Swine flu. Are you giving your child the jab?

[darcymum]

I don't know what to do and hope someone can give some good advice. My children are 1, 2, and 4, I have had a Swine flu jab myself and am not really worried about the vaccine. When I had mine though it was at my GP surgery in the evening and we all just had to form a big queue outside the nurse room. Called in one at a time, very quick and all came out rubbing our arms. I am very worried about how they actually organize it for under fives without having mass hysteria. Even if it is a normal appointment system they will all be in the room with me watching each other having it. Added to this the report a while ago that a good percentage of children have apparently already had it without parents noticing.

Is it worth it? What do others think?

Thanks sho that's useful.

I think it's the tamiflu anti-virul that is meant to reduce symptoms by one day...not the vaccine?

my ds2 had the first jab at xmas just waiting for the 2nd jab ,no problems at all hes 3

I think the 80% figure is that 80% of under fives that have been hospitalised had no underlying health conditions.

I thought that figure was quite thought-provoking in itself, but I haven't made up my mind whether DS will have the vaccine or not. I've no concerns per se - I took the decision to have it myself at 3 months pregnant so I've been through all the available info with a fine toothcomb. I'm a bit more concerned that he only recently had his MMR booster and all the others they do at the same time and I don't want to overload him. Also I understand that next season SF will have a mutated and a new vaccine will be needed. As cases are dropping so much I just don't know if it's worth doing just now.

Incidentally, I had a sore arm for 2 days and that's it. The GPs had a couple of reported cases of mild flu symptoms and about 80% got sore arms, but that was it for side effects.

Our GPs were really good with the appointment system. They block booked 5 minute appointments on one day of the week. You went in, got talked through it again, gave consent, had the vaccine and left. We then all had to wait in the waiting room for 10 minutes afterwards to be sure there were no allergic reactions. It was the same with DS's boosters in that we had to wait for 10 mins afterwards. I'd never had to do that before but I found it very reassuring.

I haven't made my mind up yet.

My sweet silly DD1 seemed to think that her pre-school booster was going to be some sort of treat, even though I told her it would sting, and was horrified by being jabbed. In fact she screamed and gibbered for over 2 hours afterwards. Yes, she is a bit dramatic but I sort of feel like there has to be a serious need for me to traumatise her.

This has to be weighed against a doctor friend telling me that most people who have ended up in intensive care have been children.

In the end I spoke to the nurse at the GP (she has been visiting people with swine flu as the GPs won't go near them ) and she says they are hardly seeing many cases. so I think I will leave it and see what happens. If it starts to re-emerge DD will have the jab before she starts school next year (but I bet it doesn't).

Tom (3.9) is booked in to have his on saturday. I had Erin on 22nd December but didn't have the jag myself when offered at around 34 weeks pregnant. I didn't have it as felt like a guinea pig, although I would have had it if I wasn't on maternity leave as I work in retail.

I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I take Tom for his jag when I didn't have it though wouldn't I? DP says he wouldn't have the jag. He is at nursery and wee Erin will be 4 weeks on tuesday.

We were all very ill with colds just before and over xmas/new year, which DP really thinks was swine flu. Whatever it was, Tom had it first, most likely picked up from nursery.

lucky that was our local health centre that told us that, trying to convince us to get the jag

bexie I feel the same, Im not prepared to get the jag for myself so why should i make dd go through it

when we got our letter through for the appointment it told us to turn up any time between 9-2 on the saturday at the health centre.
My friend goes to a different clinic from us. She has 4 kids, 4yrs and under. She was given seperate appointments for them, all on different days. She didnt take them either and she had confirmed sf herself in October.

Both mine at 3 and 1 were offered it but I wont be having it. I may rethink this if the situation re swine flu figures changes....my friends cousin died after having swine flu, she was 5 yrs old, so i do realise it is serious in certain cases but i dont trust the vaccine yet.

Ds is getting his on Wednesday.

I have no worries about it at all.

I have had the jab (pregnant) and it was nothing, but I KNOW ds will need to be scrapped off the ceiling! Better than potentially life-threatening illness though, not just for my ds but for all the people the comes in contact with.

Having said that, I would certainly not judge those who make a considered choice against it.

I think if you wouldn't vaccinate against seasonal flu then why sf? All this panic is because it had never occurred to people before that you can die from complications of flu - but that is the case for any flu, not just swine. It is also possible to die from a cold if it leads to a chest infection and then something else nasty.

I talked to hv about it last week and she didn't really try to convince me to give it to my daughter. Dr Rosemary Leonard also said on breakfast last week that she didn't think that vaccinating healthy children should be a priority. I also think that my daughter has had it, she has certainly had flu recently anyway.

Children are not dying from sw on mass - if they were then the bbc would be delighting in telling us.

Got DS's letter today (he's 3 in March)

Was undecided until I spoke to BIL this evening (NHS consultant, has a baby too) He definitely recommends it - I value/respect his opinion (& immense knowledge) so we're going ahead with the jab this weekend. He's seen several young children deteriorate very rapidly in hospital with swine flu.

We've been discussing it again and DP says he's not worried about the short term effects, it's the long term one, when 10 years down the line people that have had the jab are suffering from side effects.

But Bexie, the swine flu jab is produced using exactly the same technique as the flu jab that's been around for years and years. It's essentially just a different strain, that's all, as it is with every flu jab every year. I think if there were going to be side effects they'd know by now.

