what are your feelings on the MMR jab??

[doodypud]

My DD has an appt for her jab on the 3rd of April, i am still really concerned about the possible links with Autism, has anyone else had concerns or any bad experiences?

but that's not research - it's a news report. If you posted a study that would be different (as Jimjams frequently does).

Also, I disagree that I can afford to choose not to vaccinate because other people have. Other people's choices don't come into it - they do what they think is best and I do what I think is best.

I cannot afford to push my NT dd2 towards autism.

not personally generally.

if more people took the view of - well what seems like mumsnet really, and chose not to vaccinate the death rates of measels would increase as would the complications arising from mumps and rubella.

i think that an increased risk of those diseases becuase of the choice not to vaccinate increasing will affect peoples choices.

i dont know what NT means.

Neuro typical

i still dont know what that means

Do you honestly think that complications from mumps and rubella are common? speaking from my own experiences only, when I was at primary school we all had rubella and quite a few of us had mumps but nobody was particularly ill. I have no direct experience of measles (though lockets has)

At the moment people in this country are not concerned if their child gets chicken pox but I bet all sorts of propaganda will be put out there if/when a vaccine is liscensed here and then everyone will think it's a killer disease.

i dot think they are common becuase they are vaccinated against.

i have no comment for the nt thing - i dont know what thats about

I have seen the Chicken Pox vaccine advertised abroad primarily in terms of preserving skin looks rather than saving from a killer disease. However, for some mums good looks could be everything (especially if you have not had a child with more complex problems)

See this Custy:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotypical

are those stats untrue?

is msnbc as respected for its reporting as the bbc - is it like the american equiv?

Oh please! and to use that subtitle... it is so misleading!!! it looks as if there were 4 million deaths rather than infections

oh please at MSN bTW :)

msn may be more the equivalent of The Mail with a few glimpses of BBC quality from time to time

My point was with regard to my own situation. I already have one child with very significant special needs and I am not taking the chance of making her problems any worse. I also have another child who appears to be typically developing and I do not wish to do anything which might trigger a problem for her (given that our children obviously have some sort of genetic factor which could be triggered)

There is a lot that isn't known about vaccines and I am more prepared to take my chances with the diseases under our circumstances.

As I have said before, unless you have a child with a disability you cannot imagine how difficult it is to get a decent education and the support they need. It is like trying to get blood out of a stone in short.

\link{http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/322/7284/460?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&titleabstract=MMR&fulltext=MMR&searchid=QID_NOT_SET&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0\does this count?}
but of course we could do this all day - and those of you with autistic children will not only get mightily pissed of with me but have an understandably greater library of respectable sources to quote. and i have to go to bed.

suffice to say what i have learned:

the cases of measles in the uk were very low. and deaths since 1995 were only 2 i think. however i dont know of complications - but am assuming becuse of the previous sentance that there cant have been too many.

however i maintain my stance of - well thats becuase most people vaccinate their kids.

yes socci i agree, in my experience i found the support for my dds needs lacking.

We opted for sepvax, I doubt DS will have the MMR. With so many imunological problems, autism in the family, and strong reactions to any combined vaccine he has had, I think he is a strong candidate not to have the MMR. Now, if we had a different clinical history I might say something different.

It also ruins my confidence on the honesty of the medical system to be impartial about vaccine advice to have been told that DS can not have a flu vaccine under any circumstance because it is developed on egg, and then being told that he would be fine with the MMR who is (or was) also developed in egg. I think the incongrous advice is due to the forced eed on doctors to affirm the MMR is safe even when the child is in a high risk group.

sounds like a well thought out and valid choice chandra considering the medical circustances and family history.

My choice not to vaccinate against MMR has very little to do with anyone else's choice, in fact- I think vaccinating against measles is dangerous (less so mumps, and I think vaccinating teenage girls against rubella to be very sensible).

Why do I think vaccinating against measles to be misguided?

Because if if if you catch measles somewhere between the age of 1 and 9/10 it is likely to me a mild condition. This is what used to happen - everyone came into contact with measles. Now babies are born to mothers with no antibodies (because the mothers have worn off) so babies are at risk of measles. The protection form the jab also wears off in adulthood leaving young adults at risk - measles in young adults is not nice. If you catch childhood diseases outside childhood- in infancy or as adults they are not nice. The 30+ population is OK because there was still enough measles around as they were growing up. I worry about the generation below.

The only vaccine that i can think of where I think I considered herd immunity to be something I was grateful for was whooping cough. Having said that 4 month old ds2 was exposed to whooping cough on several occasions by 4 children at different stages of the disease- he didn't get it. Actually found that amusing because the children who had it were my friend's 4- and she was off school as a child with whooping cough at the same time as I had measles (and we played together during our quarantine). Health is never as simple as vaccinate and you'll all be OK.

People's decisions are based on personal experiences (the majority of the people I know who haven't vaccinated, haven't done so because of bad reactions in older children). In our family the personal experiences we are weighing up are deafness from measles and severe autism from vaccine damage. We've decided we'd rather go with the deafness. The risk of death from measles increases post puberty (oh how sensible to immunize babies so the protection wears off just in time for the disease to be more severe) so I may well vaccinate ds2 and ds3 then. DS1 isn;t going anywhere near another vaccine until he's an adult and in social services care and we'll have no say over what happens to him.

Right- well this link is to some \link{http://www.healthsentinel.com/graphs.php?id=25&event=graphs_print_list_item\UK govt statistics}

It looks as if in England and Wales in 1901 the measles death rate was around 25 per 100 000, by 1953 (pre introduction of vaccination) according to the graph it is around 1 or 0 per 100 000. So god knows where the 1 in 2500 figure comes from unless measles has become more dangerous following vaccination. This could actually happen if vulnerable groups (babies and adults) are now catching the disease, or it is confined to those with immune problems. Theese stasitics are provided by the ofiice of national statistics.