Flu jab for teens - yes or no?

[FakeFlamingo]

Hi, has anyone given their teenager a flu injection? I am thinking of giving my 13 year old this year but confusing messages from GP/pharmacy/online. Does anyone know - can they or can't they have the flu jab? I would go private not to NHS. They only get it in school until Year7 & after that no one knows if they can have it until they are 18!

Yes, my teens have had flu jabs for the last 3 or so years

They get them on NHS (because I have leukaemia, and the immediate household of those with very wonky immune systems qualify for jabs (not sniff))

Pharmacies and private GPs give the same jab (it’s hard to get the sniff outside the NHS programme). It used to be very hard to find pharmacies that would do u18s, let alone u16s, because the pharmacist needed additional paediatric training. But in respond to demand, more are doing over-12s. Try the bigger branches of Superdrug or Boots

@iVampire thank you. Sorry to hear about your leukaemia - hope you are doing ok.

My daughter has appointment for the flu nasal spray, she is 17 and has a heart defect.

Children not at risk can not have the vaccination under the NHS unless they are year 7 or below. As far as I remember you have to be over 18 to have it privately at a chemist.

I always pay for my teen to have it. When he was yr 6 they only vaccinated up to year 5 and flu swept through year 6. He was so ill. So on subsequent years I've paid to jab him. You can pay privately for kids to have the jab through chemists. Not all do kids but some do. Boots usually do. He chooses to have it as he remembers how ill he was.

Thank you everyone. I did find a pharmacist (only 1 out of 10 that I called) who was qualified to do it & we did get this done on Friday.

My surgery were useless as they refused to confirm if she can have it. They were only willing to confirm that she can't have it on the NHS (which I already knew!)

I hadn't realised that the pharmacist is the problem & not the jab itself for 12-18 year olds.