Flu nasal spray not vegetarian

[AhBiscuits]

DD9 is vegetarian. No one else in the family is. She's very strict about it and checks packets carefully for things like gelatin if she is unsure whether she can have something.

Just had the email from school about the flu nasal spray and it says in there that the spray contains pork gelatin. She would 100% refuse to entertain having this if she knew. I don't know whether the injection would be vegetarian, I assume so, but there is also no way she would have that. Maybe some people will say make her have the injection if she refuses the spray. I'm not convinced a nurse would inject a wriggling screaming child that I've had to physically drag through the door.

DD has a heart condition, she's had open heart surgery before, and her cardiologist always asks that she has any vaccines that are offered.

She had the spray last year, I must not have realised it wasn't vegetarian. She's been veggie for about 18 months.

I'm not decided on what I'll do but am interested to hear some different perspectives.

YABU - tell her and let her decide what she wants to do.
YANBU - keep quiet, let her have the spray for the greater good.

Let her decide to not have it if that is what she prefers. The main reason children are given it is to protect older and more vulnerable people.

Your dd is in a very similar position to my dd - also vegetarian, also had open heart surgery as a baby.

We’ve always been able to request a jab for her instead, even if that means going to the drs for it instead.

The dd is vulnerable, she’s had open heart surgery

She's 9. She's a child. You, as her parent, make the decisions about her health and treatment; she lacks the maturity to make this decision which could be important to her health. Her cardiologist has recommended that she has any immunisations going.

I'm a vegetarian myself, but think you have to do what you can and do what's best, rather than cut your nose off to spite your face for the sake of a 'principle'.

And what she doesn't know won't hurt her! 🙂

I would give her an either or choice of the spray or the vaccine. Make it clear that refusing isn’t an option as at her age she can’t fully understand the consequences of refusal.

Is she likely to ask whether the spray is vegetarian? To be honest I suspect it wouldn't cross most people's minds. I'd not say anything.

If she finds out tell her it's the spray or an injection. Let her decide which one she'd prefer.

Find out if there is an alternative? After all, many people don't want to have pork or gelatine.

The injection is vegetarian friendly. It is offered in schools to children who can't have meat products.

Ah, I missed the heart surgery part. THen I would offer her the choice, non vegetarian spray of needle. But one must be chosen.

The jab is vegetarian. If you consider her old enough to make her own choices then tell her, she has the spray or the jab, but there is no choice to not have anything due to her vulnerability.

If you think she’ll refuse both, then you make a best interest decision not to tell her about the pork.

If she is strict about her beliefs and not wanting to consume gelatine in any forms then I think it's unreasonable to basically lie and mislead her into accepting the nasal spray when she would refuse it if she knew. In which case the injection is available and that doesn't contain gelatine - so you'd need to speak to her about balancing the fear of an injection against the risks of getting flu.

There is a gelatine free version, lots of kids have this version for religious reasons.

A few children at my daughter's school have the injection rather than 'the sniff' (as they call it, I think it sounds rather sinister). This is mainly for religious reasons.

Does she understand about her health? If you talked to her about how important it was to have the vaccine and said refusal was not an option, what would she choose?

We don't eat meat and my child had the spray vaccine.

The alternative is the injection.

The paperwork we get in Scotland makes it quite clear that there's an injection alternative and as it's porcine gelatin none of the muslim children will have the nasal spray. In our class that would mean it would not be possible (even if wanted to) to keep the information from dc.
I think I would tell her and make it a choice of injection or spray but no choice to have neither. If possible i'd insist on the injection before the spray at school day to be sure she'll go ahead with it. She's going to need other injections in future (hpv) so always best to get used to them.

I would take her to the doctor and pay for her to have the injection, without going into the ins and outs. Don't give her an opportunity to decline both.

It’s really tricky isn’t it, I don’t envy you. We’re vegetarian and I didn’t tell DD who’s 6 that the nose spray isn’t. If she’d asked me I’d have told her the truth but it didn’t occur to her. She’s got a health condition and needs the protection and she’s still very fearful of needles after a few difficult hospital stays so I don’t want to put her through procedures that can be avoided for my principles. It was nightmare enough getting her to have the spray last year, she’s got a proper fear of stuff up her nose but she was alright this year.

You know your daughter best. I hope it goes well whatever you decide.

I just got our consent form through from school - they offer the jab as an alternative, if the family has vegetarian or religious reasons.

She's 9 and I'm vulnerable health. I'd not normally keep something from a child for ethical reasons but in this case, you know she is very unlikely to make a decision that is in her best interests. Sometimes as a parent you need to make choices for children that go against what they want but is best for them. If she was older and fully understood the consequences then I'd respond differently but a 9 year old isn't old enough to weigh up short term discomfort with the very real risks that flu could pose. We had to make my similar age child have some unpleasant medical tests this year, if it was up to them they'd have declined them all. But if we hadn't the consequences could have been extremely serious. They struggled to look at the bigger picture so we had to make that decision for them.
For all the people saying her, you can't lie to a child etc...imagine what people would say about you (or what she would say about you when she was older) if something serious happened to her that the vaccine in some form would have prevented...I don't think 'but you didn't want it when you were 9' would be seen as good parenting

no medicine is vegetarian.

ALL active substances are at the very least tested on animals.

unless there is a medical reason not to take a medicine you can/should disregard religious or other preferencial food requirements.

As a life long vegetarian, I think this is an excellent teaching moment. She will come across medicines she might need that are not vegetarian and it’s good to have that conversation now rather than later.

Help her understand the difference and importance to her own health.

She still has a leaky valve and there is a chance in the future that they may want to replace it with a pig valve. Hopefully she'll be a lot older if that discussion needs to take place!

You are the parent your one "job" it to keep her alive until she is 18 😀.
If you know she will not take the injection say nothing and let her check for herself.
If she tells you there is a problem then she gets to pick option 1 or 2 if not you will pick for her.
Good luck!🤞

They don't need to pay for the flu injection - she's eligible for it and can be offered either the live nasal spray which contains porcine gelatine, or the inactivated injection which doesn't.

I'm not sure how entrenched her vegetarian ethics and beliefs are but interestingly many vegans and vegetarians will accept medication cultured on animal cells such as the flu injection.

This is a great response