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Original poster

To still really worry about the MMR jab?

112 replies

pastalady · 24/08/2007 20:37

My DS of 2 yrs 4 mnths had it today after we put it off for ages because of concerns. Have dreaded him having it because of all the scare stories I have read about it. Read the MMR facts website which made me feel better, but I can't stop thinking about the stories I've read about parents who's toddlers regressive autism/severe illness and even death coincided with the jab and medical people who still keep piping up about it being unsafe.

I really don't know if we've made the right decision. Am I being unreasonable to still feel worried like this so far down the MMR scandle line?

OP posts:
gess · 26/08/2007 21:49

all that's from the halvorsen book btw

Paddlechick666 · 26/08/2007 22:01

gess, to be totally honest i don't actually know what she had. how bad is that!

I did a lot of research at the time but can't remember a great deal now. I think it was the standard DTP tbh.

am ashamed to say i don't even remember the scientist's name now. her research is published and she gives talks etc in the UK.

she and her husband did the study but it ended when he died.

the scientist is very anti vaccination and indeed any sort of calpol etc.

she is very pro-homeopathy and i did seek out the recommended homeopathic anti-dote at the time.

dd's breathing continued to be "interrupted" for at least a month after the episodes and, to my mind, even to this day she can have periods where she seems not to breathe in for ages!

i try very hard not to obsess on it but it's safe to say i wake up each morning with a small dread if she's not already awake. sounds a bit melodramatic but it's true!

i always wake before her and i have schooled myself not to leg it into her room to check on her!

lady007pink · 26/08/2007 22:24

I worried the same as you, Pastalady, so much my DS and DD1 didn't have their first MMR injection until they were 4yo. DD2 is 9mo so I'm facing the agony again of whether to let her have it or keep putting it off again and again. The cases I heard about apparently showed the child developed symptoms 10 days post injection - so wait another few days then you can relax and start feeling the relief that he's had it done and out of the way!!!
BTW, DS and DD1 were fine.
I know the decision to have it done is correct as my neighbour's son (aged 4) was in remission from Leukeamia, but he caught measles from his sister and was unable to fight it. He died 2 weeks later.

gess · 26/08/2007 22:28

When did she receive the jab? If pre October 2004 it would have been the DTP, if after the 5 in 1, pediacel.

There were always mutterings about the old DTP and cot death. I think I know the person you are talking about, but I can't remember her name either. Her name is mud in lots of circles!

I've downloaded the safety study I mentioned it's this one I have full access, rather than just the abstract. The relevant bit for you is this:

' a third infant had several periods of brief apnea about 15 hours after dose 1 of component combination vaccine... The child was hospitalised and monitered for 20 h. Three additional periods of apnea occurred in a 5 min period during monitoring. The child was withdrawn from the study at the request of the parents. No further episodes or problems have been noted.'

Paddlechick666 · 27/08/2007 07:53

it was Jan 06 as she's coming up 2 now.

thanks for the link. we're off away for a couple of days but will take a proper look when i get back.

gess · 27/08/2007 08:21

enjoy yourself. If you want the full article when you get back CAT me.

Paddlechick666 · 27/08/2007 08:23

yes please, that would be great.

will CAT you now.

LoveAngel · 27/08/2007 09:56

Sorry, saw this late and haven't read all replies. YANBU to be worried (there has been a lot of scaremongering about this), but I think you made the most reasonable and rational choice to have your child vaccinated.

KerryMumbledore · 27/08/2007 12:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gess · 27/08/2007 13:40

The single vaccines are the same as the MMR, just not combined. I didn't know they used human cells, but if the singles do then so will the MMR. They'll be screened, but there's always an occasional BSE/monkey virus/whatever hooha every now and then. Put it this way they'll be screened for whatever they can be screened for at this time.

NKF · 27/08/2007 15:05

LoveAngel, I think you are spot on and now that the original poster has made her decision and had her child vaccinated, I'm sure she would appreciate some reassurance.

Pastalady, I'm sure your little one will be fine. As far as I can understand, the people who worry about autism and MMR maintain that it's a very very small proportion of children who are affected. And the medical consensus is that there is no connection at all.

I'd say relax and try to stop thinking about it. All the best.

Spandex · 27/08/2007 16:27

So I'm supposed to trust the companies who make/made products with mercury, aluminium and other nasties in it? And I'm expected to jab my children with it too?

