8 month old baby - should I have her vaccinated??

[karma]

Have had the letter from our GPs calling all under 5's for the swine flu vaccine. Really don't know what to do. Our dd (8 months)has no underlying health conditions, and seems fit and well. Haven't heard of any major risks of swine flu in babies. Any opinions please?

You'll get loads on here...

Only you can really make that decision. I have decided that my DD (2.3) will be having the swine flu vaccine but she has no (known) underlying conditions; has had all other jabs with no side effects; and my mother has had jab and has had no bad effects either (I know that's tenuous but we're all the same physical type if you see what I mean).

I'm not sure, though, that if she was as young as 8 months that I would do it. Hopefully other posters will have more scientific knowledge to help you.

I was due to have all 3 of my DCs (aged 4.10, 3.0 and 9 months)vaccinated today, but have postponed until end of next week as they all have really heavy colds and the receptionist seemed to think it wouldn't be a good idea. I have been agonising over whether dd1 (the 9 month old) should have the vaccine far more than about the other two, but in the end decided to go for it for all of them. I know others will disagree but my overall view is that the vaccine seems to be as safe as any seasonal flu jab (which is pretty safe as far as any jabs go - and I have given all of mine all of the usual jabs iyswim), and we are being advised that all children from 6 months up to 5 years should be vaccinated. Yes swine flu seems relatively mild in most people but if it did lead to breathing complications, lung infections etc (particularly in a baby) that could be a very real problem, and for me that risk outweighs the risk surrounding the vaccine. I am by no means an expert and find the scientific evidence either way very hard going, so in the end went with my gut feeling (and also prayed about it a lot). So, the end result to all of that ramble is that yes I will be getting my 9 month old baby vaccinated against swine flu.

Hi Karma,

I'm having the same dilemma about my 8 month old baby son - we've been called up for Saturday. Have you found any more information?

We have an appointment for wed this week for our 8 month old & 4 year old. I am wavering, its damned if you do & damned if you don't if they contract a bad dose of flu.
I worry about our 8 month old more, she was fine with all her baby vaccines but has really suffered with 2 bad colds (caught from her big sis), chesty coughs, blocked nose, not sleeping, being generally poorly & miserable. As far as I can work out the side effects are a sore arm/thigh - we can cope with that, flu like symptoms, not nice but hopefully better than the real thing, possible probs with side effects to the adjuvants (additives to enhance the effectiveness? please correct if I'm wrong)- more of a worry as I don't really understand it & can find very little uk info on it.
Another ramble, but with school back this week I think we'll be going to our appointment on wed.

Thanks for the replies.
Still dithering, but think I may go ahead and get dd vaccinated. Don't think I could live with myself if she caught sf, and anything awful happened, especially if I could have prevented it by her having the injection.

All I can add is that we visited BIL (a GP) over christmas and DD1 was quite poorly. He quite casually mentioned that she had swine flu. Cue paranoid-mother response from me. he quickly dispelled my fears by explaining that some of the data from Mexico was skewed leading to the heightened concerns. He explained that our DD's are at greater risk from seasonal flu. She has fully recovered BTW.

A good friend of my sister is also a GP and she has declined to have her DS (2.5) vaccinated. I am not getting DD1 or DD2 vaccinated because of this information, but you must do what feels right for you.

i have the same problem my DD is 9 months old and i got the letter last week. really not sure what to do. Im going to talk to my HV about it this thursday and c what she says about it all but i know shes probably going to tell me to get her the injection.

The vaccine isn't 100% effective so your children may still catch swine flu even with the jab. Think it's about the same effectiveness as the seasonal flu vaccine which is just over 50% iirc. Don't think I will vaccinate against a predominantly mild illness with a new vaccine that doesn't guarantee protection anyway.

My friend is a GP and has children the same age as me. Both of hers are having the jab so mine are booked in for next week.

I had my 8 month old vaccinated last week (no underlying conditions identified yet). She had a bit of a cough coming on beforehand but they said it was ok to go ahead. She now has a very bad chesty cough, but I don't think its related at all. I had the sf injection (I have asthma) as did my mum - both of us have had coughs and colds since..but not anywhere near as bad as sf would be. Its a tough decision, it's just yet another one of those things where there's no 'right' or 'wrong' answer, just your choice! great eh! good luck x

You can find out lots of information from 'The informed Parent', both pros & cons

Yes

tbh anyone who is prepared to tell you what you should do is probably the last person to listen to.

All these issues are what parenting is all about - bloody difficult weighing up of everything you know and making the best decision you can.
You should talk to your GP, trusted friends or family and perhaps look at some sites like informed parent.Random people on the internet- not so much.
I have a vaccine damaged child so i could just hit you with a tale of tragedy that has no relevence to your circumstances. Or someone else who has had terrible experience of swine flu will tell you the opposite.

