Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

Eddie got jabbed today.

A day shy of ten weeks and it was time for his two month visit to the pediatrician. This was the first time that Eddie (and Martin) had met his new doctor, as the midwife had taken care of him through six weeks. I had met her once before, when I interviewed her while I was still pregnant.

The two month visit is also the start of the baby vaccination schedule. Vaccinations have been on my mind for quite some time, as neither Martin nor I like the idea of sending eight different diseases* into a two month old all at once - and that's just the start. We discussed the issue with our midwife, who said she opted not to vaccinate her children against anything. That was a bit too far in the other direction for our comfort. We think that certain vaccinations are very important, some are important but don't need to be given as early as they are typically given, and some may require a bit more of a risk-benefit analysis, as the vaccinations are linked to issues that may be as serious and more likely to occur than the actual disease.

It's a hugely controversial subject, and all any parent can do is use their best judgement to make choices for their child.

We've opted to give Eddie as much protection as we can while keeping two issues in mind:

1) We don't want to overload his system with too many diseases at once, and

2) We want to minimize the amount of aluminum in his system at any given time, as there is insufficient data on how much is too much in an infant. Aluminum is known to be toxic in adults over certain levels of blood concentration, and of course babies have less blood.

So today, Eddie got his first rounds of DTaP (diptheria, tetanus and pertussis) and Rotavirus. We particularly wanted him protected from pertussis as there's currently a large outbreak of it in our neighbouring state of Washington. Next month he will get round one of HIB and Pneumococcus, and round 2 of each pairing will be in months 4 and 5, and so on.

He was calm enough at the start, not knowing what was going to happen...



The Rotavirus is an oral vaccine, the only such vaccine on the schedule. Here we see the hands of the Jabberwock (aka the nurse) gently giving him the non-jab. He seemed very interested in the taste, having had nothing but breast milk and gripe water so far. The nurse told us that the vaccine is said to have a bittersweet taste.





After the Rotavirus, he seemed thoughtful, and unaware that the reason his thigh was being rubbed was because he was about to get his first injection. I had intended to take a photo of his reaction, but the Mommy Instincts kicked in the instant he started crying and the photos stopped until he was calm again. Which actually wasn't that long - he seemed more surprised than anything, and calmed within a few minutes of Daddy-hugs.



He fell asleep on the way home, and has been cycling all day through periods of sleepiness, happiness and crying. Mostly sleepiness, I think.



The trip home.



Here he is looking at his friend the Ceiling Fan, which was spinning around for Eddie's enjoyment.



Nap time, where all is right with the world except when you dream about getting vaccinations, which we think may have happened once or twice.

Eddie also got his Weights and Measures checked. He's 23.5 inches long (up from 21 at birth), 13 pounds 15 ounces (up from 8 pounds, the porker!) and his head circumference is 15 3/4 inches, which is apparently only 40th percentile, but we rather like the shape and size of his head, and are sure that he's busy filling it with brains.



* The standard vaccination schedule calls for the following at two months: Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Rotavirus, Hepatitis B, HIB, Polio and Pneumococcus. All of these require multiple injections during the first year of life.