Can a Baby Get Measles Before 12 Months

By: Sean O'Leary, Md, MPH, FAAP

Measles is wildly contagious. How worried should parents exist if their baby is too young for the vaccine? Nearly 1 out of every iii children under the age of v who catches measles ends upwardly in the hospital. Are some babies at a greater risk? What, if anything, tin can parents do to protect their little ones?

Here are some answers from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

How soon can my baby become the measles vaccine?

The recommended age for the offset dose of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 12 to fifteen months of age. If y'all live in a community experiencing an outbreak, or if you lot travel internationally, your baby may exist vaccinated as early on as half-dozen months of age. Talk with your pediatrician if this applies to you lot.

Babies who go one dose of MMR vaccine before their get-go birthday should go two more doses (one dose at 12 through 15 months of age and another dose at least 28 days later).

My babe is too immature for the vaccine. Is there anything I can do to protect her?

Wash your hands! Just every bit you would to forestall germs at any time, utilize soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Remind others in your abode or anyone who is near your baby to do the aforementioned.

Other things that can aid:

• Limit your baby's exposureto crowds, other children, and anyone with colds.

• Go germ-gratuitous. Disinfect objects and surfaces in your abode regularly.

• Feed your baby breastmilk. It has unique antibodies to forbid and fight infections.

Call up, the measles virus tin can live for ii hours on a surface or suspended in the air.

How likely is it that my babe will take hold of the measles?

The risk posed to you and your family largely depends on where yous alive and the per centum of your community who have been vaccinated against measles. Check with your country or local health department for updates on the number of measles cases near you. If you have older children, check their schools' vaccination rates. Keep in heed that not all states require child care centers to disembalm vaccination rates, but information technology is worth asking.

Babies at a greater run a risk for catching measles include:

• Ones under 12 months who have not received the measles vaccine.

• Ones in a child care setting or living in crowded living conditions.

• Ones with older siblings.

• Ones who are not breastfed.
  

If you are planning an international trip, consider your babe'southward age.

• Babies less than 6 months old who are too young to be vaccinated may still have some protection from the antibodies from their female parent (see How Exercise Vaccines Work). However, if you are traveling with an infant under half dozen months of age to a place with a meaning number of measles cases reported, information technology is worth considering delaying travel as measles can still be very severe in these young infants.

• Babies half dozen to 11 months one-time should receive the MMR vaccine (and the hepatitis A vaccine), merely still require two doses of vaccine at age 12 months or older.

• Babies 12 months and older should receive their first dose of MMR vaccine in addition to the other vaccines recommended at that age. Infants 12 months and older may likewise receive a 2nd dose of the MMR vaccine equally shortly equally 28 days later the start dose.
  

What are the signs and symptoms of measles in babies?

Infants and children can be contagious four days before they even prove any symptoms!

Measles typically starts like a bad cold with symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis (pink eye). A rash then starts to develop on the caput and spreads down to the rest of the trunk. Many children also get ear infections.

While the master symptoms of measles are bad plenty, the reason we vaccinate against measles are to foreclose the complications associated with it―such as pneumonia and encephalitis (an infection of the brain).

What is the outlook for a child who gets measles?

Non good. In the U.s.a., 1-two out of every i,000 children who get measles dice from information technology. A similar number of children suffer from encephalitis and many keep to take long-term encephalon impairment. The disease is even more severe in developing countries, where equally many every bit ane out of 3 children who get measles dice from it.

Why don't babies go the MMR shot sooner?

The MMR vaccine is a alive vaccine, which means it contains weakened forms of the viruses. In guild to work, those weakened forms of the virus demand to multiply to create an immune response. Since the natural protection newborns go from their moms wears off gradually over a period of months, the viruses may not be able to multiply the manner they would when the infant is a petty older. That's why we recommend the first dose of the MMR starting at 12 months of age. Not because information technology's likewise dangerous but because that's the age at which the vaccine works all-time.

What nigh significant moms?

Most women of child-bearing age have been vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella―and therefore are protected against these diseases.

If for some reason a pregnant woman was not previously vaccinated confronting measles, she cannot receive the MMR vaccine until after delivery. This is because the MMR vaccine is prepared with weakened live viruses (in dissimilarity to many vaccines that are prepared with killed viruses), so doctors normally advise avoiding pregnancy for at to the lowest degree one month after receiving the vaccine to reduce the risk of becoming infected.

If a non-allowed meaning woman she is exposed to measles, information technology may cause health problems to both her and her unborn baby. In a CDC written report, the most common result to the mothers was pneumonia and the near common fetal/neonatal effect was premature delivery. If she is exposed within 10 days of delivery, she is likely to cause a serious infection in her newborn at nascency.

Exercise parents and grandparents need a booster MMR shot?

Anyone born before 1957 is generally considered allowed to measles. This means they are fully protected from measles for life and no additional vaccination is necessary.

The CDC also considers people who received two doses of measles vaccine as children protected for life, and they practise not ever need a booster dose.

If you lot're unsure whether yous're immune to measles, you should commencement attempt to notice your vaccination records or documentation of measles amnesty. If you do non take written documentation of measles amnesty, you should go the MMR vaccine. There is no harm in getting another dose of MMR vaccine if you lot may already be immune to measles (or mumps or rubella).

Boosted Data:

• How to Protect Your Kid During a Measles Outbreak

• How to Cocoon a Newborn: But an Email Away

• When to Keep Your Kid Dwelling house from Kid Care
  

• world wide web.cdc.gov/measles
  

About Dr. O'Leary:

Sean O'Leary, Dr., MPH, FAAP, is a pediatric infectious diseases expert at the Academy of Colorado and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Liaison to the Advisory Commission on Immunization Practices. Within the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), he is a member of the Babyhood Immunization Support Plan Project Advisory Commission, the Committee on Infectious Diseases, the Section on Infectious Diseases, and the Council on School Health. Dr. O'Leary is also a Chapter Immunization Representative for the Colorado Chapter of the AAP.

The information contained on this Web site should not exist used every bit a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

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Source: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/Protecting-Your-Baby-from-a-Measles-Outbreak-FAQs.aspx