DD had Henoch Schonlein Purpura (HSP) recently, but is due booster jabs, should I postpone?

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I don't know if anyone has experience of this rather nasty auto immune reaction, but DD1 (3yrs)went down with it about 3 weeks ago. The bruising lasted about a week but luckily she didn't seem to suffer from any other symptoms and it hasn't recurred.

She was due to have a concotion of booster vaccinations last week but I postponed. However, she had an HSP followup check at the hospital yesterday and the consultant paediatrician told DH that it would be fine for her to have the jabs.

I'm worried that they will cause her immune system to go into overdrive again, and am inclined to postpone them for another couple of months when she'll have been clear for about 8 weeks.

Does anyone have any experience or advice?

bump?

No experience of HSP but my child had another autoimmune reaction at this age, with bruising caused by low platelets. He recovered and it has not come back, but he has had a very "sensitive" immune system ever since. It may be a coincidence of course, but I always felt it started with that illness.

We postponed the MMR booster despite being told by GP there was no problem, because we had read on US sites that it was a recognised trigger for this particular disorder and a basis for vaccine exemption (obligatory there). Also, we felt the trigger for his disorder may have been another live vaccine that he had had a few weeks earlier (not MMR). We just lost confidence in the GP because she would not even listen to our concerns.

However, he had already had the initial MMR so we knew he was very likely to be covered (booster is to catch the small % who do not become immune after the first dose), and there were also no measles outbreaks to worry about.

Do you have anywhere near you that will do a titre test to check current immunity? If we had had this option that is what we would have done (GP refused and there were no private clinics offering it), as it would probably have given us peace of mind that he was covered anyway and didn't need the boosters. If it had showed he had no immunity we would at least have felt better about him having the jabs.

My 5 year old DD has HSP at the moment - stiff legs and the rash coming and going since last Thursday. So far, she's had minimal stomach pains and seems to be bearing up ok. If I were you, I would postpone the MMR - a few months won't make any difference but I agree that having it so soon after HSP might be a bit of a challenge to her immune system. But then again I'm no doctor! I guess all I'm saying is that if I were in your situation I wouldn't have the injection.

Nice to hear of someone who's kid has got over HSP quickly. I'm feeling sorry for DD as she hobbles around and really hoping it goes away sooner rather than later.

Thank you for your replies. I've had another appointment booked by the system but I think I'm going to postpone again.

runawayhorse - I didn't realise that about the MMR booster; maybe DD will already be immune. I've never heard of a titre test, so I'll have a look into it. Though I don't have the utmost confidence the GP at the moment as he gave DD a cursory glance and dismissed her with a rash cream - an hour later I had to rush her to A&E as even I could see it wasn't an ordinary rash.

WillPenn, thankfully DD only had the bruising, and joint pain for one night when couldn't bear any weight on her ankles but it subsided pretty quickly. She wasn't showing any blood or protein in her urine so she didn't have to stay in hospital but I was very worried about a relapse so I ordered some urine testers over the internet and have been testing sporadically ever since. Is your DD on any medication?

DD is not on any medication and is suffering quite badly with joint pain in the evenings. Where do you get those urine testers on the internet? Sounds like they would be good for my piece of mind.

These are the ones I got. I didn't want to get so many but couldn't find a smaller quantity!

DD was put on steroids (prednisolone) for 10 days, which may explain why she recovered so quickly. Again, I'm no doctor, but maybe it's worth asking your GP/hospital about whether these would be beneficial for your DD.