy feels. I'll be praying that it doesn't last much longer.
-TG

Valarie said...

That does sound out of the ordinary. Also, do you use Motrin? I have found that Motrin works way better than Tylenol at breaking fevers. We had Israel's shots done here and we only got 2 shots. He had such a bad reaction to it that we decided not to do anymore for now. We'll probably to the chicken pox shot and that's about it.

I would love to meet you! Sadly we won't be in the States again for a while. If you're ever this way, let me know :-). Otherwise I'll see you in about a year & a half.

Valarie said...

Hey!!! I was just looking at Haley's FB and I realized that you two are cousins. That's crazy! Haley and I were good friends in high school and we cheered together. What a small blog-world :-).

Anonymous said...

I did a little research online and what I found is that 1 in 6 do run a mild fever. It did not specify length of time. However, it did say a moderate fever meaning 101 or > if it were a severe reaction wouldn't occur until a couple of weeks. As long as he's around 100 or less and acts okay I wouldn't worry. But, as a Mom you know your baby better than anyone.

Anonymous said...

Both of my girls have gotten fevers after all of their immunizations. They only lasted around 2 days. With the winter weather though, it could be a virus that he got at the same time and not related to the vaccine. I will be praying for you both! Love you!
Kelly

Lora said...

hey ann! so happy you found my blog. its great to hear from you! your little guy is precious! i like your blog a lot, too. very encouraging!
take care, lora

AtlantaMama said...

Thanks for all the feed back about the fever and the MMR stuff.

He stopped running a fever on Friday!!! Yea. Thank you all for your prayer too!

All is well.