Having a child means keeping tabs of her vaccinations. When Charlize was due for her MMR vaccination at one year, we thought the decision would be simple.

Then the doctor tells us, “do you want the MMR/MMRV “? These days everything comes in combinations, even our foods as well!

Most would have thought that it would be Hobson’s choice. One less injection for your baby is a good thing isn’t it? Of course, the doctor was advocating it. After all, he has ordered his vaccination stocks.

Initially, I thought , great, one less visit to the doctor is good. The doctor made little attempt to explain more when we probed on the safety, merely brushing aside our questions as silly , over worried parents.

We went ahead with it. The first week was fine and we were relieved we made the decision for the combined vaccine.

After a week, Charlize started developing fever and some rashes. We thought could it be due to the vaccination? We thought probably not as it has already been a week since the injection.

Only then did we do a search and found to our horror that the risk of fever and febrile seizures were much higher with the MMRV vaccine rather than a split dose. This was clearly not mentioned to us by the doctor, when we were making a decision.

Gladly, nothing untoward happened and Charlize is back to her usual self.

The lesson, “do your own research before any decision. Sadly never believe that your doctor is telling you everything.” This is the irony, isn’t it?