Vaccine to be offered to healthy children under 5

[homicidalmummymaniac]

Will you be taking your dc along to have the vaccine?
I really don't know and as a parent I don't know when I have ever felt so totally RESPONSIBLE for their health. I feel like their future health could depend on this and at the back of my mind, I still feel it hasn't been tested enough.
Your thoughts?

Same here Fanjo.

I want it for dc the sooner the better. How soon 2 b offered does anyone know?

Where can we find an un-biased, honest, educated opinion about this jab. As others have said, media is biased and can't find a GP to discuss down sides....

My daughter had GBS when she was 2 - it was awful - i am now shitting bricks over the whole should ds have it shouldnt he. Having just watched the news im swingin to getting it for him.

Are they saying it will be Cevelpan for under-5s then Lenin?

QS's 4yr old is def the reason I'm highly considering not to jab my 18month old. In the states, young children were first priority so most have already been vaccinated ( well those w/o the shortages). Very tough decision to make....and here I thought once I decided on getting my pregnant self vaccinated, that would be it. Then this comes up!! Geez!!

and the side effects QS's son had are more ikely with Celvapan

Surgery told me today that the vacc is given out in 10s -- they have to innoculate 10 people in a small time window or the vacc doses go off. Logistically difficult.
That's why it's taking so long 2 roll it out.

I thankfully don't have young children - I do have grandchildren but of course it will be for their parents to make the decision. I was just wondering what you young mothers were feeling about the vaccine.

I have been following the articles in the press and one of the things (apart from the safety angle) is that there is still so much uncertainty about the pandemic and the way it will manifest itself. No one can be blamed for this, as medics don't have crystal balls of course. There is the concern about whether this vaccine has been sufficiently tested but there also seems to be some uncertainty about the number of doses that are needed and whether in fact it will create immunity to swine flu.

I think another problem for parents is that medics always think in terms of percentages in these matters, not individual cases. SO they will always strongly advise vaccination because they believe (probably quite rightly) that it will protect the majority. If there are a few casualities along the way (adverse reactions etc) then this is considered unfortunate but does not present a major problem in dealing with the matter as would be the case with a pandemic getting out of control.

It has also been the case in the past they medics will strongly deny that adverse reactions have actually been caused by a vaccination and think that an illness or disability arising in a child at the time he was vaccinated is nothing more than coincidence. I have no idea whether that is true or not but that is often the way that it is perceived.

SO can understand all the uncertainty. BUT I know that I am hoping my family will agree to the children being vaccinated.

Personally I wouldn't let my children have it.

I found the following youtube video very helpful in coming to that decision:

It's also worth looking at the following website:
www.theflucase.com

You may have a completely different opinion.

Vanilla Kitten

I'm pretty sure QS's DS had Pandemrix.

LeninGrad, my dds are fine 3 weeks after theirs. dh is too. All had Pandremix. I think, as with any vaccine/drug, there is a risk - albeit a tiny one - and in our case it felt worth it.

Such an individual decision!

Did check out those websites, and not my cup of tea. Interesting, but certainly did not put me off the vaccine for my lot.

Has anything been said about children who may have already had it? Both my girls (19m and 3.5) had a flu-like thing over half-term but of course who knows if it was swine flu or not? Dr said maybe it was, maybe not. Sigh. Can't seem to find anything about it news-wise and I suppose the idea of swabbing all the under-5s to see if they've already had it is madness but wondered if anyone knew if it was possible? Think would even be prepared to pay for test first rather than just going straight for jab. And now reading all your posts - WHICH is the jab we need to try and avoid our kids getting?

I suppose my main feeling about it at the moment is dammned if you do, damned if you don't ...

I don't know what vaccine QS's son had LeninGrad. But I do know that neurolgical side effects, such as he suffered, are more likely with Celvapan (though also a side feect with Pandemrix)

apologies for typo in above message - wriggling baby on boob whilst typing

QS's son had Pandemrix. And you are more likely to get an immediate reaction from Pandemrix as it contains squalene, and immune provoking adjuvant.

I would like to get a blood test to see if we've had SF actually before having vaccine. But don't know anywhere where we could have it done.

That needn't be a problem, you can get some antenatal tests done where you pay a private phlebotomist to take the blood straight into lab-supplied bottles which you post off asap - that said I don't know if anyone's offering that for sf.

I think I'd have the vaccine myself & DP would have it too (DP & I both work part-time in nursery setting / hospital). Having looked through the pros & cons (as best I can, since the picture is far from clear so far) I think I'd vaccinate my 15 month old DS too. The potential of serious complications if I didn't just seems too high a risk to take.

IMO, we're talking about a real, proven risk (that of swine flu) versus an unproven, imaginary, potential, probable (whatever we can call it) risk (that of the vaccine). A risk is a risk is a risk, so any risk I suppose is real. But in my mind what counts is which risk is accepted by most people as real, if you see what I mean.