KerryMumbledore · 27/08/2007 17:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gess · 27/08/2007 20:31

here answers some questions KM. It looks as if there is a move from chick embryos to human diploid cells. I know other mammalian cells have been used in the past (calf- there was a bit of thing about BSE in the past). Another big story has been the use of monkey tissue in polio vaccine manufacture during the 1950's and 1960's, it was apparently widely contaminated with SV40 which can cause cancer. It comes and goes that story. I've never looked into it so can't tell you much more. A more recent story that again I haven't looked into at all is nanobacteria from vaccines. TBH I have no idea what nanobacteria are although I assume given their name they're small!

I suspect that the move to human from chick embryos is the reason that they now say the MMR is fine for egg anaphylactics.

They do have to be cultured on something. And they will be well screened for whatever they can be screened for now. You'll never get rid of the possibilty that there's something lurking that isn't know about - any more than you can guarantee a blood transfusion isn't hiding something whilst saving your life iyswim.

I don't think by the way that there is a medical consensus that the MMR doesn't trigger autism in a susceptible group. A consultant immunologist has advised a mnetter with Crohns to avoid the MMR, a consultant paediatrician told a friend that her son's severe autism was 'probably' MMR triggered (he looked after her son in ICU- he had a very very long seizure following MMR), if you read the notes from the current GMC hearing you'll find there's no consensus. There's a lot of people out there who will say one thing privately and another in public. Don't blame them at all.

Isababel · 27/08/2007 21:37

Kerry, DS had the measles and rubella singles from them and he was perfectly fine. TBH there is far more to India than what it is being given credit for.

Howdydoody · 27/08/2007 21:45

Has anyone's dcs had epilepsy and the MMR? If so was there any increase in seizures after?

Sorry to hijack!!

KerryMumbledore · 27/08/2007 22:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gess · 27/08/2007 22:41

Howdy- it's pertussis that's the real problem with seizures. Although there is no longer the option of getting DT, polio and hib without it. (well not officially, will let you know if I track down an alternative- ds3 has had a convulsion so am not happy about him having pertussis at all). MMR is asociated with temperatures (and therefore febrile convulsions) and I know children who have had convulsions after it- although in those cases often associated with encephalitis. In the interest of balance I must point out that convulsions after MMR are rare, I just happen to mix in those rareified [sic] circles

CHIAWOTU · 10/04/2008 11:37

Can anyone recommend any health centres or clinics that do single vaccinations for MMR?

2GIRLS · 10/04/2008 12:51

I too am really worried about giving ds, now 11 months, the MMR.
My dd's were given it and the time when they had it was just when the big outcry came out, but at the time I read all the info and decided that they were better to have it than not.

Now, however, I really don't want ds to have it. I think a bit differently now and I wouldn't believe the MMR 'safe' stories because I personally don't think we are given the full picture.

We will never know if the MMR is fully safe and if it's not I think that the government will sacrifice a few to save the majority. The only problem is we don't know who will have an adverse reaction to the MMR until it's too late.

2GIRLS · 10/04/2008 12:58

Sorry, I've just realised how that must sound to you given that your ds has just had it.

I do think you've done the right thing, and I'm sure that your ds will be fine, my dd's had absolutely no effects at all.

I'm sure that my ds will be fine too if I take him along, and he'll have to have something as I would like him immunised.

It just doesn't stop you from worrying.

Seabright · 10/04/2008 14:06

Please get it done - my DP has very little hearing and eyesight so poor his lenses have to be specially made in Japan because his mother didn't get him jabbed & he got it.

I also have a friend who has 1/2 of 1 lung left functioning because her mother didn't want her to have the whooping cough jab. She now can't fly more than about 1&1/2 hours and can't holiday at altitude because of the thinness of the air. She may need a heart/lung transplant soon.

Don't risk it, please

PaolaL · 25/06/2008 22:56

Hi does anyone know where to have the singles vaccines done (as opposed to MMR) in Herts? I live in the St Albans area. I have found the Breakspear Medical Group in Hemel Hempsted but I had never heard of them before so no idea about them.

I want my daughter vaccinated but I just do not trust the MMR and so am trying to find somewhere that can give the single vaccines.

Thanks

expatinscotland · 25/06/2008 23:04

DD1 is having her pre-school boosters 3 July.

She's 5, though.

She has quite marked dyspraxia, however, and other learning delays which haven't come out yet, so for us, we're more frightened of any complications she might have from one of these diseases.

Stuff tends to go straight to her chest and she's not the world's strongest in constitution.

QOD · 25/06/2008 23:13

I went to Harley street