DD is unwell after flu vaccine and seems to have flu...

[OldDogNewTricks]

Can this be a coincidence?

I took DD (2.9) for the flu nasal spray on Tuesday. She was absolutely fine when we got there.

It was an early evening appointment. On the way home in the car, she was unusually quiet. When we stopped the car she was sitting with a mouth full of saliva looking as if she was going to be sick (it was a short journey & she doesn't suffer from car sickness). I took her inside and she said she was okay but she was very quiet & also seemed a bit unsteady on her feet at first. I kept a close eye on her (in case she was having a reaction & I had to drive her back to the surgery). After about 30 minutes she perked up a bit, then went to bed at the usual time.

On Wednesday she was quiet & sat on the sofa for most of the day with a slight temp & a runny nose. She had calpol.

Thursday was worse. DD complained that the back of her neck was sore. She still had a severely runny nose, watery eyes, started coughing, was still a bit hot and was not herself.

Today, just the same except the cough is a lot worse & she has a slight wheeze as well. She has been really clingy and.tkept asking me to "take the cough away" . She has spent the day lying with her head on me.

She went to bed as usual & then woke at midnight, vomiting everywhere & burning up. She's gone back to sleep after being cleaned up and given Calpol. I'm still awake because I can hear her coughing constantly & am worried that she is going to be sick again. I also feel very guilty that I took her for the vaccine. No-one we know has had flu, DD is fit normally and doesn't pick much up. I know she could have picked it up but it seems such a coincidence when she was perfectly well beforehand.

Her younger sister (9 months) has also woken tonight with a temperature, her nose is running & she has started to cough.

Now, this may be a silly question... but I will ask anyway..as DD1 seems to have developed flu symptoms after the vaccine, is it possible that DD2 has caught it from her? Common sense tells me that this can'be possible but I can't help wondering.

I looked at the NHS website for info & I noticed that about 10 people have posted on the page, saying that their children were very ill after the vaccine, with high temperatures, vomiting & flu-like symptoms.

I am so upset with myself for just going along after receiving the letter. If I'd looked at the website first then I would have had second thoughts.

[flippinehh]

My ds has the vaccine every year as has health issues and a heart condition. Never has a reaction but they've both had illness after illness, since half term.

[BlackInk]

The nasal spray contains a weakened but live form of what ever flu viruses they anticipate will be prevalent in the coming months. They do say it doesn't cause flu in healthy people, but also advise that anyone who's had is stays away from anyone with a weak immune system as there's a risk of passing on flu to them.
Both my DC (and almost half of the school) have flu symptoms (fevers of 39+, sore throats, coughs, headaches, vomiting, runny noses...) less than a week after they were all given the spray.
I'm sure it's a coincidence, but you can see why people don't trust the vaccine. Even if it's a coincidence rather than a reaction to the spray it just goes to show that there are so many flu-like viruses about that it's pointless trying to immunise against them.

[managedmis]

The vaccination isn't meant to actually give you the real flu though?!

[Oldmum55]

Too much of a coincidence yet they insist the flu vaccine won't give you flu! I have heard of people having the same so I guess they don't tell you or nobody would want the jab!

[BlackInk]

Hope your DDs are much better soon OP!

[BlackInk]

My DD had her flu nasal spray at school last week. It's the first time she's ever had it - I had some concerns about it, but was persuaded this year by medical friends.

She started coughing and had a sore throat yesterday, and today is much worse with a high temperature. I would definitely have my suspicions that it has been caused by the vaccine, but her friend was off school last week with something similar (missed her spray) so the likelihood is that DD has just picked up a flu-like bug that's doing the rounds. There are so many bugs around at this time of year that it's impossible to know whether it's a reaction to the vaccine or a bug picked up normally.

[ArtyCubbles]

I’m posting on this as I gave my daughter the flu spray. I wasn’t told that she would then develop flu three days later. I called the doctor and they told me it is perfectly normal. Well a heads up would have been nice!!

