I do not know what to recommend as it is so much really personal choice as we just do not know.
Below are just my thoughts on the whole issue - just my personal experience and thoughts on it
I have to say that for me there was no choice to be made - as I felt I could make no other choice but to give caja every inoculation or vaccine available...
I know very well the suspected link with MMR and autism for a long time - and in fact I know some parents had their suspicions about the measles vac alone actually before the MMR.
Just before I had Caja in 1988, I was In fact I was doing some part time work with severely physically and mentally disabled children many of whom where Autistic and some with conditions like battons syndrome, Downs syndrone etc and some with un- named brain damage and blindness deafness etc
My history is that before I trained as a youth worker in 1979/80 I worked at different times in the area of mentally and Physically disabled children and would sometimes go back to this work.
In fact l only left this particular job when pregnant with Caja - around Jan 1989 - I left when I found I could l not do the lifting due to my pregnancy-
Many of the parents with autistic children that I worked with even way back then felt - although it could not be proven - that their children's diff cuties arose for the first time just after their first Measles jab .!!
Measles vaccination came in in Britain at around 1964 - so fears on the part of parents that inoculations are the cause of brain damage, autism, and other disabilities to my own personal knowledge actually pre-dates the MMR!!!
In fact there was one parent of a girl, then about 13 , who was born perfectly 'normal' and did not have autism but was by then blind, deaf and brain damaged - and her parents felt they could trace her blindness etc down to the very day she had a measles vaccination.............althogh no professional supported them on this!
and many who I worked with then 'blamed' vaccinations for their children's difficulties and I had/have to respect their personal experience as only a parent knows their child this well.
So when I had Caja I knew all this -
but there was never any chance at all of me not taking her for the MMR - and in fact for every inoculation possible!!! In fact MMR had only just came out when she was born see:?
www.babyworld.co.uk/features/mmr/mmrhistory.aspBut there was never any question of her NOT having it.
This is because I come from a generation of children for whom there was no protection against Measles, mumps and Rubella and I saw the consequences of this and other childhood diseases such as whooping cough, first hand .
And I could never feel right about NOT protecting my own child against them - even knowing the opinion of some parents with Autistic and blind and otherwise damaged children that the MMR caused their child's condition....
I hope you do not mind if I tell you how I see it form the point of view of someone who was a child when there was no immunization against any of the illnesses protected by MMR?
For me there was never any contest - having seen what I saw and having been very ill with measles myself and having had Mumps and Rubella and knowing the risk with these although I got through these with little problems - I felt I had no option but to protect my own child with whatever immunizations that were possible.
This is because I am of a generation that remembers when these inoculations did not exist and in fact have lost family members and have had family members severely maimed by these illnesses that are now pretty much in the past and are often considered to be mild!!!.
There was no single inoculation option at all at this time when Caja was 3 months old 1989 - if there had been I will say I might have opted for this, but there was never any chance of my not taking her for the inoculations.
As my personal family history meant that I felt I HAD to get my own daughter immunized against these things whatever the risk!!!!
I am in my 50s so when I was young there was no measles or mumps or rubella inoculation and even whopping cough was voluntary - I remember when they were all potential killers??.Measles inoculation introduced around 1869, MMR 1988 - 89 just before Caja was born:
www.mmrthefacts.nhs.uk/library/common.phpMy mother felt very strongly that her children should have all inoculations available so even when this was not generally available she opted for me to be inoculated against whooping cough - this vaccine was available form 1940s in the US and about 1950 in the UK - I will explain why later.
I was very lucky in that I had the whooping cough inoculation before it was widely available so I escaped suffering this awful illness - but I do so very much remember the sound of the whoops coming from neighboring houses for month after month - whooping cough if you survive is a very long term illness, up to 6 to 8 months for some -
I remember my friends being isolated and not being allowed to play with anyone - except me as I was rare in that I had had the inoculation - their paleness and frailness after months of this illness and the way play had to stop while they coughed and whooped and at the end of each whoop vomited , and this happened sometimes every 10 minutes...
- I was never inoculated against measles and mumps and rubella - I got measles when about 4, mumps when about 9 and rubella when about 7,
Mumps and rubella were for me comparative mild but they can be more serious see:
www.babyworld.co.uk/features/mmr/mmrhistory.aspBut I was so very ill with measles, I was ill in total for about 6 weeks and frail for much longer - I was lucky to survive they said and one of my best friends died as did a relative and another child we knew became blind .
This was not unusual in the 50s before inoculation against measles
But the reason my mother made sure myself and all her further children had whatever inoculations available and why I felt when I had Caja that she had to have them is we all saw what could happen if we did not.
I know whooping cough is a completely different illness but it is still a childhood illness that some parents today decide not to have the vaccination for
When my mother was 14 she got whooping cough and went round to see her aunt - my great aunt - not knowing she was still infectious and my great aunt had just given birth to her one and only child.
Whooping cough killed my great aunts new born and this was a huge tragedy in our family as we all loved this aunt and her one wish in life was to have a baby - she never had a live birth again only miscarriages and my mother felt responsible for this babies death for the rest of her life.,
We also lost other children in our wider family to childhood diseases , another went blind though measles and yet another male cousin was made infertile due to childhood mumps and I also had a boy friend l- long before Barry with one testicle due to childhood mumps ) ( my brother had mumps when 9 and luckily this was too young to do damage to his testes but my cousin and boy friend were older when they got mumps so it did ( there was no mumps inoculation then)
www.mmrthefacts.nhs.uk/library/whatarethey.phpSo this is my experience of childhood diseases before and after MMR and other inoculations.
I do know that children dies and were ma8ined by these illnesses.
But I also do think there is a risk and I suppose if you already have a child with Autism or related problem that their may be more of a risk ...... no one really knows!!
But I do not have a child with autism or any other child so the decision to immunize Caja was an easy one for me....
But I can see why it would not be for others.
Perhaps therefor you need to consider taking the risk of not having the MMR and that your child will not get any of these childhood diseases because enough other children have the vaccinations to ensure that infection is now not very common?
I think is is all a balance and a choice to be made and you have to do what you feel is best for your own child.......
