Just the MMR

[Honeybeebuzz]

So my 1 year old is due his 1 year vaccinations soon, its the MMR, men b, pneumococcal infection, hib b and men c totally 4 separate injections. This seems a lot to have in one day and my son had a bit of a reaction to the men b previously (high temps, unsettled etc) has anyone just had the MMR and then had the other vaccinations later to allow baby to recover between? Im not against the MMR but seems a lot

They’ve had men b and pneumococcal before, so not new the men b can cause a reaction with 6:1 which is why you give paracetamol and they are much smaller so reactions can be more severe. Hib they had as babies which is in the 6:1 and men c is new. It is a lot but they are perfectly safe to be given together. If you look up how the MMR shows any side effects it’s usually afterwards and different effects for each part of the vaccine.

all 4 of my children had all 4 at once and were absolutely fine. Gets them over and done with. As they get older they know what you’re doing and get very upset if vaccines are split but I’d recommend going to the appointment and speaking to the nurse administrating the vaccines for further info then you can make an informed decision.

Thanks, my first had the 4 in one and was fine but my baby's reaction really frightened us and almost put us off getting further vaccines. Just want to make sure he is ok

Mine had the 4 in 1 with literally no reaction a few weeks ago even though he reacted quite badly to the earlier jabs

My DD reacted badly to the first 2 lots of injections (very unsettled) but basically no reaction to the 1 year jabs.

You can ask to have them separately but tbh I think it's fairer on the child to do them all at once and then you're done with injections for a few years (I think).

I'm not sure that there is much logic behind separating them. The men B is the notorious one for causing a high temperature on the day of administration and MMR tends to give a temperature a week or so after the vaccine. If you start spreading them out , waiting for reactions, avoiding inter current illnesses and managing to book appointments with the practice nurses all of a sudden you might find that a couple of months or more have passed during which time your baby will have potentially been exposed to serious illness.

When baby reacted to the Men B previously, how serious a reaction was it? If it needed further medical attention, perhaps ask to speak to vaccine nurse/whoever does them in your area about whether spacing them out might be better for your particular child.

Like PP say, it's quite common to struggle a bit with the baby jags, but be fine once they're a bit older. DD2 have a very difficult time with the first set of jags (on the edge of requiring out-of-hours GP) and a bit of trouble with the second set, but sailed through the 16 week and one year ones. If it's 'unsettled and feverish, but can be safely managed at home with calpol and cuddles', I'd definitely go for one appointment and done rather than repeat visits to the doctor where they get poked with a needle – and yes, more time where they're vulnerable to serious illnesses.

Yes. My daughter reacted badly to the menB at 4 months and she screamed inconsolably for 3 days without pausing. We couldn't get her dressed so she was just in a nappy despite it being -5 outside and snowing! In 8h we had a phone appointment with the HV, 3 GP appointments and then a trip to paeds.

Due to this we were referred to the hospital for her 1 year jabs and she had the menB and MMR separately and the other two together. She wasn't fully vaccinated until 18 months as she had to wait 1 month between appointments and had a 2 month wait for the initial appointment and then there was another 2 months wait as they forgot to book the menB after the MMR. It was so so stressful! She reacted poorly again to the menB but nowhere near as bad as at 4 months. She was fine with the MMR.

I probably wouldn't do it again. At 4 months she had undertreated reflux and undiagnosed food allergies both of which were treated properly on the back of her trip to paeds and this was probably a big factor in her reaction at 4 months as she cried for 16+h a day every day

All those vaccines use well under one-thousandth of the capacity of his immune system and are less challenge to the system than just walking around all day. No reason to space out.

I give these vaccines. Usually by the age of one their thermoregulation is better as their hypothalamus is more developed. They can still get a temperature from any of the vaccines, including MenB, but it's usually managed with paracetamol and fluids.

If you want to separate them you'd need to wait 4 weeks between them; we used to do that and its more traumatic for the child coming back a month later as they remember!! I think it's 'easier' and safer to have all 4 at once and just deal with one set of side effects, which are usually milder at this age.