Flu jab/spray for child - yes or no?

[Mamabear256]

Evening everyone

My reception child has been offered the flu nasal spray at school, I’m 50/50 as to whether or not to give permission for it. I know the flu is horrible, but looking at death rates the risk seems very low, and surely it’s better to allow the body deal with it naturally and build immunity itself? Also the thought of him having it every single year seems a bit excessive. But then I know I’d never forgive myself if he got really ill from it.

I am not an antivaxer. He’s had all his required jabs. Just wondered what other people do / think?

It’s been avaliable to him since he was 3. It’s your choice but flu is awful. It’s mostly given by the NHS to stop is spreading through the community. I don’t want my kids passing it to grandparents.

Get it obviously! There are lots of different flu strains so there’s no such thing as building immunity and dealing with it naturally means suffering miserably and still having the same risk of catching it the following year as anyone else who hasn’t had the vaccine. I got flu as a healthy 13YO and it was 3 weeks off school, lost a stone, IV fluids in the hospital and weeks of post viral fatigue syndrome. If you can avoid that for your kid with a totally painless quick sniff up the nose that you don’t even have to organise because school sort it then why wouldn’t you? No brainer IMO.

My fit and healthy 38 year old work friend had flu recently and had 6 days where she could barely lift her head off the pillow. She ended up off work for 2 weeks and was horrendously ill.
I’ve had it once in my life and it was truly awful. I know so many people that have a cold etc and say “I’ve got flu” - they don’t 🙄 When they do, they’ll know 😬

Personally, I choose to vaccinate my child. I don’t particularly want him experiencing it and I’d rather lessen the risk of him spreading it to his elderly great grandparents too.

Out of interest, what is it about this particular vaccine that you’re unsure of if your child has had the rest?

My son recently had the flu spray at school (he's in reception too), but he's also had it the last two years since he was two years old. My two year old also had the spray this year for the first time. Neither of them had any negative reactions at all.

Flu is so awful, last year I had terrible flu which wiped me out for nearly 2 weeks so I've been vaccinated this year too.

Normally I'd say yes - I'm very pro vaccines but I withdrew consent for DS to have his today. We're seeing his very ill grandmother (immunosuppressed and already suffering from Covid) over the next few days and she doesn't need any additional burden as it is a live (attenuated) vaccine.

As soon as we're home he'll either have the non-live injection or a nasal spray at a catch up clinic. Flu is not much fun at all and a quick puff of some antigens up the nose is a much better option.

Flu is horrible.

I lost my hearing and now wear hearing aids due to the flu in 2018.

It's not just about death.

Hard no.

We've always had dd get the spray at school. I didn't think much about it - it was all sorted out in school, I just signed an online form, no other admin. I didn't bother getting it before school age though because it was a faff sorting out the appointment and I would have had to take her out of nursery. Never had any issues with the flu (I don't think I've ever had it) but it's so easy and painless to get the spray and dd never gets side effects so I saw no reason no to.

Our whole family had flu in the spring. The one who got it the worst was my youngest son. He had a temperature of 41, a non blanching rash (all over his arms and torso, I have never seen anything like it. He looked like a poster boy for meningitis) and was so poorly.

In A&E he vomited in triage, and passed out. He was rushed through so fast and we had a consultant paediatrician in the room within about 6 minutes of walking through the main doors. They were incredibly concerned about him. They eventually diagnosed flu (I think from one of the swabs they took).

It was awful. He was poorly for 10 days and took another 3 weeks to be properly well.

He missed his vaccine for the first time because he was off school with a tummy bug on the day it was given. I so wish I'd have tried to get him the vaccine afterwards, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Get the vaccine.

surely it’s better to allow the body deal with it naturally and build immunity itself Why is it better to be ill than not to be ill?

My sons had it. And very glad.

My dad has had it every year since reception with no ill effects. I have had flu once and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy

I had flu once and it wiped me out as a young healthy person in my early 20s. I couldn't even get up to go to the toilet, my partner at the time had to help me. I felt bloody awful.
Since then I've always had the flu jab for myself and for my children once they were eligible. I would NEVER want them to experience the illness I had. It was absolutely horrendous.

surely it’s better to allow the body deal with it naturally and build immunity itself?

You don’t build up resistance to flu because it constantly mutates. Hence there’s a new vaccine every year…

Please, please get it. My kids have it every year, I would never dream of missing a vaccine.

My 5 year old almost died from flu last year with no other health conditions to make it worse (he was not eligible for the vaccine where we lived) so I would say yes.

No.
The less chemicals in your body, the better.
They don't work anyway

surely it’s better to allow the body deal with it naturally and build immunity itself
The body is building the immunity itself when you vaccinate.
A percentage of young dying off is normal in nature. Natural is not necessarily better.

Another thing to consider is the vaccine stops kids from spreading the flu around. Unvaccinated they can be completely symptomless and seem fine but pass flu on. If you vaccinate you are doing your bit for the community. It would be sad if your child made an elderly person severely unwell when it could be so easily avoided.

My very heathy child was hospitalised with flu aged 7, she was so ill. We have all been vaccinated every year since

Definitely. A healthy kid is better than a sick kid.

Also, a living kid is better...

Why risk it when we have vaccines with low/no side effects.

They don’t build natural immunity because the flu is different every year. There is a reason why it’s offered to children. If anything, if you’ve ever been taken out for a month by a child getting ill and needing a week or two off from school followed by you getting ill and needing another two weeks off, and the financial implications of that, it’s a no brainer.

Why would you prefer the opinion of randoms on the internet over your GP or looking into the effectiveness of the vaccine?

@Lena05 what are you talking about? Before vaccines were invented absolutely loads of people died from horrible, horrible diseases and now that we have vaccines hardly any do... so if the vaccines'don't work' how does that add up? Is it just a really, really, really huge coincidence? 😂

Please don't spread anti vax lies on the internet, it's irresponsible. Modern medicine saves lives.

Absolutely. Have a Darwin Award 🏆