MMR - was your child ever the same afterwards?

[sleepyhorse]

just wondering what your thoughts are? Feel like my child changed after having it and now nearly 2 years on having problems with ds on the language and social side! Yet to be confirmed if he is autistic. Did you have this combined vaccine and if you haven't yet I would advise going private and getting the single jabs. Don't take that risk!

To all those who think that their dc have been negatively affected by having the MMR, how can you be sure that the changes you have seen in them might not have happened without them having their MMR?

Three children.

All had MMR.

All (now 7, 5 and nearly 2) fine.

Ok

Whilst I know there is nothing mn loves as much as a good bout of righteous indignation the op has posted here unwisely and was almost certainly I'll advised to do so.

But she is anxious about her child and probsbly trying to make sense of what is happening.

Shouting bollocks and doing the great angry face thing may feel lovely but only a dimwit is unaware of the mmr story so the op posting is hardly news.

And the few of us who do think the mmr affected our children have already got quite a lot to deal with without being called names. I am not a nut case. I don't take any pleasure from the idea. I would much rather it were different.

Can we just let her go off and deal with her son? I can continue to care for mine and not bother you with the antecedents of his problem and you can all carry on having the mmr and being very content with the outcome.
Or maybe we could throw things at her too.

I thought your first post was excellent Pag. (That is not to say that your last one wasnt btw).

Considering how strongly you feel about this issue I thought it was very balanced. We dont happen to agree about this subject but I think we agree on how parent's views and experiences should be respected.

Well said pagwatch!
I know that my son changed from one day to the next, I feel like I have lost my little boy so if I want to make a fuss about it I will!

IwishIwasmoreorganised, good question, I would ask, how do we know it wasn't?

Personally I think in my son's case that the fact that immediately afterwards he had the most vile stinking poo's full of revolting undigested food( this went on for years, that he stopped eating, stopped speaking and stopped growing was too much of a coincidence to be unrelated.
Certainly the medical profession isn't prepared to test these children who appear to be adversely affected. It isn't in their interests to do so.

Yes it is scary to hear from mothers who believe their dc's have been adversely affected, but saying it's bollocks because it scares the pants off you doesn't make it less so and it doesn't make my son better either. How I wish it would.
I'm genuinely pleased for all of you who have healthy normal children post mmr.

Thanks mrsdevere. .... perhaps I am getting old.

It is a difficult issue. I know people won't agree. I quite understand that. but tis hard .

My DS who had been a happy, sociable, curious and 'normal' little boy, developed unusual repetitive behaviour and drifted into his own world within a few weeks of having the MMR. Four months later, just before his 2nd birthday, he was diagnosed with autism. Coincidence perhaps? I'm not convinced, and I'm definitely not allowing him the booster.

My DS fine, healthy and happy after MMR vaccine.

Sorry to hear about your DC but it is unlikely to be related to the MMR jab.

You cannot get single mumps jab in the UK any more, the company stopped making it so they could make more MMR vaccine.

The other single vaccines for measles and rubella are not licensed by the MHRA who regulate the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other medicines in the UK. Therefore if you are recommending that people have the single jabs you need to inform them that they haven't been through the same rigorous safety checks, and they haven't been tested to see whether they work and if so for how long.
In contrast there is a huge body of evidence about the safety and efficacy of the MMR vaccine from years of using it across the world.

No change in DS. had normal MMR at normal age.

Not sure what question you are actually asking in your OP. If what you want is a survey of Mumsnetters' experience, then I am happy to join in and say that I noticed no difference whatsoever after mine were done and that my nephews and nieces and all the children in my toddler group were also done and nobody noticed any difference in their child. So yes, I have known a great number of children who were vaccinated and it made no difference to any of them.

Otoh if you want me to state categorically that it cannot make a difference to any child, then I would have to say that I can't do that, because I can't possibly know about everybody else's experience.

Good resonse cory.
My DD has had both the MMR and the booster, in addition she has had hep A, hep B, rabies, japanese encephalitis, polio, tetanus, the one against meningitis and the other one with the whooping cough component, chicken pox, TB and a few others that I can't honestly remember.
she is bonkers, but in a good way. I don't thinks she's been damaged.

No change in my DS either following MMR.
My son has ASD but the signs were there well before the MMR.

3 kids, absolutely the same afterwards!

is it even possible to get single jabs anymore?

fwiw, both my DCs have been vaccinated, had all the vacc. DS i delayed MMR as it was around the time the initial scandal broke. In the end he had the jab.

