Has your child had nasal flu vaccine and why?

[MissT84]

Sitting on the fence about giving dc nasal flu vaccine (verging on saying yes). Dh doesn't want them to have it.

So aibu to ask if you have given it/would give it to your dc? And what reasons?

Oh the the reason they've had it is because a) all their doctors recommended it and b) a friend of mine died of flu aged 18.

No, my 11 and 4 year old have never had it.

The vaccine does not make them poorly

It made my ds poorly. He had all of the following common symptoms, funnily: NHS Nasal Flu Side Effects

I'd give it to him again though. He's asthmatic. Being asthmatic myself I know how touch and go it can be in conjunction with flu.

All 3 of mine have had it for 2 years and never made any of them poorly. I asked the nurse and she said it isn't like the injection adults have which can make you feel unwell after. She said it was completely different and would have no effect on them.

My 2 have both had it, didn't make them ill and I really don't want them getting flu. Flu is horrible.

I've C&Pd the following from our recent Public Health England Update from the 5th January:

Influenza activity in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland increased across all surveillance indicators during the last week of 2017, with notable increases for respiratory outbreaks and influenza-confirmed hospitalisations, according to the PHE’s latest Weekly National Influenza Report [1].

There were 141 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in week 52, compared with 34 in the previous week. The rate of influenza-confirmed hospitalisations in week 52 (based on sentinel surveillance across 19 NHS Trusts in England) was 6.82 per 100,000 population, compared with 2.33 per 100,000 in the previous week. Influenza A and B were co-circulating. RSV activity was declining.

There's also this:

www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-flu-levels-continue-to-increase-according-to-phe-statistics

and this:

publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2018/01/11/flu-and-flu-vaccines-expert-interview/

My DS is too old for the current programme.

I'm a school vaccination nurse and I'm surprised at how low the uptake has been. We vaccinated between October and December and had just over 60% uptake.

Occasionally there's a child who's had it at their GP, but most have it at school.

We all had it done in October, I even asked paediatric permission for my dd to have it before she was 2 as she is terribly chest prone. (She was given injection at 18 months old).

It won’t make them ill, if they get ill after it it is not the vaccine, it takes 2 weeks to fully develop in the body. They would have gotten ill anyway.
Flu is hideous, dangerous illness. Also, have you seen the state of a and e at the moment. Why would you want to risk having a very poorly child on an overstretched system?

My daughter had the injection as I am immunocompromised and the nasal vaccine is live. Otherwise she would have had the nasal vaccine. People die of Flu, particularly the very young and the very old.

I do have to pull people up saying it definitely doesn't make children ill though. It really can. Unless you don't count side-effects as being "ill". They're different things of course, but the result is the same. They feel and act like they're ill. It's not uncommon after the nasal flu.

My school age child has had it since they first offered it because in my opinion why the hell wouldn’t you let them have it? It’s free, (in my experience) side affect free and offers reasonable protection from a nasty virus.

My two year old was apparently a month two young to be vaccinated by the NHS but I’d have had him done too.

DD is year 4, so we were offered vaccine at school. Happy for her to have it, flu is horrible and can be very serious.

She was hospitalised once at age of 3 with breathing difficulties due to a virus. Properly scary.

Yes I did because I've heard the current strain of flu is particularly nasty.

My 4 yr old didn't.

My dc had zero side effects. He has had flu before and it was ten horrendous days. His step sister has cystic fibrosis so it’s sensible to have the vaccine.

No, mine have never had it.

DS is 6 and had it at school. He had a very slight reaction to the vaccine (raised temp).
I did not have the vaccine - I got the flu and couldn't get out of bed for days. I had a cough/tiredness which went on for a month. I'm very glad my son didn't have the same thing.

I have no idea why you wouldn't vaccinate if you have the chance. (medical reasons aside).

Yes because the flu is awful and the real question is why WOULDNT you want to protect your child against it? Seems cruel. And it doesn’t make them ill at all

DS (3) had it; DD is too young. DH and I have both had nasty flus over Christmas (not the Australian strain, as far as we can tell), and DS didn't catch it. My Dad had the vaccine and hasn't caught anything; Mum didn't have it (she was ill the day she was meant to get it, and forgot to reschedule), and caught the flu.

I don't think it's worth not getting it (in fact, would pay for DH and I to have it next year).

Ds had it the last few years with no side effects. Dd wasnt eligible. Dh got the jab as he's going to a hot spot place with work

Yes, both have had it.

It didn’t occur to me to ask his dad if he could have the flu spray. It didn’t make him ill and the jab didn’t make me ill.

He’s not a cock in that way though to be arrogant enough to deny his child something to protect them from being seriously ill and even death.

Me (I'm pregnant), my husband (had to pay at Boots) and my 4 year old son (had nasal spray at GP surgery) all had it this year.

None of us suffered a single side effect (I think my arm might have been a little bit sore the next day maybe) and despite a lot of flu circulating around our local area, none of us have caught it and friends in other parts of the country have reported the same and are glad they had it. There's no way of knowing if it has actually prevented anything as maybe we were never destined to get the flu this winter anyway, but it was definitely worth the risk.

With the nasal vaccine, because it is a live vaccine (unlike the jab) there is a risk that the child might feel a bit under the weather for a few days. My son never has and I've never heard a friend report any side effects either.

With hindsight, I'm really glad we decided to all do it this year and will be doing the same next year.

The problem is, people get a nasty cold that really knocks them for six but ultimately is not too debilitating and they think they have had the flu so they label vaccination as being unnecessary. Genuine flu is when you are confined to bed for two weeks, couldn't even face lifting your head off the pillow to pick up a £50 note off the floor and may even end up hospitalised. Flu routinely kills the very old, the infirm and the very young. It nearly killed a baby in our village who was already poorly - he was in paediatric intensive care for several weeks. Even though my four year old is pretty robust, I would be really quite scared if he caught proper flu.

Flu is a big deal. Even if you are perfectly healthy, the less flu circulating around the better and even though the flu vaccine doesn't work in many cases, every little helps.

No.

I decided a few years back against having flu immunisation unless we developed a stronger medical reason. So I don't rule it out in the future.

I came to the decision having read over the years about potential, rare side effects and in view of the fact it's a constantly mutating virus. Kids have had all other vaccinations.

They've had it every year it's been offered to them and not once has it made them poorly. Even if it did, they wouldn't be as bad as if they caught flu. They also have a lot of contact with older grandparents and I'd rather they not pass germs to them.