Terrified about MMR

[nikkixx]

Hi

I am driving myself up the wall with worry about my little boy having the MMR. I have 2 older children that have both had it but after my 2nd child had it he started suffering from febrile convulsions. They were terrible. I can't begin to tell you how scared we were and our GP advised he didn't have the booster MMR as blood test showed he already had enough immunity.

My little boy should have had the injection when he was 13 months - he is now 21 months but I can't bring myself to have it done. On the other hand I am too scared not to incase he gets one of the horrible illnesses. Help, I just don't know what to do :shrug:

I've spoken to our GP about having the 3 single injections (which we would have to pay for) but apparently there are no 'mumps' vaccines available:ohmy:

Sorry - this has turned into an essay lol xx

[davey]

its definatly a difficult one, I personally am against it due to problems with my brother when he had it but on the other hand every child in my family has had it and has been fine. Some doctors swear its safe while some researchers claim its not so what are we suppossed to think.
Sorry couldn't help :shrug:

[RLR]

The decision for any mother to potentially place their child at risk of side-effects of vaccines is never easy, particularly where there is first-hand experience as in your case. It's important to realize, however, that febrile convulsions can occur entirely in the absence of vaccine reaction and it's actually more common than one might think.

Secondly, seizure response occurs in about 1 out of roughly 3000 instances and it's important here not to introduce familial similarities as an increased risk for such a response to the vaccine. It doesn't work that way.

The bottom line is that the MMR viruses have to potential to introduce far worse residual effects than the side-effect of the vaccine. My suggestion is to follow up with your pediatrician and simply have the vaccine administered. Naturally watch your child for signs of reaction and realize that it will most likely go uneventful. While the chance does exist for a similar reaction to your other child, it is equivalent to receiving 3000 vaccines in order to produce a reaction.

Most of your indecision is being perpetuated by the level of risk which you are basing on your other child and your experience with the consequences. The actual odds are far from what you imagine.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)

[Katie6]

Hi there,
What to do regarding MMR is a very personal descision, my children are 9 and 6 now, but i went through the same battle with myself of what best to do. With my first child we opted for the single injections which had to pay for privately, it was very heavily in the press about autism at the time, but it was the worst descision we could of made. We chose a clinic carefully, it was a very busy clinic, looked well organised, but to cut a long story short by the time we arrived home on the first injection my son was very very ill, 3 months later we took him for the 2nd which was the rubella, on the morning of being due to take him for the 3rd injection, the clinic was plastered all over the news, as they had been mixing the vaccines in advance and they were putting children at risk from serious infection which could kill, they were doing lots of other things wrong serious enough for the doctor leading the clinic to have been sent to prison. so that made me feel very lucky my son got through the illness which it caused him, it also meant that he may not be immune to the illness as the vaccine would not of worked if he had of had the bad batch, i asked my gp to do a blood test, to check his immunity but the refused and advised me just to have the mmr anyway, i didn't want to do that as if he was immune to either of the two test he had had i didn't want to overload him with more vaccine. In the end we paid privately to have the blood test and found that he was immune to the rubella but not measles, we decided to find another clinic, which was not easy as the single vaccines were in very high demand, we had to travel over two hours each way to have the measles and the mumps injection, it was with a private gp and i knew people who had also used him and felt confident in him. When it was time to for my 2nd child to have the vaccine i didn't hesitate in giving him the mmr as all we had been through with the single vaccines, my elder son who had the injection had the mmr booster too.

i am not saying that all clinics would give a bad experience with the single vaccines as i experienced a good a bad and combined mmr. and if i were having to choose again i would go for the mmr, but it is a very personal descision and a very hard one to make.

Was the febrile convulsions said to be linked to the vaccine? My son had a febrile convulsion, not anything to do with the vaccine, so i know how scary that is.

[Jo3016]

Hi

I just wanted to offer my support to you at this time as I had a very hard time making the decision to have my now 9 year old vaccinated as there was the scare about autism at that time.

I did have it done and also my 2 subsequent children and I am glad that I did as we have had several measles outbreaks here and most recently, mumps.

I completely understand your worry considering your second child's reaction. Maybe you should seek a second oppinion. Could your youngest have a blood test to see if he already has some antibodies?

Take care and good luck