Last Christmas, my 4-year-old didn’t spend his evening playing with the Thor action figure or the toy helicopter that Santa left under the tree. No, my son Brandon spent Christmas night in a hospital battling the flu and pneumonia. He was there for three incredibly long days.
My husband and I stayed at his bedside, sleeping on the tiny chair in the hospital room. Actually, I didn’t sleep at all. I just lay there praying for Brandon’s recovery and scolding myself for not getting him vaccinated back in October when my 8-year-old son, Jordan, an asthmatic, received his flu shot. Why did I rush to get Jordan vaccinated but say no when their pediatrician asked if I wanted Brandon to get the shot as well?
I’d told myself Jordan should definitely get the shot, but Brandon was healthy. Yes, he’d had two bouts of wheezing that had caused trips to the E.R., but he’d bounced back quickly and no one had labeled him with the “A” word yet. Those two episodes were nothing compared with the hacking cough that hit Jordan whenever the weather changed or he caught a cold. Jordan was no stranger to being hooked up to a nebulizer or grabbing his rescue asthma pump. But Brandon rarely got sick, so why vaccinate him unnecessarily? Weren’t kids injected enough with endless rounds of mandatory immunizations?
A week before Christmas, Brandon came down with a fever, a runny nose and cough — the flu. I kept him home from school and took him to Urgent Care late one night when he was in discomfort. A few days later he was back to his active 3-year-old self, karate chopping his brother and doing flips. On Christmas morning we opened presents and he was fine, but during the drive to my in-laws’ house, he became lethargic.
That evening, before dinner, I took Brandon’s temperature, which was 101, and gave him Motrin. After dinner, he began coughing uncontrollably — a loud, violent cough that shook his entire body. Then he began to vomit. Not just food, but tons of mucous. We rushed him to the hospital near my husband’s parents’ house. I remember Brandon crying as they hooked him up to an IV. My heart broke for him. They ran tests, took X-rays, and then admitted him after telling us he had pneumonia, for him, a complication of the flu.
Thankfully, Brandon fully recovered and was released from the hospital the day before his fourth birthday. Since then he’s received a diagnosis of asthma.
Earlier this month, I made sure that he and Jordan got their flu shots. I blamed myself for a long time for not taking the same precaution last year. Because the vaccination isn’t 100 percent effective (and its effectiveness varies from year to year), it’s possible that he might still have caught the flu. But studies show that the flu vaccine reduces the chance of flu-related hospitalization in children (by 74 percent in 2012) and can make any flu you do catch more mild. I can’t know for certain whether vaccinating Brandon would have kept him out of the hospital. What I do know is that I’ll do whatever I can to ensure that my sons are healthy and protected.
If you’re on the fence about having your child vaccinated, I’ve since found the answers to some of the questions that had me hesitating:
Who should be vaccinated?
Everyone 6 months of age and older (including pregnant women). “The flu is vaccine-preventable, and we want to try to reduce the risk of illness caused by the flu,” said Dr. Henry Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. “We especially want to reduce the risk of hospitalizations caused by the flu, as well as death, which could happen to children as well as to adults.” And because asthma is a respiratory illness and influenza is a respiratory virus, it’s especially important that kids with asthma get vaccinated. “Certainly influenza can cause real problems for anyone, including healthy children, but those who have chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma or cystic fibrosis are at particular risk for having complications.”
Can you get the flu from the flu shot?
No. The vaccine comes in two forms, as an injection and a nasal spray. With the injection, there might be some redness, swelling or pain at the site where the vaccine is given, as well as the possibility of a slight fever in the first 24 hours. Why? “Because you’re injecting something into the body and the body’s immune system is reacting or responding the way it should. So it’s actually a good sign that the immune system is turned on and hopefully developing protection against the flu,” Dr. Bernstein said. With the intranasal vaccine, a runny nose or nasal congestion could result.
Should kids get the shot or the spray?
Both are effective, but the vaccine sprayed in the nose is recommended only for healthy people, ages 2 through 49. Children with asthma should not get the intranasal, only the injection. Recent studies suggests that the nasal spray is more effective in children between 2 and 8 years old. Other children might feel good about being able to make the choice for themselves.
Need help getting your child through the flu shot, or routine vaccinations? Read Surviving Shots: 12 Tips for Parents and Kids on Motherlode.