Immunization 101 (Part 1)

More than a month ago, our little Queen B got sick for the very first time. It started with fever on a Saturday evening then by morning the next day we noticed the runny nose. Later that day, she is already coughing. It took almost two weeks before she fully recovered.

As first time parents (Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter whether it is your first time as long as it is your child we are talking about), it is heartbreaking for us to hear her frequent hacking coughs. J and I were only able to squeeze a few hours of sleep as we took turns in taking care of our precious baby girl. We have to give her Paracetamol every four hours to reduce her fever. We even gave her sponge baths in between her medications to control her temperature. Most probably due to her not feeling well, our baby got very clingy. She can’t sleep without one of us holding her. She prefers sleeping on J’s chest while I have to cradle hold her. It is also quite unfortunate that our pediatrician doesn’t have clinic hours during Sundays so we have to wait until Monday morning.

Cool towel on her forehead helps a lot on keeping her temperature in the normal range.

Sadly, that Sunday as our baby sleeps on my arms I read a post on Facebook. It was a mom asking advice on how to make her breasts stop producing milk fast as her baby boy died two days ago due to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs caused by any one of several viruses and bacteria. According to babycentre.co.uk, it can develop suddenly in a day or two, or more slowly over several days. It can be difficult to distinguish it from a bad cold sometimes.

Terror catches my heart as I read that post. Earlier that day, J and I were thinking if we are going to bring our baby to a different clinic or just wait it out until Monday. We decided to have her checked by our pediatrician on Monday. I can’t help but cry. I cried for that little boy. I cried for that young mother. But mostly I cried because I’m thinking that J and I made a serious mistake of not bringing our baby to the doctor immediately.

I am quite ashamed to admit that I blamed J for suggesting that we wait until Monday. I was so worried that our baby might have the pneumonia that I let logic fly out the window.  Bless my husband; he did not answer my anger with one of his own. He calmly told me that even though our little one is not feeling well she still get full feeds on time. She spends the whole day sleeping but during her wake times she is still active in interacting with us. Her temperature continues to decrease as the hours pass by. If there is an alarming event that will occur like she vomits, he would not think twice in rushing her to the nearest hospital. Panicking at this moment will not help us take care of our baby.

With fear still in my heart, I turned to God. I prayed really hard for Him to extend His healing hands to my daughter. As I pray, calmness settled over me. We are able to survive that night together helping one another in taking care of our little Queen B.

At the doctor’s visit, she said after inspection that it is most probably the common cold. Our baby’s lungs were also clear. She prescribed medicines for the runny nose and the cough. We can also give Paracetamol if our baby girl still got fever. No antibiotic for the meantime as she wants our baby’s own immune system to fight this disease. If there will still be fever by Wednesday then she will prescribe the necessary antibiotic. As I have already mentioned it took almost two weeks before she fully recovered (meaning no more cough at all).

Medicines our little Queen B has to take. 

Last week, Georgina got the colds again though thank God it is no longer as bad as the first time. Her temperature did not even rise above 37.4°C. It is still painful to hear her coughs but her recovery time is now faster compared before.

I wish I could keep any disease-causing agents away from our little Queen B but aside from that being impossible to do it is actually counter-productive to do so. Her immune system must develop the necessary antibodies for common diseases that afflict humans and for that to happen, she must be exposed to them. Of course, it doesn’t mean I will just let our Georgina play in a dirty place but I can’t keep her in a sterile environment forever.

One of the things the mom in the post I talked about regret is she did not vaccinate her son against pneumonia. Majority of the recommended vaccines by the Department of Health are offered free in our local health centers. Unfortunately, the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine or PCV is not one of them. One can only avail it thru private pediatrician and its price is quite steep for some parents. Due to this, a lot of parents opted not to immunize their babies against pneumonia.  

J and I plan to avail all the free vaccines we can get for our baby at the local health center. We are blessed that the health center of our barangay is relatively better than other health centers in the country. The staff may seem grouchy at first but they are actually kind-hearted. One time, we got in there late and there is a supposed to be cut-off time but they still let us avail the vaccine. Also, according to other moms in a thread at a chat room I frequent most local health centers do not offer the Rotavirus vaccine but ours did. The waiting time is just a little longer and of course, the health centers are not air conditioned but a little inconvenience is okay if it means saving a lot.

Two weeks ago, our little Queen B had her first shot of the recommended three of PCV. We are now less worried about her acquiring that disease but we will still be diligent about boosting her immune system. I know she will still get sick but we are praying and working on that happening once in a while.

First shot of  PCV 13: Done!!!

In light of this experience, I would like to start a new blog posts series and this one is all about immunizations. So stay tuned for part 2.

#xoxo