Has anyone had measles as a child or their baby had measles?

[NellyMatrass]

Has anyone had measles as a child or their baby had measles? If so how did you or your baby cope?

I didn't, but I taught a child who did. He was very very ill and ended up
with a permanent limp due to joint inflammation.

I had measles before I was old enough for MMR and my eyesight and hearing are both permanently damaged as a result.

I was practically counting down the days until my DD was old enough to be vaccinated and as I'm now pregnant with twins, the fact that there's currently an outbreak terrifies me!

My parents both caught measles as children. My dads eyesight was permanently damaged, he's a couple of points off being formally visually impaired. My mum suffered hearing damage which fortunately did recover.

Question over mumps damaging fertility for boys?

I had measles as a small child in about 1970. I don’t think it was a particularly bad case (although the GP had to come out several times) but I am very shortsighted, which happened soon after and may or may not be linked to the measles.

The thing is, febrile seizures, whilst alarming, don’t cause lasting damage. Measles, Mumps and Rubella absolutely do. So even if the vaccinations had caused the seizures, which you don’t know that they did, it would still be a better outcome than measles, which can cause deafness, blindness and infertility. Get the MMR. Be extremely vigilant in giving doses of calpol and nurofen to keep fever down, and ride it out. The benefits far outweigh the risks here.

I caught measles, mumps and rubella as a child in the 80s, so did my brother. Measles and mumps were in particular awful for us.

These illnesses are dangerous and nasty, some can kill, some leave permanent damage. They are preventable. Please vaccinate.

I had measles at around age 6 in the late 1960s. I remember feeling pretty miserable in bed for a few days and a visit from the doctor and from our gardener who prescribed a local cure. My mother was reluctant to try the ayurvedic remedy but it worked overnight. I got better very fast.

Of course the virus may just have run its course by then. Who knows.

No lasting ill effects

My brother did. It was awful. He was so ill

I’d never willingly allow a child to go through that
Get your kids vaccinated

I predate MMR had measles and German measles, none of the other childhood illnesses. My daughters both had MMR and both only ever had Chicken Pox. I've still not had Chicken Pox, worrying at my age

I had measles mumps chicken pox and rubella before I was 7.

So did everyone else in my class. We had measles and chicken pox parties.

Mumps was the only one I remember as hurting.
Chicken pox, I remember trying not to itch and the calamine lotion.

Measles I just remember being ill and groggy and hot.

Dd had measles before the MMR.

I called the GP who said he wouldn’t know measles if he saw it.

Took Dd into the surgery and had to ask to be put in a separate room to wait to see another doctor.

@steppemum Are you int he UK? I ask becuase I had the MMR in UK in early 70s, and early 80s was certainly not pre MMR.

I'm not sure about this. I was born in 1980 and the only reason I got the MMR is that we lived in the USA when I was little.

I remember other kids at school (mid 80s) getting measles and rubella.

I think my younger siblings did have the MMR.

I had measles in the 80s and was 7 at the time. I remember being very poorly - lying on the sofa, curtains closed and no TV allowed. I remember the dr coming to the house more than once and hear him and my mum talking about possibly being sent to hospital. Ironically I had had the vaccine, but got it anyway. Dread to think how poorly I would have been if I hadn’t had it. Strangely though my brother didn’t have the vaccine (dr advised not to due to bad asthma) and he didn’t catch it.

Don't believe people claiming their child still had measles after the MMR, possibly first dose but there is simply no possibility of having it after the full two rounds, if this was happening then the current vaccine wouldn't be used to immunize

A quick Google will tell you that it's possible to still have measles after being vaccinated,less likely but possible and not as badly as without.

Get the vaccine. Don’t wait another day. His life is in danger.

I had measles at the age of 3 in 1969.
I had a “ Standard illness “ confirmed by gp.

However, I was so ill my mum thought I would die , I was full on hallucinating and everything. I’d no doubt have been hospitalised today.

As a professional I’ve seen measles once. An unvaxed family. The 2yr old was so ill I genuinely thought she had meningococcal sepsis. I suspect that’s how I looked. The big kids were also so unwell we saw them a few times. I never want to there again ( and I met a primary age child when training dying of SSPE - late brain complications of measles )

My cousin was left blind and deaf as a result of contracting measles as a child.

I had it as a baby before I was old enough for the MMR. Had non stop febrile convulsions and was really unwell.

My friends sister had it too. She ended up deaf.

@steppemum Are you int he UK? I ask becuase I had the MMR in UK in early 70s, and early 80s was certainly not pre MMR.

I was pretty sure that you were wrong about this, so I looked it up, and yes, the MMR was introduced to the UK in 1988:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22173393

MMR is a combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, three common infectious diseases of childhood. It was introduced in the UK in 1988 to replace single vaccines for each disease.

So you may well have had the single measles vaccine in the 70s, but you would not have had the MMR.

I also coincidentally saw this article in the Guardian, that gives an idea of quite how horrific measles can be - it's very vividly written.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/13/experience-i-nearly-died-of-measles

@MrsPellegrinoPetrichor a quick google about getting measles after MMR actually tells you that is extraordinarily rare. Perhaps not never, but rare enough to be statistically insignificant- less than the amount of people that get pregnant while successfully using a condom.

The OP is saying she has seen lots of posts from people saying their child got measles anyway - it is not possible that there are lots (unless you are looking on anti-vaxx boards which are aggregating the rare cases). Some people get a very mild form of measles shortly after the vaccination because that is what the vaccination is - a very mild dose of the virus. If it was common for people to get full measles anyway, a board like this would also be attracting people saying that.

I was born before MMR vaccination was available. I had measles but a very mild dose. So ill, but nothing too bad. I had a very bad dose of chickenpox and was extremely ill. I think these days I would have been hospitalised.

I was born in 1987 so would have had a the single mmr, but not the second one.
Never had measles.

Yes I had it when I was 5. Caught mumps at the same time, or immediately after. It wasn't funny, my mum said it was very worrying but I was ok.

Also had mumps again, German measles twice and chicken pox once.

My aunt had measles and it affected her eyesight, she had to wear glasses all her life after that, whereas the rest of the family have very good eyesight and haven't needed glasses until late 40s onwards.

Should say all of that was in the late 70s, I am too old to have had MMR or similar vaccinations, just had the rubella vaccine at 12 as belt and braces despite having had the illness twice!

dd had it as a baby, just before she was due to have her MMR. She was very unwell and admitted to hospital to be rehydrated. Thereafter, endless upper respiratory tract infections, damaged hearing and bad eyes. She’s largely ok now though her sight remains poor. What was a result of measles and what was coincidence, I don’t know but I do know it was a very concerning week and the doctors were also worried.