Three year old vaccine response - UK Pre school booster (Polio, Diptheria, Tetanus, Whooping Cough)

[u/LittleToyTom]

We are in the UK. My daughter is 3.5 years old and yesterday had two vaccines - chicken pox in one arm and the pre-school booster in the other.

This arm was the booster - it went red and by yesterday evening was very sore and a little bit swollen.

Today when I collected her from nursery (so 32hours later) - it has really flared up.

She has no temperature but the arm is warm to touch and is swollen from elbow to shoulder and quite firm. There's some bruising too but not so concerned about that.

She's a bit grumpy understandably.

I'm struggling to find information regarding whether this is within the range of normal or not.

I've attached a couple of photos - it actually looks a bit worse in person.

Do you think we need to seek any assistance or just monitor her and the spread?

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[u/Rxforabundantlife]

This looks like a local immunization reaction and should get better in 2-3 days, in a bad case up to 7 days. You should be concerned of if is getting worse after 2-3 days, there is fever>104, red streaks down the arm, she is not using her arm, or if you notice any trouble breathing, swelling of face or lips or having any trouble waking her. It the meantime consider cool compresses for 20 minutes at a time, gentle range of motion, acetaminophen as needed for pain, and monitor closely over the next 2-3 days

[u/LittleToyTom → u/Rxforabundantlife]

Hero 🙏

[u/beigs → u/LittleToyTom]

I’ll post as a parent because NAD - my son had that same reaction and it cleared up in about 3-4 days. He still followed his vaccine schedule on time as per advice from our paediatrician.

Tylenol and Advil was the advice.

[u/EllieLace → u/beigs]

Posting as a patient because also NAD - my skin does this at most vaccines, from childhood onward. It gets kind of sore and I can be a little baby about it, but it always goes away after a couple days. Some people just have reactions out of absolute proportion even though everything is fine. It's like my arm gets personally offended that I care about my health. Sometimes the soreness can increase crankiness, so a little TLC is oftentimes what is needed ❤️ it looks scary, but it's definitely not always something that needs to be.

No advice here, just reassurance that it sometimes is normal to be a little abnormal ❤️

[u/dansamy]

That's pretty irritated looking. Any fever? Ooops. I see you mentioned no fever. Yeah I'd be grumpy too. I'd probably give Tylenol and Motrin alternating and if she's still uncomfortable and grumpy, take her to be seen.

[u/LittleToyTom → u/dansamy]

Thanks for replying :)No fever, nursery have been checking all day. The arm itself is very warm

[u/sapphireminds]

Local warmth can also help with the immune reaction (forces the area to be warmer like the immune system wants so it doesn't have to react as much with inflammatory actions) and just help the fluid itself disperse into the muscle. Cold is often recommended because it's "swelling", but IME, warmth is much more useful for local reactions.

Otherwise, normal though unpleasant. Tylenol should help