Hi all. I have an almost 4 and 2 year old. My first has had all vaccines and done well with them. My second has had all but the mmr and done well. She has had some febrile seizures and so i am even more worried about the mmr. I would love to hear from other parents that their little ones have had their vaccines without any problems even though they had febrile seizures. Whoo i hope that makes sense! I am very nervous and am putting it off as long as possible but she needs it to start school in the fall. I want to get her protected and will, just stalling.
My daughter has febrile convulsions (also lasting longer than 30 minutes) so I was VERY SCARED to do the vaccines too. I gave her Tylenol before they gave her the shots and that worked ok. She never got one after a vaccine. Her first febrile convulsion was before she was 1 and she is almost 6 and has had all the required shots as well as flu vaccines without issue.
My step daughter had her shots at 18 months and had an IMMEDIATE reaction that left her permanently brain damaged. She is 15 now, mentally 5. The problem with these shots is you don't know if your child is going to be affected until they get the shot and then its too late. And no, they don't "need it to start school". You can waive, they just never tell you that. Good luck.
My daughter had febrile seizures and had all of her immunizations on time. She had a seizure following an allergy shot, so we stopped those. We always gave her tylenol and motrin before shots and then monitored her closely.
I think talking to the doc about the risks would be the thing to do. He would know what to expect.
I have 4 kids, all vaxed on schedule. My 3rd one has atypical (they last for 30 minutes or more) febrile seizures. I've never had a problem with her after a vaccine, but I do monitor her pretty closely afterwards to make sure a fever doesn't develop. If she starts to get a fever, I give her some motrin.
My son never had any reaction to any vaccines.
I never even bothered with giving him Tylenol before his shots.
Ask your doctor how best to proceed.
I think she'll be fine.
Our twin grandsons just got the mmr late due to the febrile seizures. His mom was very upset about getting that shot but so far they've done fine. She gave them Tylenol and they didn't get a fever. This immunization issue is so hard as who knows what they cause and yet you don't want the disease either. One of our daughters won't get any for her child and we are as concerned about that as the ones who have to get them. I know how you feel but the little ones were fine so far so and they are 3 years old now so our daughter waited that long to get the mmr.
I have 3 kids and no reactions to vaccines. I do always give either a dose of tylenol or motrin to them right before the office visit to make me feel better that I did something. I also keep them moving if they get it in an arm we go to the playground so they can swing and move around so the muscles push the vaccine out especially important with Tdap. Good luck one more hurdle of parenthood.
There is only a 2%-5% chance of one happening with MMR
My kids are 7 and 10 , they have had all their shots never had a bad reaction except for a LOW GRADE fever for a day usually less.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/MMRV/qa_Febrile...
A thought to discuss with your pedie: Consider dosing your child alternatively with motrin and tylenol during the period after the inoculation that could cause fever.
I rarely post, but there has been much discussion on this forum about immunizations recently, and it seems frequently the anti-immunization voice is louder. I am happy to see that most of your responses have been based in fact.
Could the vaccine trigger a febrile seizure? Not likely. Could measles trigger a febrile seizure? Much more likely. Measles is deadly, and unfortunately, still around in the US. There was a recent epidemic in California.
I don't know where Kathy P. gets her misinformation about "self-limiting diseases". I am a pediatrician who trained in the 90s, and the first patient I took care of was a six-week-old baby who died from pertussis. If those children around her had been properly immunized, she would have not caught the illness from them (she was too young to have received the immunization). There was another tragic case of a toddler boy I cared for who spent 18 months in the hospital because he had measles pneumonitis.
Rubella is profoundly dangerous to the developing fetus--please think about those women who you may expose if your unimmunized child contracts the disease.
I am a pediatrician, and I have had all my children immunized on schedule. Obviously I would not do this if I thought it wasn't the absolute best thing to do.
Immunization is very important, not only to your child's health, but to those around her. If you choose to not immunize (and M.--I don't mean specifically you, because your child is mostly immunized), your child benefits from herd immunity (most children are immunized), however you are endangering other children who have not yet received all their vaccines. As part of a community, we have to think about this.
I have attached some links with more information. Most of what you read on the internet about vaccines is from the anti-vaccine groups. Be sure to know that what you read has science behind it (like the CDC or AAP websites).
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/measles/default.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/index.html
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/MMRV/MMRV_qa.html
Hi M.-
I can understand your fear if your child has had febrile seizures before...they are scary to see!
I would talk with your pediatrician...I am SURE he would want to have you 'run a dose' of tylenol and/or ibuprofen before the vaccine...and perhaps spend the day in the office post vaccine to be on the safe side.
Best Luck!
michele/cat
