Freaked out about flu situation in my state

[Marisol]

I've been living out of the U.S. since before my son was born and recently moved back, so this is the first year I'm having to deal with this concept of a "flu season." I decided several months ago to not vax my son for it (he'll be 4 next month) because I figured it was overhyped and wouldn't be epidemic in my state. In other words, I was gambling that it would pass us by.

Well, I've been watching the CDC's weekly flu map, and my state's flu status is now being categorized as "widespread" -- the highest level. And I'm starting to reconsider my decision. He goes to preschool two mornings a week and is involved in an informal playgroup about once or twice a month. Other than one grocery store trip a week, we are homebodies. But he's my only child, and I've had trouble conceiving a second, so I tend to be overprotective.

I feel like I'm about to make a decision based on emotion instead of facts, so I'm appealing to you all for resources. What are the dangers with this particular vaccine? How effective is it really? Are the strains in this year's vaccine the same strains that are active? If he gets the flu, what are his statistical chances of major complications or death?

I'm just at a loss for what to do...

[cravenab00]

with the flu shot it is basicaly a game of "ennie meenie miny moe" they take a guess as to which 3 or 4 strains will cause the problem and hope they are right.

Also the flu shot still contains FULL 25mcg of mercury

[LongIsland]

Let's put this in perspective to ease your mind a bit.

Do you think every parent worried about their children catching the flu prior to the recent infant/childhoold influenza vaccine recommendations?

How about 10 years ago? Twenty years ago?

And the most important question you have to ask yourself - if the influenza vaccine didn't exist . . . would you freak out?

Influenza related pediatric mortality is rare. Very rare.

The chances of your child having a reaction to one of the infuenza vaccines is higher than the chances of your child dying from influenza (and it's complications).

[alegna]

I was never scared of the flu. You weren't vaxed for it- did you worry about it as a child?

But we don't vax at all... IMO vaxes aremuch riskier than the diseases.

-Angela

[RImomma]

I found this on the CDC website. They said that 5-20% of the population gets the flu. They recommended getting the shot

When to Get Vaccinated

Although, you maybe nervous I would be more nervous about the mercury in the shot.

[DoubleOven]

:

[Luckyinlife]

If you get the flu-shot, you may get the flu.
If you don't get the flu-shot, you may get the flu.

Does having the flu SUCK!? Yes.
Do you get over it in a few short days? Yes.
Will life go on? Yes.
Will you go through ALL the stress thinking about the flu again next year and every year after that? Yes.

I hope you feel good about whatever you decide!!!!!!
Have a shot of Vitamin C on me

[LongIsland]

I also wanted to mention to the OP that next week or the week after, your state may be listed under a different category. Many states that were categorized as "widespread" have fallen to different categories.

[LongIsland]

.....

[mamakay]

I've been living out of the U.S. since before my son was born and recently moved back, so this is the first year I'm having to deal with this concept of a "flu season."

That's because the concept of "flu epidemics" is new.
Now, the flu itself is the same old sniffely, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffyhead, fever, spend a day or 2 in bed illness you remember.
The flu hasn't changed. The people who make a vaccine for it have just done a very good job of portraying it as something it's never been seen as before.
Lol...it must feel to you like you've just entered the twilight zone...
Not too ong ago doctors used to snicker at you if you showed up in their office with it...now the CDC acts like it's the black death.

As far as the effectiveness of the shot goes, this shot wins the prize as the #1 least effective vaccine out there....somewhere between 0-35% effective...with the 35% end probably pure placebo effect.
BRB with links.

ETA:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102200042.html

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upl..._flu_nowak.pdf

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...ract/165/3/265

[Gitti]

Do you know the side effects of the flu vaccine? Flu like symptoms. Why would you want to inject the flu virus into his body when you don't want him to have the flu?

I'll make you a suggestion: learn about how to treat a cold or flu naturally. Go to the health food store and arm yourself with some natural preventive products. And at the same time some immune boosters for if he does come down with the flu.

We absolutely don't worry about it at our house. My 2 y. old grandson just had it and he was a little down for about 1 and a half days. He ran a fever, which we left alone, had a runny nose, which we wiped, had a little cough and was fussy. Other than that, nothing.

His mom gave him some Echinacea the moment she noticed he had a fever, she gave him lots of very diluted juice with Sodium Ascorbate, which he loves because he usually doesn't get juice, only water. He was fine. Why would we ever worry about that. And he is also an only child (thus far). But he is consider him strong because he is not constantly being injected or medicated. We trust his immune system.

When you think of your child as being vulnerable to everything, you overprotect him and make decisions based on fear. You over medicate, you inject, you coddle too much, that weakens the child.

