Hib/Men C

[susie2014]

Apologies in advance as I'm sure this has probably been covered before but I need some advice/reassurance.

I have long suspected my eldest son has some kind of ASD, and we are currently awaiting an initial paediatriac appointment. I believe he had a regression around the 13 month mark which coincided with a virus and his MMR. It wasn't as dramatic as the regressions that I have read about on here, and if he is diagnosed at the moment he would probably be described as high-functioning, but he definitely lost skills/words/eye contact around this time.

My younger son is now 13 months, no signs of an ASD so far. Obviously he is now due his boosters and his MMR. In fact, his boosters are overdue although his first doses were late anyway - due to dr's cancellations rather than design.

After a lot of reading on here and elsewhere I have decided against the MMR. We have a strong history of auto-immune disease in our family and I'm just not comfortable with it - if I could turn back time I wouldn't let my other son have it either. We are considering a single measles jab however.

I am conflicted about the boosters though. I was going to ask for Hib/Men C at an appt I have made tomorrow and then Prevenar in a month but I'm still so worried.

How safe is the Hib/Men C jab, I don't seem to be able to find much info about it. And how vital is it that he has it at this age - will his immunity from the first round definitely be wearing off by now?

Hi Susie - if you are so worried, why don't you wait for a couple of months, until you are sure on which trajectory your little one is? Once you are sure (either way), you can go ahead with the shots (and could even get the MMR at that point). It all depends a bit whether there is measles in your area (in which case I would get at least the measles vaccine), but if not, a couple of months or three are not going to make a huge difference, I'd say.

Do you think waiting a couple of months will not make much difference in terms of the boosters then?

As it happens, just after I'd written that post, the doctors' surgery called to rearrange anyway so he won't be having it tomorrow after all but it's only rescheduled for next week so I still don't have a great deal of time to consider it.

Plenty of people postpone for any number of reasons. If you are not comfortable with them then just wait.