Measles

[goingfor3]

Has anyones child had measles? My girls apprently have it at the moment, it looks like text book cases though they haven't had any tests to confirm it.

yep - they think DS had it (he is 14 months)
he had a swab last week and we are waiting for the results
where do you live? there have been outbreaks in Ilford, Harlow (both in essex), and North London

I live in Welwyn Garden City and the gp did say that there were a few cases around at the moment but dd's was the first she had seen in real life so she called an older dr to look and he says it certainly looks like measles. She said that she would have to call the health authority to report it and they may arrange for swabs.

they alerted the HA with my DS as well, just in case
Hope they are on the mend soon - DS was much more poorly before the spots came out and then he perked up a lot

can i butt in and ask if either LO's had been vaccinated please ? (as thinking of not having MMR )

my DS had not been vaccinated as he was too young
he has since had the MMR
measles was not pretty

My ds is just old enough for his MMR. Knowing it's about I'm getting him done ASAP (am in N.W. Essex). It's not pretty as Rubyslippers says. The dds have had their MMRs and one gopt a high temp with it but the other had no reaction at all. I did put it off with them and now think I was both foolish and fortunate.

My DD1 was ill when she was 1 year and one week old. At the time I was told it was measles and didn't give her the MMR and didn't vacinate DD2 either. I thought I was immuned but I was the one who passed it on to the girls. At first it was thought I had had an allergic reaction to some drugs as the rash started the day after I had an op but now I realise it was infact measles and it caused me to miscarry. I don't know where I got it from. If I had had the children vaccinated they wouldn't be unwell now though the youger one is getting better.

goingfor3,

I am so sorry to hear that. Don't blame yourself, it is one of those things. I do actually believe that in a small percentage of people who are vaccinated with the MMR, that they still don't build the immunity to measles. I had mine and when I got pregnant doctor ran a blood test that showed I had no immunities to it. I asked him and that is what he told me. So I redid the vaccination after my pregnancy.

I hope you and your babies feel better soon!

Guess this LO is too young for MMR and this is the result of those selfish self righteous misinformed twats that choose not to immunise their DC ...and put all the LO's too young for it at risk (measles is a bloody awful illness with potentially serious sequalae)...so all those thinking about not immunising just bloody THINK instead of listening to scaremongering ..
Hope your LO is ok and recovers quickly and fully x

Um children aren't vaccinated before 13 months because they're generally immune to it (this relies on the mother having immunity- always going to be a better chance of that if she's had measles herself rather than been vaccinated).

Vitamin A is a good treatment for measles- the easiest way to find it is in cod liver oil.

Did they check for spots inside the mouth (koplik's spots) - that's diagnostic for measles -although sometimes gone by the time the rash appears.

I shuld explain that better. Generally for the first year of life babies have passive immunity to measles. This is why they're not vaccinated then. If you do vaccinate them before a year old it usually doesn't work. As you leave it over a year you get a slight increase in success rate - so children vaccinated at 15 months have a slightly higher vaccination success that younger children. This passive immunity comes from the mother. Immunity in the mother is better if she has caught measles naturally rather than been vaccinated against it. No-one is quite sure how long measles vaccine protection lasts.

"Eradicating' measles via vacciation is probably unrealistic as there have been outbreaks in popuations with 100% recorded vaccination coverage (confirmed as defintiely 99.99% I think). So a big problem in future years may well turn out to be adults who have lost protection from their baby jabs. It's one reason why the States provides teen booster (not given here)- presumably this will have to be extended as the vaccinated population grows up or you'll end up with suscpetible elderly.