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.

I hope both your DDs are better by now, that's a lot to cope with :(

I've decided not to allow my own DD to have the flu jab, based on my own reaction - she's been ill enough this year

I am [shocked] & about the comments being removed from the NHS site

saintlyjimjams, that was really interesting. I didn't quite know why this toddler flu vaccine has come about, considering I didn't consider toddlers to be a high risk group for contracting flu on the whole. The bigger picture hadn't occurred to me.

My DD is 2.2 and hasn't been called up. I'll have a good think before giving it to her, especially as her own risk of getting flu is very low (she doesn't go to nursery).

Really hope both of your DDs are well soon, OP.

Thanks for the replies. DD2 still in hospital. DH stayed there last night, I am at home with DD1.

Her breathing is more under control but she is very lethargic & her temperature keeps spiking. DH just called me & said that someone was coming to take a "snot sample" (his words!) to find out what the virus is. I asked him to find out if they can look specifically for the influenza strain that is in Fluenz. He asked and was told that this is not possible

I just want everyone home and back to normal. DD1 is still wheezing away but is the best she has been. I am still aware that the virus could be coincidence but it is a virus with symptoms of flu. Maybe they caught it in the Dr'a waiting room? Who knows, but I feel very skeptical about the whole thing.

I was talking to one of the young hospital Dr's about my theory & she said "I do think we are too quick to assume that the vaccines given to children are safe". After that she them added "Don't let it put you off vaccinating in future though".

Oh no old dog .. You poor thing .

How horrid for you all :(

The comments thing is very strange, and as for the "not possible to test" "quick to assume its safe" and "don't let it out you off vaccinating" comments would make me very curious as to whether there was something about this vaccine that's being covered up"

I hope your dc recover soon :(

My DS had the nasal flu vaccine 6 weeks ago - and now has a stinking cold, with fever, cough, some wheezing, extra-tired etc. As does his little brother.

I can't see that in my case the two are related, there are just colds going around at the moment and some kids get them worse than others.

chunky

I looked at some info when my dd was given the letter. There were stats given of hospital admissions die to wheezing within 6 Months of having the vaccine.

Due-bloody iPhone

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.

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

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.

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

link here

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

oh ignore my typo!

Old dog I can't get your link to work

Link failed

Will try again....

dx.doi/10.1136/bmj.e5313

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

*bog standard

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

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.