Can Vaccines Make Baby Reflux Worse?
If you are approaching your baby's vaccines, you may be wondering, can vaccines make reflux worse?
I'm afraid that this isn’t something that your doctor will ever tell you, yet there are many, many babies out there whose parents will tell you that either they didn’t have reflux until their vaccines or that their baby’s reflux got markedly worse after jabs.
Some babies with reflux will get worse with vaccinations, and others won’t be affected at all.
This does not mean that you need to avoid vaccinating your baby.
Read on to learn what it is in vaccines that interact with your baby’s body to trigger reflux reactions and how to support them around vaccination time to reduce the risk of worsening reflux with jabs.
So, what does this mean?
What it means is that we need to understand what is the underlying cause of your baby’s reflux. The sooner we can do this, the better because we can decide if the baby’s body needs more support around jabs or if you need to discuss an alternate schedule for your baby’s jabs to give their body time to recover.
To first understand where your baby stands, you need to understand what is causing their reflux. In your observations of their symptoms and behaviours, you already have all the information you need to do this.
I can help you decipher these along with their frequency and severity to figure out what is the underlying cause of your baby’s reflux.
This is my superpower!
It all starts with capturing your baby’s symptoms, and I have created a free download to help you do this. My free symptoms tracker lets you know what eighty symptoms and behaviours you need to be looking out for. Grab it now because depending on what is causing your baby's reflux, they may be more or less likely to be affected by vaccines.
How Can Vaccines Make Reflux Worse?
Many babies are fine and won't have a long-term reaction to their vaccines. However, some little ones will react to their jabs, and they can react badly in a way that lasts for months.
It's not the active ingredient, the actual vaccine itself, that causes the issue. It’s typically the other ingredients.
Common ingredients in vaccines that cause problems include:
- Lactose: although it is a milk sugar, it is not dairy-free and can cause issues for babies who have a sensitive Cow's Milk Protein Allergy CMPA. Babies with CMPA do not need to consume dairy to have an allergic reaction orally; getting dairy into their bloodstream causes a reaction, too.
- Sucrose: a complex sugar that many babies do not have the ability to digest due to normal gut immaturity or caused by an unidentified allergy. If a baby has a sensitive digestive system, sucrose can ferment in the gut, causing trapped wind, bloating and increased flatulence.
- Sorbitol, Mannitol and Dextran: these are complex polysaccharides that some babies cannot break down, which can then ferment in the gut, causing trapped wind, bloating and increased flatulence.
- Gelatine: if gelatine is derived from bovine sources, it poses an allergy risk to those with CMPA
- Antibiotics: these are non-discriminate, which means they kill all types of bacteria in the body, good and bad. This includes injuring the gut bacteria and the microbiome. We are starting to understand just how important our microbiome is for digestion, nutrient extraction and emotional regulation in humans, and this research is far from being part of mainstream medicine.
Any injury to the microbiome depletes our ability to digest food properly. When this happens, some foods are no longer fully digested, so ferment in the gut, causing bloating, trapped gas, etc.
- Diarrhoea: as a side effect of some vaccinations, it is important to be aware that events of diarrhoea deplete the gut microbiome, literally washing out the gut bacteria. This depletes the microbiome, so can have the same effect as antibiotics and leaves the body in a place where fermentation of complex carbs increases, causing bloating, discomfort, flatulence (gas) and trapped gas.
Which vaccines contain what?
- 6-in-1: Contains lactose, residual formaldehyde and neomycin (an antibiotic)
36% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect - Rotavirus: an oral vaccine containing sucrose and sorbitol
Between 1 and 10% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect - PVC: Grown on soy, so may present an allergen risk
Diarrhoea occurs in more than 1% of patients - Men-B: contains sucrose, histidine and kanamycin (an antibiotic)
Between 1 and 10% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect
Histidine may increase histamine levels, which could increase allergy-type reactions in babies with elevated histamine levels - Hib/MenC: Contains sucrose
UP to 1% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect - MMR: MMRVaxPro contains sucrose, sorbitol, neomycin and hydrolysed gelatine
UP to 1% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect - MMR: Pirorix: Contains lactose, mannitol, sorbitol and neomycin
UP to 1% of patients experience diarrhoea as a side effect
What can we do about it?
A baby’s microbiome is so important to their development. It is one invisible facet of our baby's development that we must start to look after in a much more deliberate way.
To minimise the negative impact that vaccines may have on your baby, I suggest supplementing with a good probiotic in the weeks around vaccinations. Probiotics are not necessary on a full-time schedule, however, they can play an important role in supporting the body when necessary.
My suggestion is to give the baby a probiotic (or take it yourself if you’re breastfeeding) for about a week before their jabs and up to two weeks afterwards. This should support your baby’s digestive system during this period.
What is this an indicator of?
If your baby's reflux worsens with jabs, their gut microbiome and digestive enzymes may need more TLC when they start solids. The key to figuring out what is really going on for your baby lies in understanding all of their symptoms.
How can I help with this?
In the 'Reflux Free Baby' System, I walk you through all the symptoms you need to observe and record for your baby, what they mean, and how to use them as clues. The course is suitable for both bottle-feeding and breastfed babies who are suffering from baby reflux.
I tell you what the clues mean individually and when they occur with other groups of symptoms.
And this leads us to be able to say what is causing each baby's reflux with much more confidence.
Based on this, I tell you what specific action to take for them.
If you're on the fence, start with your Free Symptoms Tracker below. Document just how many behaviours and symptoms are directly related to your baby's reflux and how much discomfort you can expect to resolve by addressing the root cause of their reflux.
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