Now, two weeks later we both have flu, the chills, the aching. She had dangerously high temperatures, struggling to want to eat. She’s been ill since Tuesday, it’s now Saturday, she is still ill.

I feel frustrated that I ever gave her that flu spray. I also got a letter sent to me and thought I had to give her it to protect her but it has done no such thing. I realise her second flu must be a different strain but sad that the initial spray made her ill and then did her no good in protecting her from the flu we have now 😥

[OldDogNewTricks]

I have seen my hat - thank you so much! That was really annoying me and you have cheered me up by correctly linking to it.

Saintly - Thank you for your link as well. I would also be interested in reading the full Nigel Hawkes article. It's making me miss my student days when I could just search around to my heart's content... Usually completely unrelated to whatever I was supposed to be looking up though.

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

*bog standard

Yes, my days of Athens access to all manner of stuff are gone too!

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

Sorry saintly, I don't have administrator rights anymore, not even a big standard login. And it would of course be breaking all manner of copyright laws, ahem.

[NoComet]

DD1 refuses to have them, they always make her feel crap.

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

You won't be able to read the full text without a subscription but you can read an extract and the "Rapid Responses" are freely accessible as well.

[saintlyjimjams]

agh paywall, but it looks interesting. If anyone who has access could pm me the text? :whistles: is that even allowed ex medical librarian?

[IHaveSeenMyHat]

Ex medical librarian reporting for duty! I used to know the BMJ website like the back of my hand

Let's see if I can do it:

www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5313

[OldDogNewTricks]

Clearly I am incapable of making a link work. The article does exist! It is called "A jab in the dark" & is by Nigel Hawkes.

When I am less tired I will teach myself how to correctly link from my phone.

[OldDogNewTricks]

Link failed

Will try again....

dx.doi/10.1136/bmj.e5313

[saintlyjimjams]

Old dog I can't get your link to work

[saintlyjimjams]

oh ignore my typo!

[saintlyjimjams]

Cocharane is a reliable place to look for info although not much on the nasal spray. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004879.pub4/full

[OldDogNewTricks]

link here

[IHATEBARCLAYSBANK]

Glad they are home safely, really hope they are both properly better real soon - think I was about 10 days before I felt like I had properly shaken the effects off, so hopefully they will be on the mend very soon

[OldDogNewTricks]

DD is home! Wheezing and miserable, but home all the same.

Thank you for the link Barclays. I have also come across some interesting articles while I have been digging around. There was a really interesting article in the BMJ. I could only read part of it, but overall, the author was questioning the fact that the nasal spray for children has been approved based on three lots of unpublished research. He was asking why this has happened & why there is not transparency around the vaccine (because the research has not been published, it is not available to be viewed or questioned). I have no idea how accurate this is & cannot find the article now for the life of me (it was late & I was tired when googling whilst in hospital). It was titled "A stab in the dark" and when I do find it again, I will link.

As a few posters have rightly pointed out, there are lots of viral illnesses around at the moment. The thing that makes me very uneasy though, is how hard it would be to prove vaccine side effects/damage in children. Doctors can put most illnesses down to 'coincidence' which means they don't report vaccine side-effects. Unless very serious damage or death occurs, it doesn't seem to be possible to have any possible link investigated by blood tests, within the NHS.

I have also been pro-vaccination up until now, but I will be thinking carefully about future vaccines that are offered to any of my DC.

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments re: my DD's.

[IHATEBARCLAYSBANK]

Article Here


The article in the link above & the comments below it make for very interesting reading & according this, the children's nasal spray IS a diluted form of live vaccine, lots of other contovercey over this if you start poking around

[lilyaldrin]

I can't say if it's related for you, but DS (3) had the flu vaccine about a month ago. Last week he became ill with what sounds like a similar virus to your DD - bad cough, especially at night, high temperature, loads of snot, puffy eyes, sleeping loads. If he had got this a couple of weeks earlier I would probably have assumed it was related to the vaccine.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Due-bloody iPhone