Help juvenile arthritis enquiry.

[SunnyCarrie]

hi all.

I am a 34 year old mother who has had Juvenile arthritis very badly since I was 15 months old. I was walking giggling smiling baby up until I had the measles jab and then almost a day later I was screaming in pain, swollen joints in and out of consciousness due to fevers. Months later I was diagnosed with Juvenile arthritis.

Now here is my worry, a lifetime of hospital, surgery every year of my life I now am a mummy. I have a healthy giggly one year old! I don't want him to have the MMR for the above association my mum feels that the vaccine gave me this bonkers illness. So does my best friends mum, my friend has Psoriatic arthritis aged 8 after a booster vaccine.

Any parent with a child with Juvenile arthritis I need your thoughts, do you feel there was an association between when your child got arthritis and a vaccination?

I don't know really if I have made the right choice but measles is not that awful, pneumonia associated with it is nasty and might hospitalise my son for a week or so on anti biotics or a lifetime of possible arthritis, surgery, pain and disability, being stared at as a child is heart braking we cry inside, I can't risk that for my son surely? I have made my choice really but am interested in what other mothers and fathers feel who have arthritic children.

Thanks in advance guys x

I think they have found that it is genetics which plays the main role. There is a proven connection between Psoriasis and Rhemotoid Arthritis. Don't know about a vaccine connection. I would say read as much as you and make your descision as you see fit and feel is the right one.

JIA (juvenile idiopathic arthritis) has no direct known cause but it is thought that a combination of factors can club together and make the immune system go loopy. Part of the current thinking us that we've done so much to (successfully) combat bacteria and viruses that we've brought it in ourselves. This isn't purely giving children vaccines, it's also things like sterilising baby things for too long, use if antibacterial and other cleaning agents and indoor play (lack of exposure to the outdoors environment). Even double glazing has a part to play - especially with resp disorders like asthma. All these factors affect the body's ability to fight disease. The difference between a vaccine and keeping things scrupulously clean is exposure. Without exposure you can't build up immunity to the troublesome stuff. A bored immune system will then look for other things to attack, whatever's available and that's when immune disorders happen.
I learned all this from a rising star in rheumatology at a weekend for children and their families living with juvenile arthritis.
My son's had JIA since 15 months old, he's now 13. What keeps him going is drugs. Before anybody winces, the effects of the drugs - good and bad - far outweigh the effects of the disease. Without the Meds he would be extremely disabled. Because of them he can walk, play, write, eat...everything we generally take for granted.
See if you can speak to a rheumatologist for advice on JIA. Remember though, it's a condition in itself and has to be treated differently to adult rheumatoid arthritis and not all Rheumos are knowledgable in the paediatric side if things.
Good luck

I was diagnosed as having developed Juvenile Chronic Arthritus (Adult onset Stills Disease) at age 21. I had it in a milder form (then undiagnosed) when I was 16 and got the first symptoms shortly after having the rubella vaccine. Like others of my generation I had measles as a young child (age 3) with no lasting effects. I asked the doctors if my daughters were likely to develop Stills if they had the MMR and they could not give me a guarantee that they would not. I decided not to vaccinate. They have both had measles and were sick for a few days but no dramatic illnesses or hospitalisation. It is up to them whether they take the risk of having the rubella vaccine when they are older, I cannot decide for them.

I no longer have Stills Disease - I was cured by a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and diet. Maybe it went into remission by itself, but I don't think so. It ruined my personal life and career prospects at the time and I was lucky to be offered a second shot at a career in my thirties. My decision was not to risk inflicting a very unpleasant and life changing disease on my daughters, I took the risk of measles and we got through it; but in the end it is up to you.