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 missed my 10th birthday party because I had measles. I don't remember much about it, I think I was just out of it in bed. But these were the days when doctors still visited, and our doc did visit at least twice, so he must have felt the need to keep an eye on me.
I do remember that when I finally made it out of bed I let out a full on scream when I caught a glimpse of myself as I walked past a mirror. I looked like a monster.
My kids have all had MMR jab.

I had measles as a child I’m partially deaf as a result .

Had it in the 70s. Absolutely hideous. I do not recommend it.
My friend got chickenpox/shingles as an older teenager - nearly went blind.
Vaccinate!

I think you should discuss this with an immunologist or at least a doctor with more knowledge than MN. My daughter was born in 1979 and there was no vaccine, She had measles at one year old and it was terrifying. She was so ill I thought she would die. She was lucky to get no lasting damage. Did you not watch BBC2 last night. Get it on catch up.

I had measles when I was about 9, I was on holiday in Cornwall in a touring caravan. I remember it starting with me feeling feverish, then I had a bad headache, then a rash and a temperature. I also felt very very ill, slept a lot and I remember my family keeping the caravan as dark as possible to protect my eyesight

I had measles aged 4.. vague memories of terrible hallucinations.
I also have dire eyesight which was diagnosed a year later.

DS2 had measles aged 12 despite being vaccinated. The rash was incredible (the gp took photos) and he had a very high fever, and a terrible cough with it. My Mum dx him before the doctor did.. she'd seen more measles than the young gp! He was really poorly, but as he has autism he didn't articulate how he felt so it took a while (and the rash) for us to realise how unwell he was.

My DS2 also had febrile seizures... quite a lot of children do. It's really not a reason to miss out on vaccinations. Your son is getting past the danger age for them , and a febrile seizure has far less potential to cause damage than measles. Please get it done!

Please vaccinate. Talk to the doctor about getting it done in hospital if you like - but do get it done. Read all the stories here of people who have been left deaf, or with poor eyesight, or other permanent damage, or suffered horribly through it - do you want to be responsible for that happening to your precious son?

I was born in 1970 and my mum made sure I had every vaccination going, because she'd grown up in a poor family pre-NHS and seen what measles etc could do. I still have my original immunization record and confirm that at the time it was possible to get single vacs for measles, mumps and rubella (but only one vaccination each, do presumably not complete protection). So I'm a bit confused by people saying they got measles in the 80s because MMR hadn't yet been introduced. Presumably your parents were offered the single vaccine and either chose not to take it, or you were vaccinated once and the protection wasn't sufficient so you got the illness nonetheless.

I do recall that even in the 1970s uptake with vaccination was quite low - where we lived in Wales had a big outbreak around 1977 ( nicknamed 'the dreaded lurgy' by us kids) and lots of kids got it because they weren't vaccinated at all - the parents didn't believe in such modern notions apparently - but it WAS offered as a standard option at baby health checks.

I had measles as a child and have seen lots of cases in U.K. and overseas. The impact of measles can vary enormously.
For some it’s just a miserable week or so with sore throat, sore eyes, earache and a rash. Children are febrile and feel unwell. The might vomit.
For others they develop complications like hearing loss, vision impairment, brain damage from post measles tuberose sclerosis and encephalitis. Some start having seizures.
Some die.
The numbers dying in U.K. are low, but I’m not sure I’d want to take that risk. Speak to your GP and arrange vaccination.

I had pretty much the works as a child as my mum didn’t vaccinate me. Measles, mumps, scarlet fever and whooping cough plus the usual chicken pox and German measles. I was poorly a lot!

I don’t remember measles specifically but i was pretty ill according to my family. I’ve scar tissue on the back of one eye caused by it. It may cause retina problems later in life.

My siblings who are older than me were vaccinated and didn’t get so ill. But in the mid 70s there were rumours about vaccines causing problems which my mum believed.

My children are vaccinated.

My DM says that when she was a child everyone caught all these childhood diseases and she never knew anyone to die
I had the measles vaccine but my brother didn’t and we both caught it. I remember being ill for a long time. My brother had it very mildly.
Mumps was still common, hurt but I wasn’t ill with it. DM says German measles was very mild, the vaccination was just to protect unborn babies. Polio was a dreaded killer.

