to be a bit scared about my son having MMR vacc at 17 months?

[soangryIcouldspit]

I am not anti-vaccine.

He is booked in tomorrow for the MMR. It is late because they only do a clinic every fortnight on my day off and he has had so many temperatures since starting nursery. Generally, he's well.. but he does seem to get a temp when he's fighting something off but rarely actually gets ill iyswim. He will play happily, eat and sleep as normal etc but run a temp for a few days. Doctor says it's normal and just a sign he is fighting off illness.

However, I looked up "MMR" and "temperature" and "17 months" and seemed to find nothing but stories about a little boy who died after MMR and then I read that children with a history of febrile convulsions or with febrile convulsions in the family are more likely to experience Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.

WHY did I google?

I want to vaccinate him - I knew a little girl who died of measles when I was a child but I just feel very, very worried about this and I hate the fact I do. How can I calm myself down???

There's always a horror story for everything. I hated dd having her mmr and worried for a few days looking for symptoms. After a week she was fine but 2 hours after she wouldn't look at me and was really distant - I thought she'd developed autism. Yes, I realise how barmy that sounds but I was very stressy about the whole thing and all logic went out the window - i think she was just tired.

Take some chocolate buttons for ds to help him, give him calpol and cuddles and he will be fine. They won't give any vaccines to kids with a temperature so ask them to take his temp before hand.

It's normal to have a high temperature when ill... but it's not the same thing as a febrile convulsion. Has he reacted badly to other vaccines in the past? If 'no' then he probably won't react badly to MMR either. And if he's in good health and you want him to stay in good health, he needs to be vaccinated. There may be one story of a child that died after the injection - and even that could be a coincidence - but what you don't hear about are the millions that carried on perfectly happily with no ill-effects. Like my DS... there you go, I've just statistically cancelled out the death. Measles, mumps and rubella are genuinely risky, however, and you can find lots of sad stories (including the child you knew) about children that didn't survive.

Do the sensible thing. :)

My son had an adverse reaction to the mmr but it was and is rare.

If he has no health problems there is no reason why you should expect there to be any problem.

Yabu putting this in aibu. It is a serious issue to some of us and not a great subject for the bunfight section.
There is also a vaccination section which tends to treat the subject more seriously and much more considerately.

You're taking a risk no matter what you do and you have to live with that. It's the same everywhere in life.

I was too - it's shit isn't it??? DD was fine though - no problems at all. She's about the age to have the next lot now

I waited until they were due to start school, then I had professional documented evidence that they were not anything but perfect and had anything gone wrong after the vaccine I'd have been on the front page of every newspaper, climbing buildings dressed as wonder woman and on this morning with Holly and Phil causing a huge fuss.
As it happens nothing went wrong but I'm waiting again with DC4 to be on the safe side.

OP has said "I am not anti-vaccine" so this is not aimed at the OP.

I know others, especially those who have been taken in by the terrible lies about the alleged risks of the vaccine, will click on this post. I urge you to read more on the subject here, before you're bamboozled by quacks:

www.badscience.net/2008/08/the-medias-mmr-hoax/

I am not looking for a bunfight! I didn't know there was a vaccinations section, I find MN very difficult to navigate tbh, it's too huge. This is the one that people seem to post on/come up in the "last 15 mins" so I posted here to get a response. I wasn't posting in a flippant manner.

I agree with Pagwatch.

soangry: I know you weren't posting flippantly, but this will go downhill, and probably soon judging by Snobear's post

there is a vax section - it's in the Health section (click on "Mumsnet talk" at the top of the page, and then click on Health to expand the section.)

there is a lot of information on just about any jab you care to mention there, although it does still get heated.

Princess I don't think it is recommended to give paracetemol with vaccines anymore - something to do with it interfering with the immune response iirc.

soangry - I would second the idea of moving it to the Vaccination topic. This is guaranteed bunfight material :)

what rot - how can paracetomal affect a vaccination ?

Not sure activate - there was quite a lot of publicity about it a little while ago. I think it interferes with the immune response somehow and stops the vaccine being as effective.

There is a study which suggests it significantly interferes with the immune response, activate. I can't oil right now, as am on phone. But it shouldn't be too hard to find.

well give ibuprofen then before the jab

I think it's antipyretics in general actually :)

I asked MNHQ to move, no response yet.

I didn't know about the antipyretic. Do children usually get a vaccine when they get the vaccine? I thought from reading the other thread in the vacc section (from above) that it happened 7-10 days later. Can you give meds for this?

I don't think you can give ibuprofen to babies under 6 months either.

soangry, don't panic.

The vaccine will be fine. My DTs yelled for 30 secs and then you wouldn't know they had it. Honestly.

If I was you angry, I'd ask to speak to your GP before the vaccine. All meds have side effects and vaccines are no different. If you're concerned about the side effects, why not have a word with your GP so that they can tell you if you need to be concerned, what you should look out for, what you can or can't give him.

From what it sounds like though, your ds's immune system is doing exactly what it should do by raising his temperature when he's got an infection. A temperature by itself is not a bad thing, especially if he's not reacting badly to it. It's not as if he's having febrile convulsions or stops drinking or something like that. When my dc are ill, they always get a really high temp but it doesn't seem to bother them much. I remember when one of them came home from school and said 'mummy, I've a bit of a headache'. She was burning hot and had a 42 degree fever!! I'd have been a quivering heap!!

And think of it this way - if you're worried how his temp might go up in response to the vaccine, think of how it might go up then (and the potential side effects) if he did came down with measles! It's hard in a way because you give a vaccine to a healthy child but it's for a very good reason!!

Don't worry
My family has a genetic problem which means my Ds is very supceptible to febrile convulsions. He had Oct 20 had the last one at 13. DD also had 4
Neither had a problem with any of their vaccines. As my go pointed out they were far more at risk from the actually diseases than the vaccine.

bubbleymummy - dd had a vaccine last week and nurse told me to give her calpol before bed (not ibroprofen). Maybe that memo hasn't made it to the west country yet!

Baby Ibroprofen (Nurofen) is suitable from 3 months.