People do die from flu every year, of course they do. But usually, its mostly elderly people - this flu is different in that there are more young people/children who have either died or had serious compliations.

Hence, I've had my two vaccinated. If we had serious vaccine related worries (immune disorders etc) I may not have done, but as the dds and dh have asthma or ENT issues in one case, it was a no brainer for me.

And they do have seasonal flu jabs, too.

Just read this today :

news

According to research, 38 children on average die each year from seasonal flu - so swine flu is not worse than seasonal flu in that respect. The vast majority of children who have died from swine flu have had underlying health conditions and while it is very very sad for their families it doesn't really justify vaccinating all children under 5 imo - scare tactics to try to get rid of a lot of unwanted vaccines I reckon....

Done it already.

I too am in a bit of a dilemma not knowing what to do for the best.

DS had suspected swine flu last year in the autumn around 17 months old. We ended up down the hospital 3 out of 5 days seeing three different doctors all of which agreed that he probably had swine flu. He was very ill and had all the signs. He was given the anti-virals but these made him sick, so we stopped using them under doctor's orders and then he had antibiotics. The whole thing was very traumatic and he was very ill. Thankfully he made a full recovery.

I, myself, have had the swine flu jab as I'm asthmatic. I was told by the nurses that the swine flu vaccination is a one off, and therefore you don't need it done again. I felt a bit under the weather the following day and had a really sore arm, but this was fine the following day. I didn't really give it much thought about having it done, seeing as I already have the annual flu jab.

Having seen no problems with having the jab myself, I booked my DS is booked in to have his swine flu jab next week after receiving the NHS letter to do so. However, after a recent lengthy discussion with somebody in the medical profession I am thinking of cancelling. We seem to all be influenced one way or another, wrongly or rightly, by the media. It seems the pandemic and the predicted wave of cases has decreased. There also seems to be a lot of media coverage over the minimal amounts of mercury in the jab, which when used in the last pandemic in the 70's has caused lots of people to question the amount of neurological disorders that allegedly arose from it - although not proven. However, speaking to a Doctor it seems a lot of the medical profession have decided against having themselves and their families innoculated. What does this say?

What we need is somebody to give us a guarantee that it has been thoroughly tested and found to be safe. The same sort of scare came about with the MMR - again disproven some years later but not before causing a lot of parents, scared out of their wit, to not have the MMR done, some with awful consequences and and on-going uncertainty for parents when they come to have their 13 month old innoculated with the MMR.

For the reasons above, I just don't seem to be able to settle on a decision for my son. I wouldn't dream of putting my DS at risk to any illness which could have been avoided, but we just don't have the answers with regards to what risks we are exposing them to giving them the vaccine either. My DS has supposedly had this virus so should have antibodies to it but we don't know for sure. I know it would be time consuming but, given that a huge proportion of youngsters have supposedly already had swine flu, I would much rather take DS for a test to see if he already has the antibodies than to subject him to being unecessarily innoculated. You could argue that testing would cost the health authorities, but then unecessary vaccinations will anyway. They test pregnant women for antibodies against Ruebella all the time to avoid giving unecessary boosters for it.

I've had the vaccine, but given all this negativity about it, I can't honestly say if I had waited whether I would have had it done.

It is so difficult to make the right decision, I kind of feel you are doomed if you do and doomed if you don't...simply because you wouldn't want your son or daughter getting swine flu complications because you have not given the vaccine and then vaccinating without being 100% sure you are armed with the right information to make an informed decision, and not just doing it because the government are telling you through the NHS that is what you should be doing! I also have friends who are doctors and nurses and guess what, not getting their children vaccinated.........????!!!!!

I appreciate its a personal decision, don't think there is a right or wrong decision at this stage.

i have arranged for my son to have the Celvapan jab cos he has egg allergy- has anyone elses kids had this jab? were there any after effects? he is due to go to a party 2 days later and i dont want him to be feeling unwell 4 it.

Just had my 2 girls done. 2 years old and 6 months old. 6 month year old still breast fed and has shown no symptoms, 2 year old has had high temp for 2 days and seems to have stiffness of joints but I can't tell if it's just the leg she had the jab in. My husband has had the jab and was lousy for several days after too. Even so we decided to get the girls vaccinated as we didn't want to take the risk of them getting it and being the unlucky few to be so poorly especially as they're so little. We think our 2 year old may have had it last summer, she was floored for a month it was awful but it may just have been normal flu, in fact we all got it, I was pregnant at the time and it wasn't pleasant. We also know someone that works in the childrens ward of a local hospital and we've heard about how severe some of the swine flu cases have been in little ones. Also this jab will cover them for next winter too so it seemed the best thing to do.

DDs 1, 2 & 3 (4.2, 2.6 & 10 mo) all had theirs yesterday.

i no that swine flu vaccination was offered the end of last year, an this may seem bit weird but i have a 2 yr old who was not vaccinated, as i was worried about long term side effects ect.. But now i am going abroad and have heard off a few people i should let him have it before i go. I am a little worried now

My advice is to keep WAY AWAY from any drugs and any jabs. Stick to sunshine and lemon juice. Vitamin A, D and C can also be useful.

Vaccines are completely useless and only cause harm. They are basically an organised criminal enterprise disguised as disease prevention.
Don't fall for it - you're only putting money into the vax mafia's pockets.

Visit the Vaccination Information Network (VINE) on Facebook (9700 fans)and become educated.