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?

it’s very likely to make them poorly

How come neither DD nor any of her friends who had it done at school have been poorly then, if it's so likely?

Can I ask where people got their children vaccinated if they were too old for the school nasal spray? I could not find anywhere that would give the jab to under-16s, and mine are 9 and 11. TIA.

Superdrug did my DS 12yo

Yes, absolutely. Flu is life- threatening at worst, and a horrible experience at best.
I can't think of any good reason not to do it.
Even if it does make them a little poorly, it's not going to be a tenth as bad or dangerous as if they were to get the actual flu.

Yes my son had it in November along with all his class mates. I wanted him to have it has he had issues with chest infections after having pneumonia when he was little.

Link to the vaccine info is below. From the product information sheet: over 1 in 10 get headaches, weakness, runny nose, reduced appetite. Up to 1:10 get fever and muscle aches. I’d say that counts as very likely to make them ill (certainly more likely than being laid up with flu for weeks).

www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/29109

7yo ds had it and had absolutely no adverse effects. I wanted also wanted to reduce the chance of 14mo dd getting flu - as well as me and dh.

Yes.

The reasons:

1. I don't want her to get flu, and the nasal spray will massively reduce the chance of this (not 100%, but still worth it.)

2. Flu is nasty, but it is unlikely to kill my child. It might kill someone else's though. Or someone else she comes into contact with. Children are great at spreading germs! There are some people who are unable to get the immunisation, and others for whom it is less effective and I don't want to unwittingly be responsible for the suffering and death of others.

3. The risk of side affects and the severity of those side effects are low enough to be far, far outweighed by the unpleasantness associated with full blown flu.

They are not exactly extreme side effects. Dd never had any when she used to get it and ds hasn't either from this years or previous ones

Oldest has had it. Youngest isn’t eligible yet but would have had if he was. Because flu is horrible and anything I can do to stop them getting it is a good thing.

DS has had it, my older two are too old to qualify. I paid £10 to have a vaccination. DS had his at the beginning of November, I think you've left it too late to be honest.

I think anyone who is umming and erring over having it simply doesn't understand what flu is, and how it differs from a normal cold. Flu can kill.

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us
..."over 1 in 10 get headaches, weakness, runny nose, reduced appetite. Up to 1:10 get fever and muscle aches. I’d say that counts as very likely to make them ill..."

A runny nose? A headache? Loss of appetite? A temporary (mild) fever or muscle ache?

Yeah, I am not overly concerned about my dc getting one of those side affects. They are minor, and very temporary. She has a pretty much constant runny nose anyway, as is the fashion amongst pre-schoolers.

If that is "ill", then you need to look at what flu feels like...

I had it once, as a healthy 20 year old, and I thought I was dying!

Yes, because I would like to lessen the chance of him getting 'flu by vaccinating against 'some' of the common strains.

No mine hasn't. Not enough evidence that is safe to put a live vaccine up a small child's nose.

And not enough evidence that it actually makes any difference to the cases of flu

Oh thought of another reason:

4. I don't think it is the fault of children if their parents wont vaccinate them. Although their lack of immunisation makes it more likely that my dd will be infected, my dd's immunisation makes it less likely that one of her friends will become ill. Herd immunity. To all those parents who don't vaccinate their children, and whose children have never had flu/measles/mumps etc: The reason your child hasn't been ill may well be partly because my child has been immunised. You're welcome!

@Bluebubble123 I don't know the exact numbers but I would imagine that millions of children across the globe have had a nasal vaccine without serious side effects or death (of course there will be a tiny percentage who have experienced serious problems as a result, as with any medicine).

Genuinely curious how many you would need it to be before you would consider it safe?

If you're on the fence about the vaccine, I suspect neither you, nor your DH, has ever had flu.

No, my DS is 11yo and the only pharmacy I found willing to give it to children had run out of the vaccine.

Both DSs have had the vaccine (as have I).
No adverse effects and for me the benefits outweigh the risks.

Ds 6 has had it I wouldn't think not to
The side effects IF any are a damn sight better than flu I wouldn't wish that on anyone I had it 10 years ago now and thought I was dying I've never been so ill in my life

Yes squishy, those symptoms are comparatively mild. But so is flu in most cases (see below).

www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/three-quarters-of-people-with-flu-have-no-symptoms/

Even when flu is bad, a healthy child will almost certainly recover fully, and my ds has had full blown flu so we do have some insight.

I have to therefore weigh up a likely mild/moderate illness against a very unlikely but worse illness, bearing in mind that both will essentially do no permanent damage. I also have to weigh up how likely the vaccine is to prevent that severe illness: that would most likely be caused by a new variant like Aussie flu, against which the vaccine is not very effective. These are my reasons for not getting it, but I’ll happily accept that others come to a different conclusion.

So ‘aussie Flu’ is included in this years vaccine? I didn’t know that...thank god we had it (vaccine not flu).

Yes they have had the flu vaccine, they are 3 yrs (4 soon).

There was no real decision to make or debate to have- we wanted it done to give the best chance of protecting LO from dreadful flu.

My LO has no after affects whatsoever when they had the nasal flu vaccine.

I went to the surgery with LO to get it done, they did not require consent from the other parent.

If it's available for your child, just get it done.

No, she got the jab. They have discontinued the nasal version here in the US because it wasn't effective.