I have a confession to make.
The boys have been home for an entire month and I am just now getting their vaccinations started. Does that make me a bad mom? (Okay, don't answer that.) I've had the scripts for awhile but could never remember where the vaccination clinic was and needed to schedule a time when Pedro could accompany me so we'd have one-on-one defense for the boys' introduction to the scary world of shots.
Today was finally the day. The shot schedule is different here in Chile and the clinic kept the scripts so I can't remember now exactly what they each had, only that one shot each was free through the public health system and the other one shot each was not (for a total cost of around $150 USD - yet another reason to say "Ouch!") The boys also received oral polio drops.
My assignment now is to create a shot record since we weren't given one and I'm not sure how exactly that works in Chile. I do know we have some follow-up shots in another month and a half and I am pretty sure the boys are not going to remember the place too fondly! They both wailed and flailed during the shots and afterward wept quietly for a short while before bouncing back to their usual happy selves. Right now they are sleeping and have some infant inbuprofen in their systems to help with the aftermath. Hopefully they won't be too uncomfortable later.
I was given the option of getting tuberculosis shots for the boys. They are standard here in Chile up to age two, but my experience has been that when kids who've had the shot return to the States it causes a small panic when they test positive for TB because they've have the shot. I decided against it since none of my other kids had the TB shot and neither the US nor Chile poses a high risk for it.
I'm sure Ian and Alec would thank me for one less painful prick if they only knew! :)
The boys have been home for an entire month and I am just now getting their vaccinations started. Does that make me a bad mom? (Okay, don't answer that.) I've had the scripts for awhile but could never remember where the vaccination clinic was and needed to schedule a time when Pedro could accompany me so we'd have one-on-one defense for the boys' introduction to the scary world of shots.
Today was finally the day. The shot schedule is different here in Chile and the clinic kept the scripts so I can't remember now exactly what they each had, only that one shot each was free through the public health system and the other one shot each was not (for a total cost of around $150 USD - yet another reason to say "Ouch!") The boys also received oral polio drops.
My assignment now is to create a shot record since we weren't given one and I'm not sure how exactly that works in Chile. I do know we have some follow-up shots in another month and a half and I am pretty sure the boys are not going to remember the place too fondly! They both wailed and flailed during the shots and afterward wept quietly for a short while before bouncing back to their usual happy selves. Right now they are sleeping and have some infant inbuprofen in their systems to help with the aftermath. Hopefully they won't be too uncomfortable later.
I was given the option of getting tuberculosis shots for the boys. They are standard here in Chile up to age two, but my experience has been that when kids who've had the shot return to the States it causes a small panic when they test positive for TB because they've have the shot. I decided against it since none of my other kids had the TB shot and neither the US nor Chile poses a high risk for it.
I'm sure Ian and Alec would thank me for one less painful prick if they only knew! :)
3 comments:
My youngest got the TB shot, blessed by being born in Chile, I suppose. I made sure to get several official signatures on my vaccination card to verify that she did get it. Of course, there's also the big scar on her arm that forever brands her as really and truly being Chilean...
If you take the boys to any consultorio, they will give them all required shots for free. Actually, we recently signed up for fonasa and inscribed with a family plan. We now have access to free bloodwork, meds, and routine health checkups. When the babies really get sick, you can still go to a private doctor. We highly recommend it!
yea, the BIG scar, i have one of those, and yes...my tb test every year comes back positive because of this...but thankfully working for the health dept they can understand why...if it isn't required anymore, i wouldn't have them go through that either...
-ang-
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