Immunizations with 1 Year Old

I share your concerns, and asked our ped what she thought (my son is only 5 months, so I have some time to think about it...that said, my 4 year old has had all her vaccines on schedule). She said her new baby (currently 4 months old) will have all her vaccinations on schedule, but she understands the concerns about autism, etc. particularly with the MMR.

In our pediatricians office, all the vaccines are thimerosol-free, and they are single dose vials, which are the two "mercury" issues. You can check with your doctor, but I'm sure your doctor's office is the same.

My understanding is that in addition to the "normal" reactions of fussiness, fever, etc. that some kids get with their vaccines, the MMR has additional controversy. Some parents of autistic kids report that after they had their MMR at 12 or 15 months, their baby's verbal and social skills stopped developing or regressed.

The question is: was it the shot, or was it the natural progression of the disorder? Regressive autism usually manifests itself between 18 months and 3 years old, so who can say? Since no CAUSAL relationship has been proven, but the possibility of a link remains, our pediatrician suggested we wait until baby's verbal and social skills are well-developed (like at 24 months or later) before we give him the MMR. That way if anything were to happen, we would have a clearer picture of his development pre- and post-vaccine. My understanding is that if your child is not enrolled in school or anything, docs are more likely to OK waiting.

I think that's what we're going to do. My doc was great about it, and answered a lot of my questions, so I would encourage you to discuss it openly with your pediatrician. My goal is to keep my kids as healthy as possible, and these are preventable illnesses, so I'm pro-vaccine. The waiting felt like a reasonable precaution, and all I can do until more studies are done.

Good luck!

I would be careful. There are a tremendous number of adverse reactions to the MMR, regardless of how you feel about the research or lack thereof regarding a link with autism. In fact, my best friend's 4 yr old just had his MMR a couple of weeks ago (they were delaying until his immune system was more mature) and even at 4 he developed a high fever within 30 minutes of the shot, and continued to have the fever for the next 4 days. Reactions like this, and many others, are routinely dismissed by doctors as *coincidence* and are never reported. In fact, it is estimated that only 4% of adverse vaccine reactions are ever actually reported, so when you're looking at the VAERS database of adverse reactions the numbers should be much, much higher. In fact, even the convulsions another friend's 14mo old child had after vaccination were dismissed as "normal" by her pediatrician and never reported.

It's also worth remembering that as recently as my parents' generation most kids got measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox etc as part of their childhood illnesses with no lasting effect other than natural immunity. And while in rare cases they did cause complications, the vast majority had their immune systems strengthened and that was all. I know that both my parents and all their siblings had each of the illnesses without complication, as did most of their peers. And when I was a child we all got chickenpox and that was normal, too. Inconvenient, maybe, but relatively benign. Were not talking about polio or smallpox. The fear we have of them is disproportionate, I believe.

I would spend some time looking and reading (www.909shot.com is my preferred site for vaccine and disease information) before you decide. You want to be 100% comfortable before you go ahead with any shots since you can't take them back if you change your mind! Good luck!

I think you have 3 more months to think about it. MMR is at 15 months. Well it is at or pedi office, my son had his 12 month apt already. I can tell you I am waiting & I am doing the 3 seperate shots. Sad that he has to be stuck with a needle extra times. Though it eases my feelings on the issues no one has been able to solve. I have mixed feelings and can only think if I wait I won't have to regeret not waiting. I understand vaccinations are important in the long term, but he is not in childcare & the Dr. supports the choice. Good Luck!

Unless there's a new MMR controversy I don't know about, this originated in 1998 in the UK, and 10 of the 12 authors of the article that sparked the controversy have retracted the theory (which was actually not really supported by the data in the study anyway).

I was teaching at a UK university when the group of kids who were not given the shots were freshmen and sophomores, and we had a lot of cases of measles and mumps, sometimes with serious longterm effects. Because of this experience, I go ahead and give my kids the MMR vaccine on schedule, I'm just careful to watch for any side effects/changes in behavior.

Wikipedia has a fairly detailed (and from the reference I checked, accurate) account of the controversy that may help you decide what to do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy

A.,
I totally understand what your dilemma is. I too have a child, she is 20 months old and I haven't given her the MMR yet. I have not gotten any pressure from my pediatrian, she said it is my decision although she recommended i give it at the 2 yr appt. I am not going to do it though. I have a naturopath I go to and asked her opinion thinking definitely it would be not to give it. She actually was not against it but rather the timing of all the shots, the mercury (shots should not have) and the child's immune system. I felt better about talking to her about it. I will probably have it done eventually, but not until much later. Good luck!!