I vaccinated my infant son early for measles (exclusive)

Abby Henson’s youngest son, Julian, was only four months old when the news of the first measles cases broke in Texas. Henson, a former leadership consultant who is now studying to be a midwife, lives in Houston with his husband, Mike, and their three children: Henry, 6, Adair, 4 and Julian, now 6 months old. For starters, she did not pay much attention to the outbreak. Measles, she tells People, was one of these diseases that “no longer occurs.”

Vaccination against measles is a two -shot process, with the first shot administered at 12 months and the second at the age of four. With the ongoing deadly outbreak of measles in Texas – which has caused death by two children – Henson says that when her pediatrician offered to start vaccinating children at six months, she jumped on the chance.

Here she tells her story to People’s Cara Lynn Shultz.

I’ve always got all my vaccines, and so have my children. I always think about diseases that measles or polio As historical diseases, it is not something I am actively worried about. Humanity, fortunately, calculated a way to fight them successfully with vaccines. It’s not something I’m looking for in the news.

In February, I took my daughter Adair to her four-year control, and when her pediatrician gave her the second round of the MMR vaccine, she commented, “Oh, this is a good time. I’m glad she will be ready to get these vaccines.” I was not aware of how bad the outbreak in West Texas was yet. It was actually when I started following it and trying to get more information. I realized, “Oh shit, my son is only four months old. He won’t get this vaccine until he is a year old.” And he was about to start day care centers.

I began to wonder if I would send him to day care or hold him back. Houston had some isolated cases, but when day care came closer and closer it was just scary. That’s when the West Texas outbreak really did news, and there were hundreds of cases.

I started reading about it. As we grew up in this world where the measles were rare, we did not feel that people got it or see how quickly it was spread.

Then our pediatrician sent out an e -mail message that explained that we could start getting the MMR vaccine at six months old, if we requested it. I am in a mom’s group for people with young children, and we started talking about vaccinating our children after six months. This was right after The first child died From measles. And it was this woman who spoke up and she said, “So just to be clear, as is everyone here to vaccinate their children?” She said, “I don’t vaccinate, and I don’t feel like I can ever talk about it.”

It was eye -opening to me. In general, I guess people who live near me are pro vaccine in the way I am. I asked her if the worry was still autism, and she said, “That’s all.” I would love to have a sufficiently open conversation with her, but I feel she is probably in a tunnel vision about her faith. I would like us to have a genuine conversation about it and at least see each other’s point of view.

At this point, Houston was preparing for Rodeon. It’s a big deal in Houston; Many travelers come in. Our pediatrician said to us, “Don’t take your child to Rodeon.” There was no rodeo for my family this year.

At Julian’s six -month check last week, it was the first thing I said when I entered: “We have to make sure he gets MMR today.” And so he did, and I feel much more comfortable. Fortunately, I have not had to go through a bad health terror with my children yet, and I hope I remain ignorant of that kind of fear forever. But I was afraid, and I was considering shooting back his day care center for the past six months to guarantee that he would have the vaccine in advance.

After Julian had the vaccine, I texted my friends about it and I texted all his grandparents about it. It was like “okay, we’re in the safe zone now.” It was just a great relief.

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I have a friend whose son is eight months old, and his pediatrician will not give him a vaccine yet. He has another four months of exposure before he will be immune. It’s too scary, so she changes suppliers.

When I think about the mum group, our conversation happened just when the first child had died. In that conversation we talk about a child’s death, and the other mother still said: “This is wrong to do.”

I’m not a doctor. I’m not like a scientist. But the vaccine works. It is not worth the risk of not giving it to them, knowing that a child has already died. And now two.

Several large -scale studies have found that vaccines are safe. There is no scientific link between vaccines and autismAccording to the Centers for Disease Control.