I got a flu shot one time in grad school; one day later, I came down with the flu. So, I'm not overly excited about getting my kids the swine flu vaccination. I'm also not relishing the thought of the tears and protests in the doctor's office. I'm leaning towards no shot. But the morning shows dire warnings are starting to get to me.
Question of the Day — Are you going to get the swine flu vaccination? Are you going to vaccinate your kids?
Apt. 11d 
I’ll get it–I work in a germ incubator (residential college) so I’ve already gotten the regular one. I’ll encourage my daughter to get it as she has chronic fatigue and therefore a wonky immune system–and she lives in a dorm. My son, who’s 12? I don’t know. He’s never had the regular flu vaccine…
LikeLike
Yes. I shall.
LikeLike
I’m still not sure about the swine flu vax, but we lean to doing it. E has asthma, and a bad bout of H1N1 could be deadly. 😦 We always get the seasonal flu vax for that reason, too. We really don’t want to make E sick.
At this point, with my spending the past 7 weeks in a cast, I think my husband’s patience would be sorely sorely tried if I got the flu. I think I may have to get the swine flu vax for that reason.
LikeLike
The way I understand it, the actual shot has killed virus in it, so you can’t get flu from it. The nasal spray is live, weakened virus, and sometimes people get sick after it. Our doctor steered us towards the shots for this reason last year…
My children have already had the H1N1 this year, so we’ll just get the regular shots and keep our fingers crossed.
LikeLike
I don’t know what we’ll do. Geeky Girl has already gotten a regular flu shot. I might just ask them what they want. On the other hand, I heard about this last night at the PTO meeting:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20091008_Radnor_high_school_closes_over_swine_flu.html
And our elementary school has one confirmed case of the swine flu. I think of the swine flu vaccine as more like a chicken pox vaccine than the regular flu vaccine. As far as they know, there’s only one version of the swine flu, not many, like for the regular flu.
LikeLike
My daughter and I just got over the swine flu. It didn’t seem like an unusually bad pass of flu, but hers came with an ear infection attached, and mine developed into bronchitis. It’s been 12 days and we’re still not entirely over that stuff. I’d have happily taken some risks and had the vaccine to avoid it.
I also arrived at work today to find the news that a coworker’s 5-year-old perished from swine flu last night.
LikeLike
We’ll vaccinate. Swine flu seems to be mild for most, but deadly for a few. It can be more severe in children than the regular flu.
LikeLike
that’s terrible, Ben. I’m really sorry for your co-worker. But thanks for sharing that news with us, because I’ll probably get the kids shots now.
LikeLike
Swine flu is everywhere here in Georgia. It’s in all of the schools. Our own elementary school has two clinics — one for the kids suspected to have swine flu and waiting for parental pick up, then another clinic for everything else.
My kids will get the vaccine, but unless we get it very, very soon, we’ll probably all end up coming down with swine flu first.
LikeLike
It takes a week to 10 days for flu shots to actually protect your body from the virus – so it is likely that you just didn’t get your shot early enough.
LikeLike
I saw in a local paper here in Texas about a month ago that one area middle school had a third of the student body down with swine flu.
LikeLike
For any number of probably-not-very-good reasons, no one in our family has never gotten any flu immunizations, and we probably won’t get this one. We’ve ridden out flu bugs before, and we’ll ride out this one, I suppose.
LikeLike
Last spring H1N1 made its way through our local schools. At one point several local schools shut down and because of the number of flu related absences, my son’s middle school considered the same. Instead, the school enforced a strict 7 day “stay home” policy which seemed to work.
Now, given all the panic, but more because of concerns regarding the academic implications of kids needing to miss a week or more of school, our schools are offering free vaccinations for both the seasonal flu and H1N1. The first round of vaccinations (seasonal flu) begins tomorrow.
I am not vaccinating my children and I definitely feel pressure from their schools. We get almost daily updates on the vaccination process. A consent form was required regardless of whether a student was getting the vaccine. For my son’s school I need to provide a reason for saying “no”.
My reasons for not vaccinating?
