Anyone chosen to pay for MMR vaccine instead of having the new MMRv?

[lovesT]

no anti vaccines talk please! I'm doing my research.

Took my son for his 3 year 4 month jabs yesterday. For some reason hadn't fully clicked that they had added the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine to the MMR.

My daughter had the MMR but not varicella as it wasn't rolled out when she was a toddler.

I felt a bit flustered and nurse said I could go away and think about it if I felt I needed to. He had the 4 in 1 but not the MMRv.

If I could choose just the MMR I'd be happy. I know there are possible side effects of both but was planning not to have the chicken pox vaccine when it wasn't on NHS. Has anyone decided to pay for it privately and just get the MMR?

Am I over reacting? I just wasn't prepared for something different to what my daughter had and I feel like they emphasised the encephalitis rare side effect but I'm not actually sure the risk is any higher than MMR.

Ant thoughts? Anyone done similar?

*I'm not saying he won't have MMR (I would plan to go back to GP and get what they offer after research or pay privately if possible for just MMR.)

Thanks!

On this topic do we know if just turned four year olds will be entitled to the vaccine on the NHS or is it just for younger children. I am in England.

Just bear in mind that as it is being rolled out now it means it will very quickly not be around in the community and your child may not be able to catch it naturally. So you may have to resort to the vaccine anyway.

The mmrv has been around and in use for a long time so its safety is well known. While you might not be concerned about your child getting chickenpox why would you want to put them at risk of shingles? It can be a very very nasty illness.

My final point - if your dc is a girl. I actually never caught chickenpox myself and they confirmed this in a blood test during my first pregnancy. They struck fear into me with how my baby could be harmed if I caught it during pregnancy and I went to work, teaching in school, worrying I'd catch it off someone. (It was then lockdown so I didn't). I then went and got myself vaccinated between pregnancies so I wouldn't catch it when I next got pregnant. All that stress could have been avoided if a childhood vaccine had been available when I was a kid

I caught chickenpox from my younger sister when I was about 12. She got away with a few spots but I came very close to being hospitalised with it and still have noticeable scars on my face and body some 45 years later.

The vaccine wasn’t available when DS was small and he picked it up at nursery. Fortunately he wasn’t too ill with it however he passed it on to DH who was absolutely floored with it and ended up on antivirals.

I wish the vaccine had been available when I was a child, it would have saved me many years of being horribly embarrassed by my scarred face.

”Research”. 🙄

Another consideration is if you haven't had chicken pox you can't get shingles which is I think why they've added it to the vaccination schedule. I now wish I'd paid to have my son vaccinated before he had it.

Also about vaccination length - I had to have the vaccine when I was younger as had never had it and had no immunity but needed immunity for work. 20 years later I was pregnant when my son got chicken pox and a blood test showed I was still immune to it from the vaccine.

Personally I was so happy when mmrv was announced

I know vaccines can make some kids ill, but it's better than getting the illness itself. I don't understand why anyone would risk putting their child through more pain and suffering than necessary, so for us that means welcoming as many vaccines as possible with open arms! I would have gotten it done privately, but mmrv means only one jab instead of two

I have no concerns about vaccine safety, particularly ones that have gotten through all the hoops of our conservative NHS processes

Having a non-standard vaccination record is a minor pain in the butt you will be giving to your child for no reason. In some places you will need to be fully vaccinated to access certain services and separates won't count in the same way.

I am too old to have had MMR and it's come up as an issue that I'm "not fully vaccinated" for travel abroad, so will probably be getting the MMR next week. A colleague did receive MMR as a child but it wasn't documented properly and eventually it was decided it was easier for her to get it again than try to retrieve the lost records (nobody was concerned about doing it again from a safety point of view).

This is outdated advice, the chickenpox vaccine gives longer lasting immunity than actually having chickenpox, and it also protects against shingles as an adult.
I paid for both my DDs to have it privately because they had got to 7 & 11 and still not had chickenpox, and especially with them being girls I didn’t want to risk them catching it as adults

MMRv should be available for anyone born after 31st December 2019.
The older MMR is only for catch up vaccination of people born before that date.

Oh he is 2022 so hopefully he will be offered.

I think one consideration is that they are less likely to just catch chicken pox when they are young and it tends to be milder, if a lot of their peers are being vaccinated and they aren't. There is a possibility they will catch it later in life instead and that can be more serious.

Gosh, I’m from a country where the chicken pox vaccine still isn’t done routinely and had to pay to get it privately. So obviously I’d be very glad to get the free vaccine in your shoes.

Firstly, chickenpox isn’t always harmless! Secondly, getting the vaccine rather than chickenpox ‘in the wild’ leads to a lower risk of shingles later on too.

This is slightly besides the point but my DD is due her 3 year jabs next month. As this will be the first dose will she be offered the top up too?

Another consideration is if you haven't had chicken pox you can't get shingles which is I think why they've added it to the vaccination schedule. I now wish I'd paid to have my son vaccinated before he had it.

No, once the virus is in your system (by catching it naturally or by vaccination) you can get shingles. However, there is a lower incidence of shingles in vaccinated individuals and cases also tend to be less severe.

There isn’t. They give them the way they do because that’s the best thing to do!

Just wondering why you don’t want that particular vaccine when you’re happy to have the others OP?

My healthy child with no immune problems was hospitalised with chicken pox. I dread to think what would have happened had I waited any longer to take him to urgent care. Over 10 years later we have got away lightly with "just" some cracking scars he will have for life. Thankfully the pox in his eyes didn't leave any lasting damage to his eyesight.

I wish that the vaccine had been routine for him. Vaccines don't get added to the schedule for fun, they get added when the evidence shows that they will be protective and that they are safe.

I think you're overthinking this, the chickenpox vaccine has been around for ages. Relying that they will catch chickenpox is a bit silly - what if they don't and get it as a teen / adult as shingles?? And also whilst it's not usually severe for most kids, it's a massive inconvenience as you have to keep them home for so long. And it could be severe for any kids regardless if they're healthy or not.

It is attitudes like this, with their sneering and bullying tone, who could push a concerned parent with perfectly reasonable questions and concerns, into being really wary of vaccines.

Unpleasant and unnecessary

@lovesT I remember a poster on here quite a few years ago writing their DC had chicken pox and was very lethargic and really hard to wake them up and was this normal. A few responses told her to get DC to hospital ASAP, luckily she took their advice as her young child was very, very ill.

I hadn’t realised until that point how awful chicken pox could be.

Also a friend of mine had a worrying pregnancy when her toddler had chicken pox whilst she was at vulnerable stage of pregnancy and she didn’t have immunity.

They give multiple vaccines together because it saves money to avoid multiple visits to the nurse and it also you get the children vaccinated and avoid parents' forgetting or not bothering to come in. It is more efficient to do as many at once as possible.

My toddler had chicken pox recently and was absolutely fine. The first night was a late one as the spots came as a surprise. The next morning we got Piriton and calamine cream (seemingly the lotion is no longer the thing to use!) From then, as i say, it passed within the week and without any issues. She has had colds etc that have been more unpleasant. Obviously some kids get it really badly but these experiences are not the norm. Just make the decision thats best for you. Some of the baby vaccines protect against serious diseases and i would take without hesitation, for us, the chicken pox one didnt fall into that category. When we took the mmr we werent offered the new one, with chicken pox added, and we decided against paying for it privately as wanted her to catch it. Will pay for old mmr when time comes for booster.