Child Vaccination (Newborn immunisation at hospital and immunisation at polyclinic)

Thomson Medical Centre (Hospital)
2nd day: BCG on left buttock and 1st dose of Hept B on right thigh

Making the first appointment for polyclinic

Called Jurong polyclinic to make appointment in week 3. Register child via phone as child is under 12 years old, have to be under mother's name. And, since I had never been to polyclinic before, I also had to register myself via phone. Was told the vaccination would be Hept b at 1 month old and each vaccination should be at least 1 month apart. The earlier dates were being fully booked and was appointed to go at 6th week. 

Summary for polyclinic vaccination 

First visit (Hept B, 1st month): To bring birth certificate, mother's IC and health booklet for verification during the first visit. Do not need to make any payment for this round as Hept B vaccinations are fully subsidized by the government. We were advised by the nursing staff that Hept B will not trigger fever. 

Second visit (PCV, 5 in 1 and Rotavirus, 3rd month) :To bring health booklet, Birth certificate and CDA ATM card. Birth certificate required to apply to make payment through baby's medisave ($150) for PCV. Baby's CDA ATM card (and of course memorise the pin number) required to make payment of $90 for rotavirus if you prefer to use baby' CDA to pay. PCV and 5 in 1 may trigger fever anytime during the first two days. Polyclinic would give  a bottle of paracetamol and a syringe for you to bring home. Also, do not feed your baby half an hour before and after taking rotavirus in case she pukes out the medicine together with the milk.

Please see picture at end of page for the pricing of the various vaccinations.

Tip 1: photocopy baby's birth cert and place it inside the health booklet.

Jurong polyclinic 
1st month vaccination: 2nd dose of Hept B on right thigh

We arrived 30 minutes earlier than the allocated time (10.40am). Entered the main door and keyed in my bb's IC number to generate a queue ticket. My queue number flashed IMMEDIATELY at the counter. At the counter, after verifying identity using IC, birth cert and health booklet, we were given another ticket with room number stated and queue number. Went up to second floor and turned right and found the room.

There were 3 kinds of rooms. The first one to enter was to measure height and weight (room 15). Second room was to measure head circumference and take the Hept b vaccination (room 16). Third room was the doctor's room to check on child's development (room 12).

Note that in the second room, for the first visit, you would be asked to complete a checklist for your child's development (page 7 of healthbooklet). You would also have to decide if you wish to take rotavirus (optional vaccine, oral not injection) for the next appointment. 1st dose of Rotavirus MUST be taken before your child is 16 weeks. The nurse would then indicate on page 64 of the healthbooklet the time frame for the next vaccination. 

After seeing the doctor at the third room, we then went back to the second room (15mins after injection), so that the nurse could check that the bleeding has stopped. 

At the payment and appointment counter, the admin staff would refer to page 64 of the health booklet to arrange with you the date for the next appointment. We did not have to make any payment for the first visit as Hept b was free.

Tip 2: As the queue at the payment and appointment could be long, you might wish to take the queue number after your vaccination but before seeing doctor.
(You can just press the queue number machine at the counter, it is okay to miss the payment queue number since they don't know who pressed it, Hehe.)
So after you see the doctor, you would not have to wait so long to make payment. 

Tip 3: Be punctual but not too early for vaccination. According to a mummy, polyclinic computer system might arrange the "latecomers" to cut your queue for vaccination as they had missed the queue number and if you were not that far off from your allocated time.  Not sure it was because of the crowd that day or I had arrived too early, the waiting time for each room was long and we left only at 12.10pm.

Tip 4: Do your "homework" before going to polyclinic.  There is child development checklist on page 9 to be completed by parents for 3rd month before my next visit. I did it before going to the polyclinic second visit so the nurse simply stamped the date and she did not have to wait for me to do the checklist. (If you don't wish to do beforehand, I still suggest you to read through as the questions are tough!)

3rd month vaccination: 1st dose of rotavirus (oral), 1st dose of PCV (right thigh), 1st dose of 5 in 1 (left thigh)

We arrived 7 Minutes before the allocated time (10.20am). Keyed in baby's Ic number in the self-help machine (first machine in the left). Given the room number and queue number. Since this is the second visit, we need not go to the counter. We then proceed to level 2 room 15. We were glad that there were only a few people waiting outside the room and we waited about 10 minutes to enter the height and weight room.

In the second room, bb was first given the rotavirus orally using a syringe. Bb seemed to be rather happy with the taste. The nurse mentioned that it was okay even if baby puked a little milk as rotavirus tended to be absorbed quickly once swallowed. Also they took into account that baby might puke milk when determining the volume to be administered. 

I was told to hold the baby in a cradle hold position. I held my baby using my left arm and my left hand would grab bb's hand while my right grab her legs. After the first injection, you should quickly switch to cradle hold your baby using your right arm so that the nurse could administer the second injection on her right thigh. 

(It took me sometime to understand what the nurse was saying when she asked me to "turn the baby". So poor baby was crying for quite a while before I finally understood the nurse's instructions and cradle hold using my right arm before she could give the second injection. The "quite a while" was only perhaps 15 seconds but still heartpain...haha). 

We were given a bottle of paracetamol and a syringe. We were supposed to give baby paracetamol if she has fever (above 37.5 degree Celsius) every 6 hourly. If fever continues for more than 24 hours or a high fever (e.g. 39 degree Celsius), we would need to bring baby to hospital A&E. 

At the payment and appointment counter, we were given the choice of paying the PCV by cash or medisave. We chose medisave and had to show her birth cert (photocopied will do) and filled up a medisave form. We paid rotavirus using her CDA account with her ATM card. 

It was about 11.30am after we made the payment. We were scheduled for second dose of 5 in 1 and second dose of rotavirus in 1 month's time. I would be updating my blog on this.

Before heading home, we went to the pharmacy at level 1 to buy a clinical armpit thermometer at $5.10 (thermometers are kept at pharmacy cashier counter).

Tip 5: weight percentile are found on page 30 to 31. I used the chart to estimate the weight of my baby when buying diapers. As I stock up my goon diapers whenever there is promotion, I needed to determine if she could still fit into small size when she is fourth month old. The nurse mentioned that the baby's weight would most likely remain more or less on the same colour line. If there is a major change ie. The weight when plotted is on another colour line, then it is a cause for concern. 

(I was quite concerned when I was told her weight had become >25%tile when previously was 50%tile. But the nurse said that when plotted, her weight was very near the blue line I.e. 50%tile and it was not a cause for concern. If you refer to the graphs, they only have 3,10,25,50,75, 90,97% and the graphs are so close to each other and it is difficult to plot accurately! Perhaps, they should use a simple software instead of pen and ruler to estimate the percentile. Ok, I used to be a maths teacher...haha)

Click to see schedule of vaccination. When referring to the schedule, do take note that DTap, IPV and Hib together are considered 5 in 1 injection. Rotavirus is not shown on the schedule and it is an optional vaccination. First dose of rotavirus is in 3rd month (before week 16) and second dose in fourth month (before week 24). You can also find the schedule in page 55 of healthbooklet.