MMR vaccination

[Mumbo1980]

Had a phone call from doctors surgery to advise that my son (nearly 3) was given his 12 month MMR vaccination 5 days early, which they shouldn't have done. They are blaming a Locum nurse. They are advising a booster, as they have to disregard the first immunisation as it was done early (even though it was 5 days early). He will have a booster anyway at 3 years 4 months. Anyone else encountered this? I'm not sure whether to allow him to have a booster or hold out until pre school booster at 3 years 4 months.

Oh my gosh what utter rubish. Ask them 9f they can actually hear what they are saying to you...like the body has an exact time switch for things. They really aren't experts in imunology and have probably never even read package inserts. Please don't give your child another dose. Ask for a titer test, which if they had any knowledge they would possibly have suggested, to check for antibodies. I would make a complaint too as it is not acceptable.

Looks like common sense has flown out of the window here. Get them to check for antibodies(they do this on the nhs, I recently had to get my rubella antibodies checked for ivf). If he has them then he doesn't need an extra shot.

OK. What the GP surgery is saying is correct. The licence for MMR vaccination is that it can be administered from 9 months where the risk of exposure to disease is high, e.g. Local outbreak/travel to foreign country where disease incidence is higher, BUT that any doses given under 12 months of age should not be counted as part of the U.K. routine childhood programme because at the earlier age the response is lessened.
They have identified that an error (albeit a very minor one) has occurred in that your DC received his 'routine dose' before 12 months.
They are absolutely correct to inform you of the error and of the current recommendation for vaccination.
HOWEVER, you need to make a pragmatic decision here. It is unlikely that the five days made much difference in the response, but you don't know without a blood test, and even then it is only indicative of response, not definitive.
So, would it be more traumatic for your DC to have a blood test, followed by possibly still requiring two further doses of the vaccine, or just two further doses of vaccine, or take the risk that he had sufficient response from the 'early' vaccine and just have the booster? The choice is yours, but they are obliged to recommend the two doses because that is what the NHS vaccination programme says is correct.
Research shows that 10% of children do not respond to the first MMR, which is why the second dose was introduced as a 95% population response is needed for herd immunity.

Surprised people are saying "check for antibodies" - that involves taking blood and probably travelling a distance to a hospital where they will take blood from children. Much easier to just give a booster jab - though given he's due a booster in a few months I'd probably wait unless measles is circulating locally.

I'm not sure whether to allow him to have a booster or hold out until pre school booster at 3 years 4 months.

He will still need a booster, it's not a case of a jab now instead it is as well.

You can have bloods taken by the practice nurse and sent off. They are worrying about their paperwork/target and not thinking this through.

Thanks for responses. I'm annoyed to be facing this dilemma tbh. They have advised that they have no knowledge of a local outbreak. I'm minded to wait, as I hate the thought of any unnecessary immunisation or blood tests. The blood test option is interesting however, I hadn't thought of that. It seems so illogical that having the immunisation 5 days early, would alter its effectiveness. They've also said their audit revealed there are 'a few' other similar cases in the area. Really not acceptable.

Absolutely Sashh. He will still need booster in 4 months regardless. I worry about the short term between the 2 boosters. They say there is 'no risk' but I'm not convinced.

This sounds like a technicality and a failure of common sense. It's possible that he didn't raise a good response after the first dose but that applies to anyone and has little to do with being 5 days early (and is why they give the second dose). Biologically speaking, the body will not have changed significantly in those 5 days.

If it was me, in the absence of a Measles outbreak I'd just wait for the routine booster. (But then my son got 'mini-Measles' after the MMR complete with 40 degree temperatures, so I wouldn't give extra, unnecessary ones).

Was it mini measels or actual measeles...how do you know the difference youcannot?

The incubation period was exactly as you'd expect following the MMR and there were no other recorded Measles cases in my area, so it's overwhelmingly likely that it was caused by the vaccination. Although the symptoms were indistinguishable from Measles (perhaps of shorter duration) if that's what you mean.