1. I don’t appreciate being pressured into making a medical decision for my children because of academic concerns.
2. The CDC will not know the side effects of the vaccine until AFTER the first rounds of administration. The 1976 Swine Flu vaccine killed more people than the Swine Flu itself. Not to mention the paralysis that resulted for some from Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
3. My brain is overloaded with the details of the various vaccines. Considerations are the dangers of the live vaccine for pregnant women and people with Asthma, Thimerosal concerns (some, but not all flu vaccines contain it), timing the two flu vaccinations (cannot get seasonal vaccine and H1N1 at the same time), people with egg allergies need to work with their doctor to get a safe dosage… My head is spinning!!!
4. The deaths reported in the news are, of course, heart-breaking, but the CDC estimates that 36,000 people die from flu related complications each year.
5. I personally know physicians and medical researchers not getting their own children vaccinated. That, to me, says a lot.
LikeLike
we’ve had it already, 2 of 4 in the family. It was two days of high fever etc in the 11-year-old, then a quick recovery; no fever but bronchitis for a week in my wife. Not sure how the rest of us escaped. It’s burning through the Denver schools, but no serious problems yet that I know of.
LikeLike
We’re going to get it as soon as we can. In part this is because we live with my 87 yo mother-in-law, and we think a case of flu would kill her. We also tend to take all the vaccinations we are offered, and have not had problems in the past.
LikeLike
dave s.,
From some of what I’ve been hearing, your mother-in-law may be much safer than your kids.
LikeLike
36,000 flu-related deaths each year are mainly the elderly, some infants, and some others with preexisting conditions. Anywhere near that number of deaths among young people 6 months-24 years of age, and pregnant women, and it will feel much different.
LikeLike
I remember a few years ago, when my daughter was around 2, there was a bad flu strain and terrible stories in the media of kids dropping dead from the flu. No data about their existing health challenges, though. So probably no use panicking about individual data points.
Consensus about swine seems to be that statistically, it is very contagious but unusually mild. I haven’t decided about immunization yet.
LikeLike
I don’t know how to comment on this one right now after a local girl has died from it. I feel so sad for her parents. Now the coroner is testing after she’s dead for H1N1. So what would her parents think?
My oldest was extremely sick two weeks ago from it and has asthma, the youngest a milder version. all in all, I would say yes definitely, no doubt about it. In our cases with the chronic illnesses, it’s a no brainer. But we don’t need it now. and sadly, I don’t think this will be the only death around of a child with swine flu.
LikeLike
Some of the swine flu deaths are blamed on a “secondary infection” of staph or strep. I know students who’ve had staph or strep infections, but had no idea they were infected. The two conditions are very common in our local schools.
Most cases of swine flu are mild. That’s wonderful. It’s those few cases which end badly which worry me. They may be a few cases, compared to the overall number of infected, however, if it’s the unnecessary death of a child, it’s terrible.
LikeLike
I’m usually a vaccination zealot, but haven’t been able to develop the right level of zealotry for the flu vaccines.
I’d do them if they made it easy for me. But, making doctor’s appointments, filling out annoying forms, and spending 1.5 hours driving to and fro and waiting in offices doesn’t cut it. I’ll have to look if one of the drugstores nearby is offering it in a convenient way (and, especially for kids).
The current surprise in the health community is that the vulnerable population for H1N1 seems different than for other diseases. Relative youth, pregnancy, and diabetes are all be cited. Diabetes is usually a risk factor, but I think it’s being a special factor in this one. I find these bugs really annoying.
LikeLike
We’ll all be getting both flu vaccines (H1N1 at school for Curious Girl, which is convenient). CG has intermittent asthma and a general history of respiratory problems, so I’d worry that H1N1 could turn very serious for her if she got it. For those reasons, too, she’s always gotten the seasonal flu vaccine.
LikeLike
I’m pregnant and at first wasn’t sure about the vaccine. My OB said he wouldn’t advise it. But they are making it the same way they make the regular flu shot (which I had with my first pregnancy) and there is a dead virus option available with no thimerosol. Plus other docs have told me to go ahead and get it and that my 2 year old should get it. So I’ll probably get it, since I’ll be preggers through December.
LikeLike
Not even sure that it’s available in my little country.
LikeLike
i got the nasal vaccine, but i have a 3 month old baby so was able to get it very easily. her 4 year old sister got it and has had no ill effects (she got the nasal vax as well). my husband will get it this week. my three month old may still get it but i’d never forgive myself if she got it and i hadn’t done everything i could to prevent it!
LikeLike