Flu vaccines for kids

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Well. We've made the decision to vaccinate but our pediatrician only has supplies for the high high risk group, which does not include our children. I tried to take my daughter to a free vaccination clinic today, since she qualified as high risk by their standards, but they ran out of vaccine before we got there.

No one has excess vaccine they are eager to get rid of, that is for sure.

Regarding this topic, here is a quote from a report in the most recent edition of American Association for Advancement of Science's journal Science, a journal of the highest scientific standard:

"Pandemic influenza a (H1N1) 2009 (pandemic H1N1) is spreading through the planet. It has become a dominant strain in the Southern Hemisphere, where the influenza season has now ended...on the basis of reported case clusters in the United States, we estimated the househeld secondary attack rate for pandemic H1N1 to be 27.3%...From a school outbreak, we estimated that a typical schoolchild infects 2.4 other children within the school...If a vaccine were available soon enough, vaccination of children, followed by adults, reaching 70% overall coverage, in addition to high-risk and essential workforce groups, could mitigate a severe epidemic."

This means that H1N1 spreads faster in schools than at home. One person infecting 2.4 people means exponential growth.

70% vacine coverage, which means 7 out of 10 people getting vaccinated, could mitigate a severe epidemic.

The point is, there is a bigger picture that needs to be considered when deciding whether or not to seek the vacination. Mitigating an epidemic seems like a pretty good reason to get vacinated.

My kids just got the 1st dose/shot. They need a 2nd in 3 weeks. I am having the shot once this baby is out - in the next week I am sure. Then with an infant in the house, my husband will have a valid reason to get the vaccine. At the moment he is not considered high risk and it is hard to get. I was going to have the vaccine but a nurse at the hospital, in the maternity ward, said I needed the thermisol free shot and they didn't have any.

We were able to get my sons vaccinated this morning. First they had a skin prick test with the vaccine (at our allergist office), no reaction, so then they received a 10% dosage and after waiting a half an hour and no reaction, the remaining dose. I guess this vaccine is generally being well tolerated even by those with the severest of egg allergies (my sons).

I am really pleased (and relieved). With their asthma they do fall into a high risk category, so I am glad to have them vaccinated.

We already had the whole family vaccinated for flue and plan to get the H1N1 as soon as the doctor's office has it. My husband is a teacher at a school with 50% international kids and he always comes home spreading illnesses from all over the globe.

I'm back. While we are all discussing this my son got the flu last week. They did not test for H1N1 specifically, but he survived. He had tamiflu (which works well by the way) and he's fine. Congestion, cough, fever, sore throat. No loss of appetite or digestive problems. Everyone in our house had very mild symptoms so I know we were all fighting it, but nobody else got sick.

I have asthma and my middle son was a premie and gets sick often. We would've had flu shots, but instead we got flu the first week DD was in school. Nearly 3 months later and my chest is still fullasnot! But the kids are happy, because they didn't have to get jabbed.