4-month old with flu - looking for similar experiences

[Jh2019]

Hi everyone. I came down with flu at the weekend (actual flu, influenza a, confirmed with an antigen test), still suffering a lot but starting to slowly improve. Today my worst fear came to be when my baby, nearly 4 months, woke up with high fever and cough - so she has clearly caught it. Unfortunately my pregnancy vaccine was all the way last November, and I hadn’t yet managed to get my private vaccine booked in this year, which I know would have protected the household. Apparently this is an unusually early flu season. I also no longer breastfeed, which adds another layer of guilt, but nothing I can do about that now sadly.

The GP was happy with her obs this morning and we are monitoring at home, alternating calpol and Nurofen, though the fever is quite stubborn and not coming down fully. The hardest aspect right now is that she won’t go to sleep in her crib, and will only sleep when held. It’s so hard not to fall asleep myself in that situation, and I struggle to let go of anxiety that my husband will fall asleep when it’s his turn.

Just looking for any similar experiences really, as I’m struggling to find much about likely progression of the illness in babies of this age - just that it ‘can be’ very serious in infants, which is obviously really worrying. For those whose young babies had flu, do you remember roughly how long it lasted, which days were the worst, did you end up in hospital, etc? Thanks for any input - it would be great to have some idea of what to expect.

And for any mums of babies/toddlers not yet eligible for the vaccine, highly recommend getting it ASAP to reduce the chance of you and your baby getting poorly - I’m kicking myself that I was too late.

I wouldn't kick yourself about the flu vaccine, it's not incredibly effective (~50% with big variability year to year) and doesn't really make the right kind of antibodies to be shed into breastmilk anyway - it's not a live vaccine and isn't ideal for mucosal immunity. I paid privately to get it myself two weeks ago & am pro vaccine, but I am also realistic about the flu vaccine and its efficacy.

Last winter my baby had COVID at 5.5 months and RSV at 6.5 months. What I wasnt prepared for was the projectile vomiting (not all babies do this, but the combination of snot & fever can cause it). I went to A&E both times, RSV required an admission for low oxygen - but there were obvious red flags, rib retractions, baby very sleepy (more obvious in a FOMO 6 montn old). The NHS has good guidelines on what to look out for and those signs also apply to flu and other respiratory infections.

If the baby needs to be help upright, you have to do shifts with your partner, you need 4h unbroken sleep at some point in the night at least. Arrange it so you do the 'hardest' part of the night if you have to. You have been ill and you also need to recover.