Six Month Flu Shot – Yes or No??

My kids have never had flu shots. I’ve heard so many bad things about them that I’ve just opted not to do it, and they’ve always been pretty healthy. My kids aren’t in daycare though…

Bryce’sMom2006-11-1 19:16:13

I was really fearful of the flu shot for my kids and Liza didn’t get one until last year (she’s 4). What convinced me was that two years ago my friend’s little girl got the flu and she was so sick she had to be hospitalized for a week. She was really, really sick. So, since then I’ve gotten my children flu shots and they’ve all done fine, no reactions whatsoever. My children are not in day care, but you can catch the flu anywhere. My friend’s daughter wasn’t in day care either. They think she caught it at church, but no one really knows for sure. You can catch it while out shopping, dining out, anywhere really. Day care only increases the risk.

i have gotten a flu shot once and i have never been that sick in my life. i had the worst flu ever. with a 104 fever as well.
i also read that the strain is different every year and its hard for them to predict what strain it will be, so the flu shot doesnt necessarily even protect you if its a different strain.
im def. not going to get my son the flu shot, probably ever.

Alexis had the flu shot last year and we are going to get it done again tomorrow. I’m also going to get Taylor her flu shot too once she is feeling better along with her 6 month shots. Poor girl won’t know what hit her since she just got an antiboitc shot on monday.

Well, I think that this is an interesting topic that like anything related to vaccinations can get kind of controversial.

I just thought I’d share our story:

I have been giving Sarah the flu shot since she was just over a year old. Her first time, we missed the boat, and gave it to her in December when she was 14 months, which is really too late in the flu season for the body to build up adequate immunity. In January, she came down with back to back flu viruses which caused her to have three seizures each one a week apart from the next. She had fevers as high as 105 degrees, and had a fever non-stop for over a month. Her defences were so weak and she just couldn’t fight anything off, she was catching everything and we had to keep her under “house arrest”. It all started from that bad strain of the flu that she just couldn’t fight off. I was pregnant with Hailey at the time in my first trimester, and so I didn’t get vaccinated either. I caught the flu from Sarah, and ended up so sick, and developed a very bad sinus infection, that I needed to take antibiotics, which led to a servere c-diff infection, from which I was extremely ill almost to the point of hospitalization for 3 months. The stress of the whole situation was so bad that I often wonder if it has had anything to do with Hailey’s health problems today. I’ve often wondered if I could have avoided the whole thing by just having given Sarah her flu shot on time. Who knows.

With respect to getting sick from the flu shot, it is actually a dead virus, and so you can’t get the actual flu from it. However, if you are already fighting off another virus, like a cold, at the time of the shot, it can weaken your ability to fight off the other virus (just like any other vaccination) which is why some people get colds around the time of the flu shot.

As for the ingredients in the flu shot, yes, it isn’t exactly pretty, but few of us know of the ingredients in any of the vaccines that we get. Yet they have saved lives and stopped additional viral pandemics.

In young children, especially children with respiratory complications, the flu can lead to RSV which can have serious and threatening complications. Further, healthy people who get the flu can pass it on to other not as healthy people.

A valid fact that may be something to consider if your child has allergies is that the flu shot contains an egg base, and if your child has allergy to eggs this is something to consider.

Here is a link that talks a bit about it:

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&amp ;ref=522

I am not trying to criticize anyone who chooses not to get a flu vaccine. I do believe of course that it’s a personal choice. But I also think that it’s a choice that should be taken seriously in weighing all the risks and benefits. The flu today is not the same as it was 20 years ago when we growing up. It’s much more virulent.

-As for that news article, I find it amusing only in the sense that it amuses me how the author “forgets” to mention that Ozzy is bipolar (which I thought was a widely known fact giving that there have been so many books written abut him), hence the amount of medication he takes. LOL seems you have to take everything with a grain of salt these days, just from the fact that she misleads readers by leaving out that critical piece of info makes me think the whole thing is just BS!! Also, there have always been different strains of the flu virus out there, the shot simply protects you from the deadly one. That said, I have never gotten the flu (I don’t think) and I consider the vaccine a just in case thing for me. My husband however gets it at least 2X, and this will be his first year getting the shot (I’m making him b/c when he ets sick so does Austin and with austin like I said before, a simple cold sends us running to the nebulizer) I don’t think it’s right or wrong to get it though, jus a personal choice thing!!!

I heard that article about the chemicals in our milk as well Christine. I think what makes it even worse is that a lot of the pesticides, preservatives, sweeteners, and other artificial substances that they put in our food (many of which we consider harmful) get broken down into other harmful chemicals. I once read something that nutrasweet converts to the same chemical found in formaldehyde at less than 90 degrees. Who knows if it’s all true or not, but we certainly are bombarded with such things these days. Scary.

I also just wanted to add to what Jill said, that of course, the flu shot can’t protect you from all the strains that will emerge during a season. But the WHO puts a lot of research into trying to speculate which strains will be most virulent that season, and those are the ones that they try to include in the shot. That’s actually why our flu shots are being delayed this year… they had trouble with one of the strains.

s&h’s mum2006-11-2 11:53:38