I need some opinions on MMR please

[Jojay]

My DS has just turned 1, so I'm expecting a letter about the MMR jab any day now.

I'm undecided of the best route to take, whether to have the MMR, to have single jabs, or have no jabs at all. He's had all the other normal jabs so far.

Can I have some views as to my best course of action please? I know there will be conflicting views - that's what I want, to hear both sides of the story IYSWIM.

We have no allergies or history of autism in the family.

Thanks in advance

pistachio- there's only one NHS doctor in the UK who gives single jabs to his NHS patients - Richard Halvorsen. He also offers the MMR for people who might prefer it. He says that he would prefer not to offer it, but that would get him into too much trouble. So I guess he does offer something that he thinks may cause harm, although he's fairly clear about it.

glad it was helpful pistachio. I like it too. Am going to go and see him sometime to talk about ds2 and ds3 (tetanus still worries me). I trust his opinion and think he'll help me weight up the alternative risks).

x-posted there before pistachio.

DS got the MMR when he was 2.5. He became a holy terror from about 10 days afterwards for a week or two (screaming for upwards of an hour at bedtime, suddenly becoming aggressive at nursery), but then went back to normal (phew!). It might not have been related, but it was right at the period where the nurse had said side-effects might show up. And it wasn't my imagination -- I almost lost count of the number of people who commented that DS was like a completely different child.

There don't appear to have been any permanent effects, but it scared the crap out of me. So for his boosters (if he needs them) and for DC2 I'll be going for single jabs well spread out, in the hope of avoiding the same reaction.

I will say, though, that out of everyone I know in real life DS's reaction was the most extreme, although all of them had some kind of reaction.

There are also a LOT of people making money out of the anti-vaccination scaremongering that goes on. I always think that this is worth remembering. People don't write books or do lecture tours or whatever without pay. There are people making a living out of this.

Also, there is an increasing risk of kids contracting measles if they are not vaccinated. And if they do, they have a risk of dying or being disabled by it. Yes, in the West, a much smaller risk than in the past, mainly because we have a general level of medical knowlege unknown in the past, highly trained medical staff, and well researched and effective drugs. We forget this, because these diseases have all but been wiped out, so IMO our perception of the risks is falsely low.

Good books- Bad medicine an easy read with a good chapter on the real risks of vaccination

MMR: Science and Fiction actually a very balanced book by the editor of the magazine which broke Dr Wakefield's story.

Honest to god though, this has been done to death on here. I usually say more, but can't be ar$ed to get flamed tonight.

The vast majority of people on here who have totally unvaccinated children have unvaccinated children because they have other children who reacted very badly to vaccinations. In that they regressed, or they had encephalitis. So to suggest that we've been sacred by a bunch of people dissing vaccinations is just daft. My views are affected by my eldest son, and by other conditions that are found in dh's family. The confirmation for me that I was right to be wary of vaccination for ds2 and ds3 was a paper in a highly respected journal last year- it didn't mention vaccination, but it was a missing piece of the puzzle for me.

Personal experience will always outweigh 'money making' (I suspect Halvorsen makes far more as an NHS GP - they're not poorly paid).

Paul Shattock who is fairly 'robust' in his view of MMR (although he certainly doesn;t say it shouldn't be given- he avoids talking about it) talks for free. Wakefield would have made far more cash wise as an up and coming rising light in gastroenterology (as he was) than having his career destroyed.

I can't really think of anyone getting rich on anti vaccination propaganda.

Thank you for all your comments - they've been very thought provoking.

You'll all be pleased to hear that I've finally figured out how to use the search function properly too, so I can trek back through the archives now.

( Fairylights, use the 'search for messages' function, not the 'search' in the blue bar at the top of the page )

I'm glad you think I'm real Tovik!! And sorry if I stirred up a contraversial subject - it was absolutely not my intention.

Thank you again