Both DCs are fine and had no problems, DD was feverish and unwell for 48 hours after the pneumococcal vacc, but that was the only reaction.

OP I'm sorry to hear that your DS is being investigated for autism - I imagine that you are very anxious - and probably worried that it might have been caused by something you have done or not protected him from. Like the MMR vaccine. Do you have any other theories? Like other people in the family having developmental disorders - as ASD/Autism have a strong genetic component.

I think that your son must be about 3 years old from your post. There are a couple of ways you might reassure yourself that you are not the cause of your sons difficulties eg look at any DVD footage from the first 12 months of his life - the signs are often there well before the MMR stage.

I was very anxious about my son having the MMR [more than 10 yrs ago] and left it as long as possible. He was fine tho' I'm not so sure that I would have left it so long now as here there have recently been many cases of measles and mumps.

Also, Andrew Wakefield had not been exposed as a fraudster at that time - he has already been struck off the medical register and I look forward to him being charged with fraud as his aims were essentially financial.

I did single jabs as my niece was brain damaged by catching CP (intentionally exposed at CP party type thing by my 2 SILs) immeadiately after having the mmr

It was felt that her immunity was compromised by the 4 diseases in her body - she may have had the same reaction to CP without the mmr, she may not, she may have had the same reaction just to the mmr, she may not.

I strongly agree with immunisation, but parent choice in it - single jabs if you want, mmr if you are happy.

The evidence that the MMR doesn't do any harm is very strong and I don't disbelieve is at all. What I find interesting though is the number of people you hear about (and one I have met) who are utterly convinced that it harmed their child. I was wondering, did they literally change overnight after having the jab? (as in within days etc)

OP- I am so very sorry about your DS and all the others who report changes in their dcs post-vaccine. You must be devastated.

I don't believe you are scaremongering any more than anyone who comes on and shares their experiences.

My own view is that for the vast majority of children with no underlying health issues MMR is fine. For those with dodgy immune systems or a predisposition to autism or bowel issues then it may trigger these problems.

For those reasons (I knew that they had allergies ) I had my dds vaccinated with singles (privately)

Pagwatch - Great post!

I am in a similar quandry exactly for the reasons Whelk describes. I have DS who is 12 next week. He was 8 weeks premature and slow to walk and talk, and at age one was definitely not very social. He had the MMR at 18 months, and we did not notice a change overnight. But he has since been diagnosed with ASD.

There is a definite history of AS in DH's family, and DH himself feels he is on the spectrum. He and DS also have hayfever and similar dust allergies.

So now we have DD who is 10.5 months, so coming up for the MMR soon. She is very social, not delayed in any way. What do we do?

For any of you who noticed a change overnight, did you have any pre-dispositions to autism - ie in the family, allergies etc?

I am genuinely at a loss at the moment - we may do the MMR and it be fine, but if DD then regressed, we would never forgive ourselves. When pregnant I agonised over the swine flu jab, had it in the end, and all ok. But this decision is much harder.

PS are there any studies or reports that can be looked at on-line, in to the effects of the MMR on children with such pre-dispositions?

siobahnagain excellent post

Flossie by your own admission your DS was showing the signs before MMR, and there is also a family history.

I know it's a mother's prerogative to worry about things that sometimes need worrying about, but I've said it a few times on this thread and I'll say it again.

There is CONCLUSIVE evidence that MMR does not cause autism (in case you haven't read the thread, the percentage of children and adults with autism before the introduction of MMR, and after its introduction is the same. If MMR caused autism, there would be a jump in the numbers of people with autism. There hasn't been).

There is also CONCLUSIVE evidence that the diseases it prevents can kill your child.

The Doctor that fabricated research and caused otherwise caring mothers to neglect to protect their children against diseased that kill them shouldn't just have been struck off - he should be dragged into the street and shot.

I think the thread title's a bit odd; it seems to assume that of course no child is the same after the MMR.

Obviously the vast majority of children are exactly the same after the MMR, or might at the most suffer a bit of fever or a slight rash. If they weren't, 70% of the children in the country (or whatever the vaccination take up rates have been) would now have developed autism.

That doesn't mean that a very small percentage of children who've received the MMR haven't been affected by it. I don't know one way or the other, though I have an opinion.

All the children I know personally who've had the MMR (and there are very many) have all been fine.