To get flu vax or not?

[newnamechange84]

I had the flu vaccine a few years ago when pg with DD4. It made me VERY ill, so much so that I haven’t had it since and have refused it for all my three of my DC in previous years. HOWEVER, I’ve just read that we are set to have the biggest outbreak in fifty years and it’s put a seed of doubt in my mind as to whether I’ve made the correct decision this year.

So, AIBU to refuse the vaccination this year? Honest opinions needed please.

Shower

It took me months and months to recover from my little twins whooping cough experience. He was really unwell, then became unresponsive and floppy. I called 999 (he was 8 weeks old, just home from nicu, he only weighed 5lb) and they took us in. They monitored him for a while, said it was bronchiolitis and he wasn't sick enough to be admitted but that he would get worse - they sent us home and told us to come back when he was worse. Then the other started getting sick too and they told us he would be just as bad but a day or two behind. I was absolutely hysterical - my husband and I stayed up in shifts watching them non stop as he was struggling to breathe. We got a snuza monitor that clipped to his nappy which set off alarms when he stopped breathing. three days later we went for his nicu discharge check up, they put him on an o2 monitor and his o2 sats dropped to 70%. He looked no different to normal and I realised how often over the last few days it must have been lower than that. They called an ambulance to drive us over the road to the main hospital and he quickly ended up in the HDU. I stayed with him for 11 days in a recliner next to his bed. It literally took me months to be able to sleep properly when he slept. I would wake up in a panic and have to check on him. Now they're in their own room and I am much more relaxed. I would definitely try and get some answers about what happened to put your mind at rest about why this happened and if it's likely to happen again. If so, ask what monitoring you can do at home to protect him. Joshua has adenoid issues from around this time (unsure if they're related) and I get very anxious about his breathing still at times but nothing like I was. Hang in there x

I'm confused by people saying the chickenpox vaccine doesn't last. I've known one person with chickenpox in the 10 years I've lived in the US. When I described my children's experience of chickenpox (in the UK) to their paediatrician she was really interested to hear about it because she sees it so rarely.

sorry to take over the thread. I have had a couple of hours sleep now I'm sat up watching him sleep and watching for anyour seizure activity but he's not got a temp so I don't think anything will happen. I dread the day he gets another temp

Shower it's understandable, is another seizure likely, or can it be a one off?

My DS doesn't fit but he's on oxygen for his lungs and apnea. He's been home 5 weeks now and I'm still in a constant state of anxiety over it.

I'm hoping some counselling helps.

Tammy I'm terrified of bronchiolitis.

There is an immunisation called RSV that stops them getting the symptoms so severely.

You have to meet certain criteria's to be eligible but it might be worth asking as they have had it in the past.

(apologies if you know all this and I'm preaching to the choir)

sashh but then there will be more to vaccinate against. It won’t be long until there’s a chicken pox vaccine over here.

There already is one.

And as things in other areas of medicine progress there needs to be. At least one child died after a heart transplant because of Chicken Pox

The flu has been and gone here in Australia, and it was bad, but I didn't get the flu vax and neither did most fit and healthy people I know. Unless you're immune compromised or elderly, there's no need.

Also the vax did not protect against the "bad" flu anyway. It protected against a different strain.

Superbeagle, that might be the case where you are in Australia, but unless there was clinical evidence, it wouldn't be offered, under the NHS, the way it is. You've got to take on board the advice for your Country/Region.

All my family have had it, Adults and children.

It isn't just those with compromised immune systems that are at risk.

An added worry, is that some antibiotics, for some people/conditions have stopped working. So the complications/side issues, chest infections etc, could kill. The 5000 (at least) people that die because the antibiotics wasn't effective and developed Sepsis etc, were previously healthy.

There have been some very tragic stories of healthy children in that number, because children are at greater risk.

Other precautions, like hand washing, covering the mouth when coughing, self care to aid recovery, need to be taken onboard.

Unborn - yes, they will often give preemies the RSV vaccination. My twins were not very early (only 5 weeks) so didn't qualify but one had growth restriction so was tiny for his gestation (3lb).

When we were in the HDU every other baby in there had bronchiolitis caused by RSV. Mine was the only one that didn't (they figured out it was probably whooping cough after we had been there a week) but because HDU is one big room and there were 4 kids plus parents in there with no ventilation he then obviously did get it, as did the other twin, which meant we were in even longer and he was even sicker.

After we were discharged I basically quarantined the lot of us til spring. I was absolutely terrified of it happening again (I cannot explain to anyone quite how horrific an experience it was - even the two months in nicu were nothing compared to it). One of the babies I met in there has been back in with bronchiolitis more than 12 times in the last year and has lasting damage as a result - he was three times the size of my little one but has an older sister who obviously picks up germs all over the place.

This is why I get really angry when parents take their kids out around other kids when they're sick, and why I get so angry when people say they're not in contact with any immunosuppressed people since they have no idea the hell that a simple bug can inflict on a family.

My same little one has a rare condition affecting his blood sugars and any bug puts him at risk of serious illness, hospital admission, brain damage and coma. There are kids who have it much worse than him and their lives are constantly being ruined by simple bugs. I wish people were a bit more thoughtful - it could easily be their kid who's that sick.

Tammy that sounds tough, I struggle only having to worry about just one.

DS's community nurse says the guidelines don't cover children who could really use use it.

If DS had been over the 30 week mark even with oxygen he wouldn't of met the criteria.

Hope your DS had a stable night shower.