OT - Flu shot for my son or not?

[KTowne]

My son is 3 years old and is starting school Nov. 1st, his doctor just called me to let me know they'd have the flu shot in, soon, and asked if I wanted to put him on the list to be called when it came in, and I said sure. Are/have you ladies gotten your children vaccinated? Do they really work? Will he have negative side effects? I've never had to worry about him getting sick from being around other children daily so this is new to me.

[KTowne]

No, he's never been to a daycare, either, so this is a whole new setting for us. I figured he's definitely going to come home with colds and everything else being in a school like setting, I think I'll be getting it for him, I just hope he doesn't react too bad to it! Thank you, I'll definitely check out the vaccination page!

[DNP47]

I vaccinate my kids, but my oldest has an egg allergy so she doesnt get the flu shot, she got it one year when she was about 3 before we knew about the allergy and she had a pretty severe reaction (hives, swollen tongue ect). Has your son ever been in day care? My kids had never been, so when they started school they came home with every virus/cold/rash that someone had because they had never been exposed to it. So I figured that I might as well try to vaccinate them from at least a few strains of influenza.

The flu shot is the innoculated version, it is a dead virus. They have side effets that can mimic mild flu symptoms, but that is your immune systems reaction to a proposed invader, it is not the actual flu. If you want full details on the possible side effects, check out the CDC's vaccination page, they have tons of information about the possible side effects.

[KTowne]

Yeah that's what I'm worried about, he's not allergic to eggs, and I'm nervous he'll really like school and get sick from the vaccine and be taken away from it, because he's so excited to go. I wish I could've gotten it for him a few weeks before school started!! I guess getting a reaction or getting the flu at some point is the same thing, we'll probably go through it at least once this winter, when one of us gets sick, we all do! And we'll have a newborn this winter so I'm trying to cut back on us being sick, haha! Thank you!

[brenconmom]

My oldest gets its every year and it works well for him. He does great. My 8 year old doesn't get it because he had a reaction to it and was sick for a week. My husband and o also get it every year as we are both in medicine. Its totally your choice but unless he's allergic to eggs you won't know if he's going to react until he gets it. Good luck