To give my child the flu vaccine?

[Concernedkay]

Can anyone share their experience with the flu vaccine. Has anyone seen any side effects? Did anyone's child still get the flu even after being vaccinated?

My child is two so this would be the first time. He doesn't go to nursery but if it is major protection in case he does catch anything then it would be worth it. So just looking to find out how effective everyone has found it?

Ds5 had his first at school last year because he's the type to catch everything and then be hospitalised for it. No reactions to flu last year. Dd is 2 full time nursery, and is having her first flu vaccine today.

I figure if I have the flu plus covid vaccines (asthmatic), why wouldn't I protect them too? Flu vaccine is old tech even though it's updated annually.

I know we should be used to it by now and it's depressingly widespread, but every time I hear about people who choose not to vaccinate it's like a fresh little gut punch.

Even if they don’t go to nursery do they not mix with anyone outside your family unit?

I didn’t vaccinate my child for flu at 2 because it was during Covid and we were going nowhere and not seeing grandparents. The number of letters/texts I received pressuring me into vaccinating my child was insane, something every two weeks or so all winter. i don’t know if it’s changed but it enraged me at the time!

It's a very safe vaccine and protects nit just the children but people around them. I don't understand why anyone would let their child have it.

Why? Flu kills people and it's a very safe vaccine. It isn't even an injection

DS has had the vaccine since he was 3 as he has asthma (that's before schools started doing it regularly). He's never had side effects from it yet He's more likely to due to his asthma.

I'm more frustrated they never offered it to the older year groups as DD who older doesn't get it as she's 17, last year she got flu. She was quite ill for several weeks, I'm insisting she has the flu shot this year as she's in the finial year of her A-level's. Unfortunately I gave her the option last year and didn't make her have it, but she really can't afford to be that ill again.

How do I know it was flu, she was the only person in the house ill and the only one who wasn't vaccinated against the flu.

As a child I had flu several times

I remember a month off school most years which was difficult for working parents

Please vaccinate , get into the habit

My son almost died from flu (it was the first year he aged out of the vaccine programme in our area). Now we all get it every year to protect him (we didn't qualify for it before).
Please also consider the chickenpox vaccine if you can afford it.

Why would you think it's only for others? My son almost died from it and the ambulance driver said they'd been picking up kids in the same state the whole night.

Is he having the nasal flu one? My DDs have had it every year in school. No side effects. It's really worth having to protect them and the adults around them

There's another reason which is for your children directly. Because the jab is made up of different strains every year, each time you vaccinate your child's immune system gets a tiny bit of exposure to them, which might lead to greater natural immunity. The 1918 influenza epidemic was deadlier among younger people and it's been theorised that lack of previous exposure may have been a contributing factor.

Funnily enough I've just gotten home from the GP where my three year old has had hers for the second year running. She sniffs twice and it's done, doesn't bother her in the slightest. My work offers them and my sons school so we'll often all have it- none of us have ever had any reactions to it.

I don't think it's a big deal if you do or you don't really, in my mind it's not like skipping the big child vaccinations, but I have to work and it feels like a sensible thing to do when it's free and there- flu does make you feel absolutely miserable!

Studies that have looked at this show the opposite and that you are more likely to get flu.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38687898/

Dd2 had hers on Thursday. She was a little comfy and grumpy on Friday but perked up by the afternoon and has been herself and well since

Mine have it, youngest is asthmatic so def needs it. Never side effect. Also it’s not a jag in high school - not in Scotland anyway the nasal vaccine can be given up until 18 and it’s given in high schools here too.

If you go to toddler groups they can catch it and pass it on to you. It is about preventing spread as well. Having had flu last year I don't recommend having it and looking after children

I thought it was because the harder their healthy immune systems worked the hard the flu hit them?

Perhaps none of the family do? 🤷‍♀️

Even if their LO doesn't go to Nursery I'm assuming at least one of them works, one of them goes to the supermarket, they're planning on seeing some people between now and Easter?

Maybe they're not though, who knows.

@PolaroidPrincess I would have more concerns than them not having the flu vaccine if the child never mixes with anyone outside the home

All four of us have had flu jabs or nasal spays (kids had jabs privately before being eligible for nasal spay at 2) each year for years with no side effects. I've had flu once or twice in that time, the kids haven't had the flu as far as I know. They have to guess the strains that will circulate ahead of the season so it won't offer total protection but flu is absolutely horrible so anything that reduces the risk is good!

I used not get it (just being disorganized) and the whole family got it once. My youngest ended up in hospital and then got pneumonia, she was sick for weeks. My DH took 6 weeks to recover. It's no joke. So obviously I also get it now.

They do not always get the strain of flu right so it may not offer full protection but at least it would reduce their chances of a bad dose.

All 3 of mine have had it every year for the last 12 years. We started then because the youngest got Type 1 diabetes, and a bad virus like flu is something that might trigger it in the other two.

Having seen a couple of friends' teenagers have their lives utterly trainwrecked by post viral fatigue, I'd want to guard against that too.

Yup we all have a flu vaccine every year. I don't see why you wouldn't tbh.

The winter before covid a healthy 18 month old in my birth month group ended up in ICU with flu, she survived but it was touch and go. The same winter a friend of a friend's mother died of flu - a healthy woman in her early 60s, still working.

I always said the "covid is just flu" crowd misunderstood flu!

why wouldn't you?