Has MMR damaged our children?

For example, if you already have a child with autism, or autism in the family, are they still advising you to have the pre-school booster injections?

My own daughter displays some autistic traits. She didn't have the initial MMR at 13 months - mother's instinct at the time told me not to have it done. I eventually took her in November at the age of four. She has been OK since this.

bouncyskippy: I wish I had had my children injected with the separate vaccines rather than the triple jab, now more information has been available as to what is in the MMR itself.

I don't think the jab necessarily made my kids worse, but I will never know for sure, as they were so sensitive and had other issues.

I wish I could have had them done separately. Tom was two before he had his MMR, as it is cultured on eggs and he is allergic to eggs.

A few hours after the injection he had a rigor and was admitted to hospital for a check up (a rigor is basically where his body shuts down - a frightening experience.)

The professionals assured me that the rigor was not due to the injection, it was just a coincidence (yeah, right!), but I was not convinced. Tom's school doctor advised us not to have his booster MMR due to his allergies, so neither of mine have had their booster. It's a very emotive issue for parents and all I can suggest is that they read everything they can find on the subject before they make a decision. I wish all the information was known to me all those years ago.

My sister's little boy is due to have his MMR and she has asked my advice. I advised her to seek to pay privately for the single jabs.

tollysmum: Both my older children had MMR with no problems at all - but I cannot help feeling uneasy about the growing controversy. This has a lot to do with feelings of dread about successive government's handling of the BSE crisis.Tolly caught rubella (diagnosed by my doctor) about three weeks ago, so at that point I decided not to go for MMR - as he would already be immune to rubella or German measles, which is the R bit. My GP was apologetic, and understood my position, but was completely unable to help.

Rubella is a trivial illness for a baby or young child - it is only serious for a woman in early pregnancy, when it can damage the foetus. We all had rubella jabs at school at 12 - why can't they continue with this sensible programme?

I asked a friend who is a GP what she thought, and she told me she had had her son injected with the single measles vaccine - but she wasn't sure why. She advised me where to go to have the same thing done for Tolly - so I am taking him for a measles injection when he is over 13 months. Mumps will follow a bit later - I feel that measles is the priority.