Advice on pre school booster please

[Catsdontcare]

Ds has had all his immunisations so far including the mmr and although I've never had any strong feelings that mmr causes autism I am now worried about giving ds his pre school boosters (dip, whooping, tetanus, polio and mmr) seems an awful lot in one go for a start and yes if I'm honest I'm worried about side effects and regression.

I know it's an individual decision but I would be interested to know what decisions others made about pre school boosters following an asd diagnosis.

The main fact that swung it for me going for the combined MMR for all my kids was that the chap who started the rumour had significant interests in a company trying to sell an individual vaccine. Autism is in most cases genetic - take a good look at your families for eccentricities that could be signs of the autistic spectrum.

Oh There is asd in my family (diagnosed) and my rational mind is certain of the genetic link but the worry remains the same.

At the moment ds is making lovely progress and although things may be tough along the way I envisage a positive future for him, the prospect of damaging that (even though the risk is teeny) really frightens me.

Not logical I know

Will probably be flamed for this but I just don't believe there is a risk.
There is such a thing as Childhood Degenerative Disorder but wrt MMR and autism I suspect it's a coincidence, it was there all along. It just happens at a time when parents are starting to meet more kids their child's age to compare development and perhaps they feel guilty for not spotting things sooner so the idea of an outside cause is very appealing. I think if you have proof of genetic cause then that's that, it's not going to get worse.
But then I just don't know anyone who is convinced MMR was to blame in their family, so what do I know? I'm sure someone will be along soon to prove me wrong.

Cats - how old is your DS?
With DS2, he had henloch schonlein purpura (HSP) after his pre school booster - and tbh he did change personality wise after the event. The info I got from the hospital stated that vaccinations and immunisations could trigger this. It also said that boys were more at risk and particularly during the winter months.
So with DS3, I didn't give him the pre school booster when the letter came from the DRs. I waited until he was bigger and stronger, and only took him before the summer that he started reception year. He was fine.
Its a tough decision - and an individual one. Weigh up your own pros and cons.

Thanks for the replies. Our county has a back log of children needing boosters so ds is quite late in being called for his. He starts this September. He is 4.4 years old.

From memory, the recommended age is 3-5for pre-school booster.
You could also check locally what the rates of actual incidents of diseases you are trying to vaccinate against are in your area.
We are in London, and I know that all sorts are rife here - mumps, measles, whooping cough - you name it!
Its a difficult choice, although (flame me if I'm way off the mark) I would have thought that ASD traits might have been evident by now - even if not dx?

Oh he has an asd diagnosis (sorry if my op isn't clear) I'm just wondering how others felt about the booster possibly making it worse.

My Dd had no side effects whatever after hers. :)

Sorry - I missed that bit

No vaccine is safe for everyone because no medicine is. Severity of side effects vary too.

Some children have difficulty in digesting/processing chemicals/food/toxins etc.

Everyone has an individual risk. Statistics might give you an idea of your level of risk within a whole population and possibly the risk is less than the risk of the side effects of the actual diseases (although the severity and damage that they cause is also individual). Individually though, for someone who IS damaged, their risk is 100%.

It's a difficult choice I admit.

Still haven't given DS2 (with ASD) his booster, he's 12. TBH, I probably won't now, as the booster is just to catch the 15% or so who don't get immunity from the first vaccination. It isn't actually a booster as such, it's another full dose. I probably will get DS3 vaccinated one day. He's nearly 10 and quirky so I'm glad I didn't do it when he was a baby, I'd always be wondering if the MMR caused his quirkiness.

DS dad his and I didn't really give it much thought - I'm sure his ASD had nothing to do with his earlier vaccinations as the signs were already there.I just wanted to protect him from the diseases, as that is one less thing to have to deal with.

We waited until the August before ds actually started school before Pre school booster jabs. He was much bigger and stronger and I felt more confident

since most kids are covered by 1st MMR, could you get a private test done to see if he is already immune? I relied on 1st MMR for similar reasons, then DS got measles. He wasn't particularly ill at the time, but had nasty bowel stuff going on for a good few months afterwards, so overall I think I made the wrong call. I agree with Star that no vax is 100% safe, it's a matter of trying to balance the risks.

I think you could just allow them to do the tetanus ones and not MMR ones first?

I didn't realise you could get them tested for immunity so will look into that. Will def have polio, tetanus etc done but maybe ask to have that done first and spread out the jabs.

Thanks for the advice, I think in all likelihood I will get the mmr done but can't help worrying

BTW, It doesn't really look like it from my post but I'm broadly pro-vax.

But I can't stand the sheep herd mentality and the lies about the whole thing. It isn't a straighforward decision and I get a bit cross that it is presented as such.

I understand where you are coming from star and I agree vaccinations are a great thing but they're a not a straightforward decision for everyone

I am going through the same dilemma: ds is 2.8yrs, undergoing ASD assessments. He's making really good progress with eye contact and speech (finally!). He's had his first mmr and I'm really dithering about giving him his second.
He was showing asd signs way before his first mmr so I know that in his case there can be no link. It still doesn't stop me worrying about giving him his second dose.
I feel that his progress is so wonderful that I just don't want anything to threaten it - however far-fetched those worries may be.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but you could argue that there's no guarantee that if your child was one of the 15% of those who had the mmr and in whom it didn't 'take' the first time then they won't also be one of the 15% the second time round (hope you can follow that!).

However, I was also told by someone who's done a lot of research into the mmr that if a child were to have reaction to the mmr then it would happen within two weeks of the first dose. As the second mmr is the same as the first then there's no chance whatsoever that they'd have a reaction to the second dose if they didn't to the first.

Completely agree with you Star, about the analysis re:risk.

I think that you have to go with whatever your gut reaction is and not what you think it OUGHT to be. My DS (now 9) has ASD and we had the 3 individual vaccines rather than the combined MMR for him when he was a toddler (the first of the 3 when he was 13 months old). This wasn't because we then suspected autism but because he had a heart defect and had already had 2 lots of surgery before he was 1 so we thought his body had already been through a lot and 3 vaccines at one time might be a bit much. He didn't react to any of the individual 3 vaccines and so we had the combined MMR when he was nearly 5 and much bigger and stronger (this was 6 months after he had the other pre-school jabs for whooping cough, tetanus etc so as not to overload his system). He had no adverse reaction to the combined MMR. Would you feel happier perhaps having the MMR after the other pre-school vaccines? Our health visitor was quite happy to do this for DS.

Yes mrschatalot I think I would be more comfortable spreading them out. I'm going to phone hv today and arrange for him to have tetanus etc and then wait a while for mmr. That will also give me more time to think it through. Thanks for everyone's advice and thoughts