People who are absolutely certain on difficult issues are a bit scarey tbh

your child, your choice.
Whatever you choose all will probably be fine.

I spoke to our surgeries Sister today about gettin mine done - ds1 3.5yrs, ds2 2yrs and ds3 6 months.
She said jab is 95% effective, they have asked everyone who has had the jab and experinced side affects to contact the surgery, only ones reported are sore arm and they have done high risk people and childen, pregnant women and the first lot of under 5's will be next week.
ds3 is at highest risk of complications due to his age and whilst I say they don't have any unlying health conditions it is a bit early to say with him.
Because I have 3 under 3.5yrs I might have them done because I feel I have 3 times chance of catching it and only one of me to care for them and keep them safe (by whichI mean monitor them and I hate those decisions about whether to go to hospital or not - already been admitted with ds3 for a week when he was 4 wks old due to suspected infection and been to A&E with ds2 once due high temp)
If I just had one 2yrs and over my decision might be different, the older children are the easier the find it to regulate their tempeature with fever. The risk with swine flu is its an agressive tye of flu,from what I've researched slightly less chance of catching it but increased chance of complications.

anyone done it yet?
we missed our appointment before xmas and are booked in for tomorrow. (dd 6mo)

Have booked dd (8mths) and ds (4yrs) in for sf injection tomorrow. Still worrying like mad about it all, not so much the immediate possible side effects, but more whether there may be any longer time ones which as yet haven't become apparent. Everyone I seem to speak to up at school seems to be declining it which has put even more doubt in my mind (a bit like this thread!!) However, we would never forgive ourselves if the children got sf and were very sick or worse, and we'd chosen not to protect them from it. Ok, they may not get it, they may get it and it be very mild, and this whole sf business might be a storm in a teacup, but nobody really knows, and how things may be over the next few years with sf. It's one of the hardest things I've had to decide as a parent - I feel sick just typing this, but by midday tomorrow they will have had the injection (I think!), and all I can do is hope and pray they will be ok.

I keep reading that under 5s are among the highest risk groups for SF being severe (like here).
Up to you, really, OP. I don't feel strongly about it but I'll be getting SF jab when called for DC4 (almost 2yo). I've just had an illness that was diagnosed and treated as SF. I didn't go to hospital but it was still AWFUL. I'd hate any of DC to get that ill.

dd (6 months old) had the pandemrix vaccine this pm at 2.
she didn't flinch when the gp did the jab and her happy mood has so far not been affected whatsoever. She ate normally when we got back and she had a long nap. She's now up and hungry byt he sound of it!

It is a big weight off my mind that it is done. I'm not "happy" as such as clearly we don't know the long term effects (if any) but the choice is made.
I read the official vaccination weekly updates here: www.emea.europa.eu/influenza/updates.html
It's got all the info about how many people have been vaccinated and the side effects of the vaccine as well as an update on how many people are thougth to have died of swine flu and how widespread it currently is.
My GP vaccinated 60 to 70 children and none have had anything more serious than fever and headaches.

It's been really stressfull making this decision but what can you do, there is a pandemic out there whatever people think.

What really did it for me was an article on the bbc website here that says that more than 80% of the young ones who have contracted swine flu have had to go to hospital because it got so bad.
That and reading the reports and putting the side effects in perspective, the only reason pandemrix has has more instances of side effects is because a lot more people have had this vaccine over the other ones.

For those who are worried that the vaccine has not been fully tested, something that reassured me was that this is not unusual for flu vaccine to be fast tracked as it happens for the seasonal flu every year.

Well we've been! Both children had the vaccine today. Both seem fine, not even any pain at the injection site (as far as I can tell). Feel a sense of relief that it's over now, the decisions been made, and I do feel happy that they will now be protected from sf. Now hoping that my older ds will be called soon (7 yrs) so that all my dc are protected! Thanks again for all your comments.

Two of mine had it today, dd3 (7 months) and dd2 ( 3) and neither of them cried as it was done. Dd2 is fine so far, dd3 has had to havesome calpol and is fast asleep inbed next to me, so I think the poor sausage feels a bit rough. Fingers crossed that is the extent if the side effects , but we will see.

Such a difficult decision but in a funny way it was reassuring to see so many children at the clinic getting their vaccinations. There were four GPs vaccinating a child every two minutes!

My 8 month old was vaccinated this morning. He didn't cry and has been absolutely fine since, with no symptoms that I've noticed. No need for calpol, and doesn't seem to have had any pain at the site. No bleeding, no bruising, no plaster.

The paperwork we were given said the appointments allocated were only 1min long so you don't get a chance to ask any questions. If you still have queries, don't leave it until the flu clinic to ask as there won't be time.