Vaccinating babies to save adults

[Freckle]

My children are beyond the age suggested in this article, but what do you parents with under 2s think about this plan? Don't babies have enough pumped into them at an early age?

If I had children of this age, I don't think I'd subject them to yet another vaccination, especially when you consider that there are many strains of flu and there isn't a universal vaccination for them.

[expatinscotland]

'Thing is, though, whilst chicken pox etc is usually mild in children, I had the flu once and my god I have never felt so ill in my life. I remember thinking at the time I can quite see how this kills the young and old, it was awful. So regardless of the community at large, it's an illness you really don't want your children to get, believe me. '

The last time I had bona fide influeza, I was a fit 25-year-old.

I wound up in hospital w/pneumonia in both my lungs.

It wasn't just 'unpleasant'. It was life-threatening.

My granmother's first husband and 2-year-old daughter died from flu.

[getbakainyourjimjams]

Natural immunity isn;t quite the same for flu as for measles etc as it mutates rapidly. However I did hear a doctor say (and not a quack one a standard orthodox happy to jab one) that the best way to give protection for a HEALTHY person was to get an occasional dose of flu, as although the virus mutates the antibodies would give some protection. Writng that down that sounds a bit weird- but obviously would only apply to non high risk groups.

My belief is that if you are going to adminsiter any medication the potential benefits have to outweigh the risks for the recipient. In this case that isn't true.

If you are going to go down the alternative and administer a medication that will give others a greater benefit than the recipient then there needs to be a functional, working compensation scheme that isn;t impossible to access because no-one will entertain the idea of vaccination damage being a remote possibility. That doesn't exist either.

[homemama]

Instead of spending money offering a flu vaccine to protect the elderly, I'd like to see them use the money to make the prevenar vaccine widely available in this country. It is shocking that children in the UK are dying or being left with a whole range of disabilities due to pneumoccocal meningitis when they could so easily be vaccinated against it.

The immunologist we saw privately for the jab said it was the safest vaccine he had come across in 30 years! He said the government know full well we should be offering it but have decided it's too expensive.

Offering my son a flu jab to protect the elderly purely in order to save the government the huge sum of money it costs them to treat this each year is not the way forward.

[Blandmum]

I will continue to get ds done as he has asthma.