Mmr?

[ciaobella]

There has been lots of controversy around the MMR vaccine. A link to autism has been found and unproven. With my little boy coming up to 1, he is due the MMR vaccination. Whilst I do not think that we would consider not having the vaccination, I do wonder if the money men have not just paid to have the autism link 'rubbished'.

To compound this my mother-in-law's nephew is autistic, her family are convinced that he was not autistic until he had the MMR. So, I am quite concerned.

I would like to hear other people thoughts about the MMR vaccine. I know that should my son be diagnosed as autistic as he gets older, we will of course be ok with this, I'm just concerned about the safety of the vaccine.

 

[carang]

both of my kids have had the jab.

i think that the doctor concerned has REALLY done a dis-service to parents....parents should not feel so conflicted when it comes time for the jab.

personally, i think it is VERY important that kids get the jabs...

 

[Nic]

The link below provides some interesting reading, it was only released last week.

Talk to your Doctor, I did, my half brother is autistic so I did have doubts but after talking to Dr. and doing some research (and definitely after the article below) I gave my daughter the MMR vaccine.

BBC News - MMR doctor struck from register

 

[jvn]

The graph at the end of the article says it all, measles can cause some serious complications and occasionally can kill and this cannot compare to a risk that was always speculative and has not been proven in the subsequent 12 years.

I agree that the doctors who published this study, whatever their intention at the time, did parents and children a terrible disservice both by indirectly increasing the incidence of these diseases when vaccinations dropped and also by making parents of autistic children second guess themselves.

It's just a conspiracy theory too far for me to imagine that research teams in the UK, Finland, the US and Japan can all be bribed to say that there is no proven link.

 

[zyxwv]

Do a search for MMR on this site and you will see that the discussion can get pretty charged. Suffice it to say that I share your concerns but I also would not opt to have my son forgo entirely vaccination for the diseases covered by MMR.

We had hoped to purchase the individual vaccines and have them administered separately. This used to be an option in HK but is actually no longer possible anywhere as Merck stopped producing the single mumps vaccine. They are supposed to resume at some point but, to my knowledge, have not.

After discussing it with our Paed, we are opting to wait until our son is 2. By then he will be much further along developmentally. Our Paed was totally relaxed about waiting a few months. This clearly isn't a solution but it is another path.

 

[ciaobella]

Thankyou for your replies, I totally agree with getting the MMR and would not, not have my son vaccinated, it is just that niggling doubt. As you all suggest I'll talk it over with the doctor and hopefully the niggle will go.

 

[carey]

Now that you started this thread, It rises my concerns too. We have no autistic family members, but we would really like to be safe than sorry.

So zyxwv, does it mean that you would push the MMR injection back until your little one is two years old? On our Healthy baby program, we are supposed to get the Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at 12 month's visit. Did you get this push back too? or just the MMR.

 

[zyxwv]

We only pushed back the MMR.

Did the Varicella and PCV on schedule at 13 months (Dept of Health recommendation is 12-15 months) and will do the 18 month vaccines on schedule as well.

 

[nicolejoy]

I personally think that 99% of it is baloney and your kid is much safer being vaccinated than what they would be if they happened to be exposed to the disease unvaccinated. In the MMR case, didn't the original article which started the whole debate get retracted because it was based on made up data or something like that?

I know that there are risks to any vaccination - but the risks are very small compared to the benefits of vaccination.

 

[City Jammer]

I delayed the MMR for a few months only because I wanted my little girl treated and cleared for egg allergy before I let her have the shot. In my home country, MMR is given only at 15 months onwards. Living in a place like HK and not be vaccinated for any of the vaccines is a huge risk. And if you do a Google search, there are plenty of true life stories where parents did not vaccinate their children and then regretted it when their children caught a disease that could have been prevented.