MMR jab - I can’t go through with it

[northernlass7]

My son has recently turned 18 months old and is booked in for his second dose of the MMR jab tomorrow. The second dose is normally given at just over 3 years old, but because of the area we live in (so I’ve been told) our local authority books children in for the second dose just 6 months after the first.

I’m feeling extremely apprehensive about this as the NHS says the second dose of MMR should be given at preschool age. Why is my surgery trying to rush it through sooner, when my son is still practically a baby? Is it because they want to make money from vaccinating patients, even though it may not be in my son’s best interests?

I’m very nervous about vaccines and long term side effects in general and am feeling more and more hesitant and scared about getting this done. My son seems so well and happy in himself at the moment and I’m scared of injecting a live vaccine into his body and potentially causing him harm for no reason. How is his system going to cope when there’s only been a gap of 6 months since the first jab? He’s so small compared to other kids who get the jab aged 3.

Should I cancel the appointment and wait until he’s 3?

First dose at 12 months and the second at 18 months is standard in France.

@RampantIvy

My kids all had a third dose of MMR at secondary school, isn't that the norm?

No. Are you sure it was the MMR? DD had the HPV vaccine and the 3 in 1 teenage booster MenACWY at secondary school.

I am of an age where the MMR was introduced during my childhood, and so didn't receive it, although some of my slightly younger siblings and cousins did (I had a measles vaccine at 12 ish months and then rubella vaccine on secondary school entry and caught mumps as a preschooler). When I was age 15 or so, there was a measles outbreak and so we all received a combined measles and mumps vaccine as a booster to whatever vaccine we'd had as a child. I know similar has happened since when there have been higher than average rates of measles.