MMR, worried after reading the other thread. Anyone have positive experiences? Did you let your lo have it, and are they fine?

[PanicPants]

Ds is due his, and we are going to let him have it. But after reading the other thread, I'm now worried.

How many of you have let your lo's have it, and it's been fine?

yes i did post negative experiences on the other thread but i'd also like to say that dd1 had it and was fine.i just think parents have the right to know the unbiased truth,which is hard to come by in my experience

I suspect the truth is something like 99% are fine and a certain % of the remaining 1% are devastated. Would be nice to see more work on risk factors (and more care given to those who have been devastated).

I work with autistic children and i have to say not many parents blame the MMR there a lot of reasons for autism and lots of different types.I have ds and a dd both had the MMR and both fine the diseases they could get without are terrible and can cause alsorts of disabilities. If your worried talk to your doctor because they do the jabs separately i believe although you may have to pay.

ds1 has had the mmr and is fine. we did delay it until nearer 18months and will do the same with ds2

my ds had it at 12mths and he is now 3 next month. No problems that I am aware of [aprt from norm of a 3yrold]. DD will also have hers when the time comes as will db.

Just one thing I have always wondering about though....the research bits that do suggest that there is a link between MMR and Autism, usually say it is because they found measle virus somewhere where they believe it shouldn't be... so, really can anyone be sure that then those children that are affected with regression after the MMR might would have regressed aswell if they actually caught the measles....?
It deifnately would be nice to know in advance who should and who should not receive certain vaccinations and then maybe everyone would be happy...because herdimmunity would exist to ensure the ones that cant have the mmr or any other vaccination for that matter would be as safe as everyone...maybe one day we will know!

My dd had it. She is fine.

DD had it 2 years ago and she is fine. DS having it tomorrow and I'm not worried at all

All three of mine have had it and are fine.

3andnomore if I remember rightly traces of the measles virus were found in the gut. I think, and if I'm wrong I'm sure jimjams or someone similar will be along to correct me, but I think that the argument was that if a child has compromised imunity, then overloading the imune system with three viruses all at once could severely compromise the imune system and cause such major reactions as jimjams has referred to in previous posts.

I think that to say the mmr debate is "scaremongering" is true to a point. However the people to blame for that "scaremongering" are the media, after all, nothing makes a good headline like "mmr causes autism". Somehow I think that "mmr linked to 7% of autistic children", just wouldn't catch the public eye in the same way. But for those 7% of families, the outcome was very real, and to dismiss what they have been through as "parents need something to blame" and "signs of autism don't begin to show until 18 months so it ties in nicely with mmr" is ignorant and very insensitive imo.

My ds had mmr and was fine, 99% of the people on these boards have children who have had mmr and have been fine, but that doesn't mean the other 1% should be dismissed.

yeah its a good point, and one I pondered. An idea I came across from homeopathy is that those who are most at risk from the disease (because of susceptibility) are most at risk from the vaccination as well.

The way I thought about it is that I know my ds' are at high risk of autism. If I gave a measles jab at a time when they are trying to learn language/develop socially etc then I'm definitely exposing them to a risk factor at a vulnerable age. Leaving them unvaccinated means they might get the disease - but they might not, or they might get it when they're say 6 and their language pathways etc are laid down and therefore less vulnerable. Likewise I'm relatively happy to vaccinate them against measles at say age 10 when the risk from mealses becomes greater, and the risk of them becoming autisitic (although it wouldn't be called autism then- it would a disintegrative disorder of some sort) must be very low.

As wannabe says you have the combination of live viruses as well. If my boys were going to get mealses mumps and rubella naturally I'd rather they were spread out a bit. Also mumps apparently affects permeability of membranes - and I know that ds1 and ds3 have leaky membranes anyway- so I'd rather expose them to measles separately to something that coould potentially increase that leakiness.

That's all a bit muddled, and of course over-simplified, but the kind of assessment I did for ds2 and ds3.

wannabe- an interesrting thing about the media reposrting is that the majority of it is positive to the MMR. Occasionally you get a thoughtful piece in say the guardian weighing up both sides. The Daily Mail and The Private Eye are anti- but all other papers are generally pro. The Sunday Times for example is rabidly pro.

The "establishment" repeatedly misrepresents what Wakefiled says (which was that parents shouldn't stop vaccinating, and that he believed that vaccination agains M M and R are very important, but he thought that it might be wise to give singles whilst further research was carried out). it;s almost as if in an attempt to prove Wakefiled wrong he's been described as scaremongering and saying things he didn't say, the establishment created its own scare story. For example papers are published "proving" that the rise in autism isn't caused by MMR- when no-one has ever said it is- but that is used to "prove" why Wakefield is wrong- yet he never said that in the first place!

DH was totally against the MMR but I was all for it. My reasons for allowing dd to have it were that I would rather look after her if she developed autism as a result of the jab rather than her contracting one of the illnesses and it potentially killing her. Does that make sense?

I was worried about the implications of the MMR but my GP and HV explained the possible pros and cons and the pros outweighed the cons for me. DH was finally won round when a child we know contracted measels and was extremely ill and hospitalised.

DD had it about 18 months ago and there have been no problems since then.

JimJams, thanks for posting your friends experiences of the regression but I am honestly interested in any research - not just anecdotal stuff (especially online second hand anecdotal)

Please don't jump on me and assume i'm being awkward. I had never heard of regression to this extent and as DS has a booster yet to go I would like to find out more. So links to research or studies which show regression to this extent linked to MMR or Booster would be appreciated.

The best thing you can read for the most up to date stuff is Andrew Wakefield's presentation to the Autism Two conference this year. I posted the link elsewherte in the last couple of days (this thread or the other one).

You're not going to get the research that you want to read as it can only be written as case studies. The numbers are too small, and the idea too political to be published.

There are papers about autistic enterocolitis about- which are referenced in the Wakefield presentation.

There are a few recorded cases of regression following boosters- but it would be unlikely to be called autism them as diagnostically autism has to be present from before age 3 iirc.

Personally, if a mother tells me that her child had massive seizures 24 hours after MMR I don't have much problem believing that! It doesn't make me automatically think it would happen to my kids, but I have no problem believing it happened to hers.