MMR booster: Single? Combined? None at all?

[Uwila]

If you had single jabs for your kid(s), what did you do for the booster? Get singles again? Just go for the NHS combined booster? Or did you say never mind, we've had one, don't need another? And if you chose not to get a booster at all, did you get his/her immunity tested?

Just begining to think about what to do with DD, who had the single jabs. I would appreciate all side to the argument here.... but no mud slinging, please.

We also had singles and went for a blood test to check immunity levels. All were fine, but if they hadn't have been, we would have gone for singles again. HTH

So, you didn't do a booster at all?

Was this questioned when you went to school? I noticed over the weekend when I filled DD's acceptance/registration form for nursery, it asked for her immunisation schedule.

NOT SURE which was to go now, think i might check immunity as t hasnt been long since the course finshed.

I used choices healthcare and they were great clinics all over the land.

No not questioned, but if it had been I would have explained that DS was was immune and would have offered sight of immunity report. Can't imagine there would have been a problem.

I trusted my paed & did everything together. No seperate jabs. At first I was a bit impatient with mums who refused to vaccinate their dc, believing they were making a mountain out of molehill (ie you have more of a chance of being hit by a bus, etc) and endangering the health of other children through their paranoia. However, now am not so sure. The recent epidsode with these poor "guinea pigs" & the mystery drug, coupled with my increasing knowledge of drug companies' greed (profit above all!) has caused me to be much more sympathetic. Proceed with caution.

there was a story on this morning once, about two young boys who had had the MMR at 13-18months, but for some reason had missed the booster, anyway to cut a long story short they caught measles, and one was blind and deaf and the other was severly brain damaged.
i say this because i dont think people always realise quite how dangerous full on measles is.

Although that can happen (complications) I think it would be fair to say that kind of awful story is rare. Measles is horrible but doesn't usually cause those kinds of complications. And if your child does get measles there are things you can do to reduce the liklihood of complications.

We're just in the process of having singles for DS and he's 2.5yrs and it was asked about on his school registration form.

Will probably get the booster done seperately as well.

Such a mine field. But would also suggest you ask about the preservative the injection has - most have been mercury based. Jimjams posted a link to a report recently that was very interesting.

good luck

Ds had single vaccines and he's had no boosters. We were going to have his immunity tested but then realised that if he isn't immune we still wouldn't be able to bring ourselves to give him another dose. I do know that Measles is dangerous in some cases (atm I'm a bit nervous because we had a letter from his school on Friday to say a child has been confirmed as having measles)but even the tiniest risk of ds regressing more (he has severe asd)is too much.

So, probably can't win really but my friend's son caught measles after having his booster so that's helped us keep our nerve and stick to our decision.

MeAndMyBoy - really? I thought live vaccines like MMR/singles didn't contain thimerosal (thought that was just the baby vaccines).

bump

Pixel, if you had the immunity test done, at least you would know where you stand. If it comes back immune you wouldn't need to worry yourself sick over another measels case in the schoo. It might give you a piece of mind.

MMR doesn;t contain thimerosal

Neither ds2 or ds3 have had any jabs at all. I've noted that on their nursery/school registration forms and never been asked about it. It annoys me actually I don't see why its any of their business to ask abut anything other than tetanus. Vaccines are not compulsary in the UK.

Funny you should ask this Uwila. I asked this very question on here last year (archives doesn't seem to be working, or I'd try and find my thread for info).

We gave our dt's singles initially. They are now 4.5yrs and I wasn't sure what to do about the boosters either.

I have more or less decided to give them the mmr as the booster just before they start school this Sept.

The reason for this is that I was concerned about the combined vaccine for them as babies but feel their bodies will be able to cope with it now they are older. I am leaving it as late as possible before they start school in order for them to be as old as possible, iyswim.

I was trying to discover if there was any evidence factual or anecdotal about anyone experiencing problems alledgedly associated with mmr at an older age if they don't have the mmr as babies.

I can't seem to find anything (that's not to say there's none). I think those of us who went down the singles route initially are now becoming the first to run into this dilemma now the boosters are due.

I've been wondering about this as well. Does anyone know how reliable these immunity tests are? I've heard that they are not very reliable, but was told otherwise at the surgery where we had the singles done.

I have no idea. Jimjams, I bet you know?????

kael, immunity test show a snap shot of what immunity is like at that point. It measures immunity in titre levels. They do give an accurate reflection of what immunity is like at that point in time however titre levels can drop.

Usually if they are over a certain level the patient will always have a reasonable amount of immunity, but there is always an exception to the rule.

The antibody titres are a reasonable guess at immunity- what they don't do is tell you for certain that you won't catch something (or that you will!). They can drop quite quickly as well apparently.

Jimjams, I would've thought that titre levels would only drop if the immunity was conferred by vaccination; in the case of non-vaxed kids, then immunity would be conferred by actually having had the diseases - maybe so mildly that it wouldn't have been noticed - and would therefore be lifelong?

There may be a problem with that though. In the past you caught the disease, developed your antibodies, then had repeated "boosters" by exposure to those incubating the disease. So it may be that in the future people are at risk of catching the disease twice. Worries me a bit about hib- previous generations usually developed immunity (usually without disease) by age 5. Now the jab will wear off (quickly it seems) and then what hib at a later age? Don't know. These things haven't been around long enough- but this is a concern of some. Repeated vaccination boosters may end up being the norm I guess throughout life.

I did read somewhere one of the best things you can do with a child vaccinated against measles is expose them to a child with measles- lovely natural booster! Of course you would want to be sure the jab had worked though!

Oh yes, I see, I hadn't thought about the repeated natural 'boosters'.

a timely thread - we had the booster reminders from Direct Health this morning and I'm too skint to pay for them at the moment. Was considering the combined for the booster. Still not sure what to do though.

don;t know whether there;s any evidence fauve (presumably not), but have seen some drs express it as a concern.