Loads of children died Hovverry we got lucky last generation or so with the fact we had better medical care . My grans siblings 2 of the 8 children died of childhood diseases and that wasn’t particularly unusual .

Yes, I partially lost hearing. 1984. Please vaccinate.

Take a walk around any cemetery with graves pre-dating the 1960s and see how many headstones include at least one child, go back to pre-1920 and many of them will include more than one, back a bit further and you'll see headstones with literal lists of children where families lost several within days of one another. Could you imagine having five children and all them dying over the space of two weeks?

Horrific.

This is why we have vaccines.

OP, speak to your GP. Reading the recollections of random people online who may or may not be misremembering the effects of an illness they had in the 1970s isn't particularly useful.

Some children are badly affected by measles, others are not. It's impossible to predict how your baby will react to any illness. I delayed DS' vaccinations because of his convulsions. It was a brilliant GP who actually listened to my concerns who convinced me to vaccinate, not MN.

I had measles when I was 7, for me it was very mild. But at the time we lived in India, and I don’t know if it’s a different strain? Though i believe there were measles hospitals/ wards in India at the time so it must have been severe for some people.

My children are now grown but I DO remember having measles as a child. Obviously, this was many years ago, and I do not remember how sick I was but remember very clearly sitting in my cot and the doctor coming round to see me. So I guess I was about 2 years old.
The MMR vaccine was only produced in time for my younger DS, older DS just had the measles vaccine.
However, I wanted to add that I am sure I am similar to most parents, in that I did not undertake this lightly. I took the view that my DC seemed to be very robust and healthy and that them having the vaccines would help provide herd immunity for those children who really could not have the vaccine because they were ill or in hospital.
Measles can have other complications and cause encephalitis, so it is not a mild disease.

OP remember though - the 5% of children who don’t develop full immunity after their first dose would never catch measles at all if there was full vaccination.

My DS would still have normal vision if it weren’t for the idiot anti-vaxers.

Dd had a mild form of measles as a baby - cane out with it the day after having her MMR so initially everyone assumed it was a reaction to that. Turned out not to be and was just coincidental- measles was going round the areas due to a drop in people taking up the vaccination. Was 16y ago now.

She was really poorly for a few days - very high temperature, lethargic, mild rash. Wasn't pleasant and she lost a lot of weight. And that was only a mild case.

I didn't have measles as a child but I did have mumps - in Christmas Day :( was very poorly apparently. I don't really have memories of it.
My brother had German measles - rubella.

I know of people from back in 79s who did have these and some were really ill. I know one bit I went to school with ended up with hearing loss.

I had the MMR in UK in early 70s,

I didn't have MMR, born 1973. Brother didn't a year later.

Google searches says it wasn't introduced until 1988z

I had measles when 1 was 6, my sisters were 4 and 2 I remember the GP came every day to the house the first few days, no lasting problems my mum says the youngest was worse as too young to be distracted and do stuff so she was more miserable in early 1970's you couldn't just switch on TV, as there was no option for all day cartoons kids tv was about 1-2 hour per day after school while being a bit older I could do colouring and jigsaws etc, mum read us stories about every hour
we had whooping cough the next year as we weren't vaccinated as my mum's friends daughter had vaccine at about 3 years old and had a very bad reaction she has since died but she pretty much needed 24/7 care I think it scared my parents there wasn't so much info then and the current whooping cough vaccine is much safer
but it turned our school summer holiday to 10 weeks and we got lots of ice cream and jelly

I had it as a toddler. I’m 50
My mum said I’d never been so ill again before or after.

I don’t remember it but had no side effects.

A neighbours son was deaf after measles.

child of my parents' friends died of it...

I'm 40 and I had it when I was 12. Was horrendous. I couldn't see properly for days, couldn't focus my eyes, couldnt bear light, couldn't walk, kept accusing my mum of hiding medicine in stuff. No lasting effects though.

I had measles when I was maybe 4 or 5. I dont really recall much about it tbh, just being in bed a lot.
I have damaged hearing in one ear and poor eyesight which may or may not be attributed to it, who knows ?

I remember mumps too as I was a few years older. Bloody painful!

I'm not really aware of if any of my cohort had these too but I do remember my best friend had whooping cough and was very poorly for months.