One of the most difficult decisions to make (MMR Vaccination - Is it a Friend or Foe?)

Member Name: Gary25

Product:	MMR Vaccination - Is it a Friend or Foe?
Date:	18/10/08 (347 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vaccinated against three nasty diseases

Disadvantages: Possible side effects such as autism or Crohns disease

MMR - what a dilema for parents.

This is only my personal opinion, from my own experiences and with such a controversial topic, maybe you will agree, maybe not.

I have two children, a daughter aged 12 and a son, aged 8. Now my daughter has had both MMR vaccinations whereas my son has only had the first.

When our daughter was first vaccinated, there wasn't so much coverage about the possible adverse side effects, and we had very little hesitation about agreeing to the injections. She suffered the usual mild side effects afterwards but nothing that a little Calpol didn't put right and after a few days she was fine. She subsequently had her second and final set of jabs and Alex had his first.

Not long after the MMR vaccination became headline news following a study, which has subsequently been regarded as of dubious benefit. However the seeds of doubt were sown in our minds. We are just parents with no medical knowledge and we found ourselves being torn first one way then the other.

From what we had read, there was a greater chance of autism or Crohns disease especially in boys. It made sense, you were basically pumping three different poisons into a young child all at once - how could an immune system cope?

Alex was due his second set of jabs. He had certainly become more difficult after the first. Whether that was the jabs or simply normal childhood behaviour we don't know. What if he had the jab and developed autism - how could we live with ourselves knowing that we had authorised them? There again, what if he actually caught measles, mumps or rubella, with the risk of death, brain damage, infertility. Weighing up whether with the higher prevalence of catching it due to the declining number of vaccinations was another consideration. Again, how the hell do you live with something like that if you refuse the jabs and they catch a disease that was preventable?

From what I've read, and I may be wrong, after the first vaccination you have a 90 - 95% of having sufficient anti-bodies to do the job should you be exposed to those diseases.

However, there's one major factor that helped us make up our mind and is the reason why we didn't let him have the second jab. My wife works in a dental hospital, and the two most senior consultants, who are married, and extremely knowledgeable, have a son who became severely austistic. Prior to him having the second set of jabs, he had shown no signs whatsoever of being austistic. They are absolutely convinced that it was the MMR vacinations that brought it on.

There is an option, but most probably not on the NHS in most areas, that that you can have the vaccinations individually, one for mumps, one for measles and one for rubella. They are thought to be less of a risk as there's not so much of a hit on the body's immune system. Whether that's right or wrong I simply don't know.

It is an incredibly difficult choice for any parent to make. We can't see into the future, and it's one of those situations where you could be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Whatever decision you take as a parent, you hope to God it's the right one and I wouldn't criticise or pontificate whichever way you choose.

Summary: The pro's and con's from a lay persons point of view