The Immunization Factor

At 8 weeks old, he received his 2 month immunizations. These were very hard on him. He spent the week being very fussy, about 4 days after his shots his stools had so much mucous it was gelatin-like. The 7th day after his shots he had visible red blood in his stools. The pediatric Gastroenterologist had stated that a lot of protein intolerant babies also have what is called Lympho-nodular hyperplasia, which is essentially swollen lymph nodes in the colon. Anytime their immune system is challenged (such as when they are sick or when they are immunized) the lymph nodes tend to swell and the tips can slough off and cause blood in the stool. So he seemed very unconcerned with his response to the immunizations and acted like it was expected. However, I wasn’t comfortable with his reaction.

He continued to react each time he was immunized. I think the burden on his immune system was just too much as food allergies already place a HUGE burden on the immune system (since 70% of the immune system lies within the digestive tract). Here again, in hindsight, I wish I had postponed immunizations until he was a bit older and his system was better prepared to tolerate them, or even gone on a modified immunization schedule where the immunizations would have been spread out.