help please - can we have your opinions on MMR jabs?

[gemmiegoatlegs]

I have some students looking for parent's opinions on the safety of MMR vaccinations - can any of you help?

do you think it is safe? why/why not?

My children have had them, but I am not going to judge anybody who chooses not to have them.

There is something the gov. are not telling us. If they were honest and said, yes, there is a 00.1% fallout rate, that percentage of children will react badly to the vaccine then nobody would have it at all!! And maybe 1.5% of children would be negatively and permanently affected by measles or rubella.

BUT.......... I think there is a stronger chance that a boy with digestive disorders or IBS in the family, or allergy to egg will end up being negatively affected. This crops up again and again and again in all the anectodal evidence against mmr.

If my son had crhons or ibs then NO WAY would I have let him have the vaccine.

So bascially, I think there are risks, small risks, but they're there and the government aren't going to help us identify if our children are in a risk group. They're going to 'piss' on your fears, tell you you're mad, have the vaccine.... because their interest is THE GREATER GOOD. not little Jamie Green of 64 Zoo Lane ykwim!

I have an autistic son and I had no reservations whatsoever about the MMR for my second son - in fact I was anxious for him to get it as there was a measles outbreak in the area and he had no protection until then. All vaccines have risks and all diseases have risks. With or without govt advice, no one can guarantee absolute safety in all situations for all time.

I agree with greenelizabeth insofar as the government is not being entirely truthful. I also think that the mmr is delivered far too early these days. DD's appointment came when she was 11m and I thought that was too early - was going to hold off until she was 3 and all her major brain dev was well and truly finished. In fact, there was so much scaremongering and the gov were being so mealy mouthed and had banned the singles (which until I was pregnant had been available easily at the GP surgery) that my mum was panicked into paying for us to have the singles privately. DD had the booster at 5 - no ill effects, but by the time she was 2y 6m she was pretty tough immune-wise.

I think that if the gov want people to take their advice they should be much less "do as I say" in their attitude, and welcome debate with open discussion of the other pov.

I deffo believe mine should and did have all his vaccines

He was born @ 27 weeks and his identical twin brother died {aged 5.5 hours old.}

So our experience of the medical proffession may be different to other people BUT we believe in medicine and jabs {incl MMR}

I believe from anecdotal evidence there is a small risk with MMR, but less of a risk than leaving a child unimmunised (unless the child cannot be immunised due to other conditions). However since DS caught measles at 10 mths old, then the MMR became the bigger risk of the two because he'd already had the 'big scarey' one of them, and hence already had immunity. So he had singles of Mumps & Rubella, done privately. If he hadn't had measles then would probably have gone for MMR, but with fingers crossed.

I won't be giving LO the MMR, i think that it is too much for a child's immune system to cope with - yes i know that many small children have it and they are fine but for me the risk is to great - incidently when she had her first lot of vaccines they were all done seperately because DP has a history of reacting badly to vaccines so i didn't want to take the risk.

I will however give the jabs seperately though.

I did give dd the MMR but not the booster as yet
basically I feel that if there are no other health issues (family history, bowel problems, certain allergies) it is ok, still given all the publicity we did agonise over the decision

thanks for all your opinions, I feel like we've got opinions which are fairly representative and all sides of the argument

There was a great article in the Sunday Telegraph about a month ago focusing on a recent study of 23 monkeys that were given the jabs and boosters and studies over a period of five years. A staggering 18 of them had developed aggressive behaviour of varying degrees against a control group that exhibited no signs.
My son is due to have MMR in two months and there's no way he's going to have it. I will find the cash to pay for them separately when he's a little older.
I'm not sure why there is a link with autism, whether it's too much at once, or even the preservatives in the vaccines may apparently play a part, but I know I would always wonder if I went ahead with it and he started showing any signs. I would never judge anyone with a different view but I wouldn't take the risk personally.

I gave my dd the MMR first set of jabs and she was terribly ill. We ended up in A&E and she was kept in for 8 hours. Terrible temperature, vomiting, pale and limp... it was the most terrifying experience of my life. She's now 4 and she hasn't had the booster and there's no way she's having it. She's had all her other jabs and no reactions so I just don't know what was in the MMR which caused her to react so strongly but I just wouldn't risk it again.

It's one of those injections that I let mine have with crossed fingers. But I'm glad I did. Measles can be terrifying.