Your child needs to learn that he is a survivor. That he can rely on his God given health and immune system. Otherwise when he is older he is constantly afraid of getting this germ and that germ. We don't have any control over germs. We have control over what we put into our body to make it strong or weaken it though. He has to learn that he is robust and tough, not a weakling. You are not doing him any favors by making him feel sickly or vulnerable.


s to you and your son, I know you are having a hard time right now.


P.S. I didn't mean to preach.

[rabrog]

You can take other precautions: when you come home from being out, make sure everyone's hands are washed with soap. When DS comes home from preschool, have him change clothes and put his clothes in the hamper right away. Make sure DS (and all of you) stay well hydrated.

There are many ways to to be proactive regarding the flu - the flu shot is not a good one!

Jenn

[LongIsland]

Excellent links Mamakay!

[supercrunch]

...and even if you were to get the flu shot, the docs say that it takes about a month before it becomes "effective" in your system.

in a month it will be March and flu season will be over

[Marisol]

OK, thank you, everyone. I'm feeling a little calmer. The Washington Post article that mamakay posted was particularly helpful. I didn't realize there was such a difference between elderly death rates and pediatric death rates. I thought those two groups were equally at risk -- hence my concern for my son because I remembered hearing vaguely about the season two years ago when the elderly were hit pretty hard.

Originally Posted by rabrog

When DS comes home from preschool, have him change clothes and put his clothes in the hamper right away.

Excellent idea, thank you! The hand-washing we already do, but the clothes didn't occur to me for some reason. His exposure at preschool IS the thing that most worries me. My son is the only kid who goes half-days; everybody else goes full days and gets dropped off even when they are sick because their parents are using the school more like a regular daycare.

Originally Posted by cravenab00

Also the flu shot still contains FULL 25mcg of mercury

Are you sure? I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand. A couple months ago, I ran across this page on the CDC's Web site that lists all the types of flu vaccines and manufacturers making them for this current year (scroll down to the first table). A few of the "mercury-free" types, like the Chiron and Glaxo ones, are listed as containing traces of mercury used in the manufacturing process, but the single-dose Sanofi ones are listed as having no thimerosal at all -- not even from manufacturing. From that it looks like not all the flu shots are created equal ... but perhaps you know something I don't?

Originally Posted by mamakay

Lol...it must feel to you like you've just entered the twilight zone...

Oh, totally! I often have to tell people, "OK, when you're explaining this to me, pretend I'm an alien that's just been beamed down from the mothership." I'm sorry if my original post seems so ignorant about basics or anything, but I seriously have no frame of reference for this stuff. When I was overseas, I don't think I knew a single person who had the flu, and the cases I heard about in passing were all people who had just flown in from the States and brought it with them. Maybe that's playing into my fears that I've moved back into a hotbed of sickness or something.

[lauriem33]

Originally Posted by Marisol

When I was overseas, I don't think I knew a single person who had the flu, and the cases I heard about in passing were all people who had just flown in from the States and brought it with them. Maybe that's playing into my fears that I've moved back into a hotbed of sickness or something.

I'm curious about this. Do other countries not have the flu like we do here? If so why is that? Perhaps the flu vax? Hmmmmm.....

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by Marisol

Are you sure? I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand. A couple months ago, I ran across this page on the CDC's Web site that lists all the types of flu vaccines and manufacturers making them for this current year (scroll down to the first table). A few of the "mercury-free" types, like the Chiron and Glaxo ones, are listed as containing traces of mercury used in the manufacturing process, but the single-dose Sanofi ones are listed as having no thimerosal at all -- not even from manufacturing. From that it looks like not all the flu shots are created equal ... but perhaps you know something I don't?

Look at the multi-dose formulations -- they contain "full strength" thimerosal. The bulk of influenza vaccine distributed from all manufacturers has been the full strength thimerosal-containing multi-dose formulation.

[mamakay]

I think the flu is a world wide thing.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/update/en/
The US just freaks out about it a lot more. I guess we can thank the AMA for that.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

You haven't moved back into a hotbed of sickness, you've moved back into a hotbed of paranoia fed by the promise of megabucks to Wall street that your acceptance of the paranoia will result in, if everyone accepts the validity of the paranoia... note too, that the Washington Post article was written by doctors. The few American doctors I know of, that have had the guts to publicly reject the paranoia.

also... read these:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/h...ish_309902.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

Both these pubmeds have links through to free pdf download of the full study.

There are a whole host of other articles showing that how badly you get influenza is dependant on what you eat.

If you want more, click on the related articles on the right of the screen of the last abstract.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

also:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum