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 was born late 1970s and had the single measles vaccine, so never caught it. A friend wasn't vaccinated, caught measles and ended up blind in one eye.

Here's Roald Dahl's account of his daughter's death from measles that Aknife linked to an article about

"Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

“Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

“I feel all sleepy,” she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk. In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.

Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year. Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another. At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections. About 20 will die.

LET THAT SINK IN.

Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles.

So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised?

They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million to one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.

So what on earth are you worrying about? It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised.

The ideal time to have it done is at 13 months, but it is never too late. All school-children who have not yet had a measles immunisation should beg their parents to arrange for them to have one as soon as possible.

Incidentally, I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was ‘James and the Giant Peach’. That was when she was still alive. The second was ‘The BFG’, dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children"

I had measles as a baby and was very very ill. My mum said it was the worst period of her life.

I remember my brother having mumps and whooping cough. So was so so ill, it was quite scary. I'd been immunised, but my mum caught mumps off my brother and the doctor signed my Dad off work too look after her, this was back in the day when men didn't take time off work to look after partners or kids, she was really ill

I had German measles but not sure if also had the other sort in the 1960's - in fact I did not start school when I should have as my brother and I both got measles.

All I can remember was telling mum there were bees in the bed so she had to look and check for me - even though our cat was on my bed and surely she would not have happily sat where buzzing bees were?!

Also that business about school - when I eventually got there it was a scarey place full of kids I did not know. I hated school until I left!!

I had measles when I was 12, I had been off school really poorly with chicken pox & within a couple of days of returning to school started with measles. I can remember the doctor coming out to see me a couple of times & having some kind of convulsions, I was off school for nearly a month before I was well enough to return, I lost a lot of weight & it took ages before I was back to full strength.

I had Measles, Mumps and Rubella (German measles) I can remember the Mumps as sis and I got it same time, Dad was shipped off to his Mum so he wouldn't get it and we sat in bed together eating ice cream. No ill effects from any of them. Measles I can remember my Gran trying to cool me down, stood on a bath towel in front of the fire while she cooled me with a wet cloth and bowl of water. This was the 60's before paracetamol was used widely in UK and Asprin wasn't recommended I'm told.

I had measles as a toddler and although I can't remember it my mother said I was very unwell and close to being hospitalised. No lasting effects though.

I also had mumps and whooping cough, which were much milder.

Yeah,I had it in the seventies. Calamine lotion, or maybe that was chickenpox. Obviously I don't remember anything about it. It was normal then.

My DS had febrile convulsions and nobody suggested missing his MMR.

I had measles in the late 1960s age 3 and my sister was a year. Neither of us has lasting side effects. I can remember feeling sick and the doctor visiting but that was it, my sister had to be sponged down by my Mum to reduce her fever. Presumably people died of it, but no one we were aware of. In those days childhood illnesses were normalised.

Later on in the 70s a teenage boy at our school died from chickenpox. I wish there had been a vaccine for that available. I caught it aged 34 when DD1 had it and was off work for a month. I had long hair at the time and the blisters on my scalp were incredibly painful.

DD1 was given chicken pox immunoglobulin as a small baby as someone on the maternity ward had chickenpox and didn't tell anyone - they tested a retained blood sample of mine and realised she had no immunity. I'll never forget her screams and sobs when the midwife injected her in her tiny little legs - heart rending. She had shingles aged 7 after catching chicken pox at 1.

@AfterSchoolWorry as you don’t know what you’re talking about, when it’s about something as important as vaccination isn’t it better to just not talk at all?

I had measles as a child as well as chicken pox and Rubella.

I have also had shingles. You can only get shingles if you have had chickenpox. It was very painful.

I also had mumps. Never had whooping cough but my father had it as a child.

I had measles when I was around 3or 4 (in nursery school) in the late 60s. I can’t remember it but my mother says I was quite poorly - delirious and couldn’t stand lights. Fortunately I didn’t suffer any permanent issues.

My neighbours son had it and was very poorly with convulsions and he ended up with permanent damage to his eyesight.

interesting that the MMR wasn't introduced until 1988. We must had had single vaccines then.
But that was eary 1970s, and we had a lot of vaccination, don't remember many friends being ill.

My mum had a close friend who was a GP. She had seen many children through these childhood illnesses, and when my mum asked her advice she simply said her own two children had had every single available vaccine.

She has watched children die, have life long side effects, blindness and brain damage and it was heart breaking.
My mum listened to her and we had every vaccine on offer.

The friend did say though that whooping cough was the worst. In a bad case the child simply cannot breathe in enough oxygen. You watch them soffocating in front of you and they end up brain damaged. Harrowing.

I remember when I was at primary school my friend’s tiny baby sister caught whooping cough. She was really really poorly with it. She was lucky to survive.

and I remember later, when I was a teen and there was something on TV about vaccines, this friend said - if you have ever seen a child with a severe case of measles or whooping cough, you would run to your GP and ask for the vaccine. the trouble is, we have forgotten just how awful a bad case can be.

DH had it in the late 70s. Nearly died from it.

DD is vaxxed for everything including chicken pox.

Ask the advice of your GP. Measles is such a terrible disease. I nursed a child through it, and my mother's brother died of it, aged six. You may be able to get a single vaccine for your little boy.

I had it in the early seventies, I remember it so clearly. I was being bathed by mum and she noticed the rash, took me to the docs who confirmed it could be. I had it so incredibly mild, slight rise in temperature that he couldn't be sure but advised the usual to stay away from school etc. Sadly it was confirmed a little while later when mum caught it - she was pregnant and it's the reason I'm an only child.
I do understand that we're now a good two generations down and lot of people have never seen the effects but this is, along with mumps and rubella are evil diseases that can cause untold damage - there are very good reasons why vaccines were researched and produced.

I had Rubella as a baby in the mid 80's. I was quite poorly I think but thankfully no lasting effects

My husband is an antivaxxer but I had my son vaccinated regardless. I told DH he would have to divorce me and take me to court to stop me and I absolutely meant it

If it helps, DS didn't get a fever really after his 12 month vaccinations (including the MMR) and he had a really bad fever after his earlier ones (over 40C, I was very concerned about febrile convulsions after the 16 week ones especially). I think his body just coped better now he's older

I was a child in the 1940s/50s and all the children had measles. I remember the doctor coming to the house and I was in bed for a while but don't know anyone who had a bad reaction to it.

My sister almost died from measles in the 70s aged 3 and it badly affected her eyesight.