H1N1 vaccine - where are you now with your decision?

Sonya · Guru

RE: H1N1 vaccine - where are you now with your decision?

a_mastermom · Guru

We still have not gotten it - but only because my ped isn't offering it yet to kids over 3. If we could get it, we would.

Supafly · Guru

apies wrote:

supergrover wrote:

oh, and this was the line from Travis that finally (and I do mean finally- I debated this forever).

What if the virus mutates and suddenly we start seeing much worse cases. Don't we want the boys to at least have some immunity to this form of flu?

To that I agreed.

ok, maybe i don't understand viruses well enough.
if it mutates, will the vaccine help you at all?
like, i thought with seasonal flu, sometimes they put out the wrong vaccine and then a different virus goes around and everyone gets sick anyway.

Right-this is my understanding as well (though I am not sure, and I haven't finished reading)

We aren't getting the vax. The girls had the flu, and the pedi's office said that they don't think kids under 10 are building enough immunity to H1N1 to prevent them from getting it a second time. IDK about that-it makes more sense to me that the strain may have changed since they saw it at the tail end of last winter.

Either way, I am not about to subject my kids to yet another vaccine if 1) it may not give them protection if kids are more vulerable to getting it twice, 2) it won't help them if the strain does changes, and 3) they have already been sick with it. They are both healthy otherwise.

I feel 100% confident in my decision.

ETA-I forgot to mention that even if we wanted to get it for them, they couldn't. The clinics are all full here. Iam glad I am not getting it for them because if I wanted them to have it, I would be stressed that it isn't available.

-- Edited by Supafly on Wednesday 18th of November 2009 07:51:46 PM

mally · Senior Member

Christopher and sarah had it last thursday...but now I think dh has the flu

so hopefully they will be covered. I just told him to go in the bedroom and not come out. He has a temp about 100, but looks like he is on the downswing right now. Dry hacky cough, though, and runny nose. No headache or body aches as of right now, though, so I'm hoping it's something else.

mally · Senior Member

Oh, and JoLynn, are you expecting?

Jo · Guru

mally wrote:

Oh, and JoLynn, are you expecting?

Yes, I'm 11 weeks along now, due 6/7/10.

muffy · Guru

Jolynn,

Personally for me, I am not getting it, nor is anyone in my family. My reasons are:

the pregnancy effect - i am concerned with complications DOWN THE ROAD for this baby. it might be born seemingly healthy, but what if it has problems in the future? the possible autism link related to other vaccinations, even though this vac is different, is a real concern to me... i keep thinking how horrible it would be if a few years down the road it was determined that there were effects to children whose preggo moms were vaccinated.

the vaccine is a category C rated drug in safefetus.com. i would take that IF it was medically necessary, but not as a possible preventative measure. tamiflu is also a category C rated drug. my plan is that IF i get sick, as soon as i sense anything is wrong i would immediately take tamiflu, a cat C drug. at least at that point i know that i would need it! (one other point, where i live the meds are available - i know i can get tamiflu if i need it, where in the states i heard that it can be hard to get in some places)

that said, i dont take ANY medications while pregnant unless in a dire emergency (and i suffered mightily with illness from weeks 9 to 24 of this pregnancy - horrible sinus, coughs... the only time i took med was when i HAD to take erithromiacin when i had a bad intentional bacterial infection, any i only broke down after 8 days of uncontrollable diarrhea/cramping - asides from that nothing at all)

Also, noone in our house has ever had a flu vaccine, and we simply are not going to start this year. (and to this point, no one has ever had the flu in our household)

this is just my opinion and is not meant to be taken as advice for you:)

Juanita · Guru

Supafly wrote:

apies wrote:

supergrover wrote:

oh, and this was the line from Travis that finally (and I do mean finally- I debated this forever).

What if the virus mutates and suddenly we start seeing much worse cases. Don't we want the boys to at least have some immunity to this form of flu?

To that I agreed.

ok, maybe i don't understand viruses well enough.
if it mutates, will the vaccine help you at all?
like, i thought with seasonal flu, sometimes they put out the wrong vaccine and then a different virus goes around and everyone gets sick anyway.

Right-this is my understanding as well (though I am not sure, and I haven't finished reading)
We aren't getting the vax. The girls had the flu, and the pedi's office said that they don't think kids under 10 are building enough immunity to H1N1 to prevent them from getting it a second time. IDK about that-it makes more sense to me that the strain may have changed since they saw it at the tail end of last winter.
Either way, I am not about to subject my kids to yet another vaccine if 1) it may not give them protection if kids are more vulerable to getting it twice, 2) it won't help them if the strain does changes, and 3) they have already been sick with it. They are both healthy otherwise.
I feel 100% confident in my decision.
ETA-I forgot to mention that even if we wanted to get it for them, they couldn't. The clinics are all full here. Iam glad I am not getting it for them because if I wanted them to have it, I would be stressed that it isn't available.

-- Edited by Supafly on Wednesday 18th of November 2009 07:51:46 PM

And the thing is, there is no IF..the virus WILL mutate and change, that's what viruses do. That's why kids can get it again once they've had it. They are immune ONLY to the strain they already had, not to future ones.

Chickie · Senior Member

Jo wrote:

Kelly - I'm glad you're feeling confident about your decision. It's hard to not know what to do, and I know you were on the fence for awhile.

Chickie - did Nolan get the shot or the nasal spray?

Juni - did you go to the public clinic? How was the wait? I'm glad you have some peace of mind now, especially with Owen's asthma.

Jenn - just curious, what makes the boys ineligible for the nasal spray?

Amber - yes, certainly more to think about being preggo. I'm glad you're confident about your decision, too.

Corey - how's that baby doing now? So scary.

Nolan had the nasal spray. It had been over 30 days since his regular flu mist so he was clear for this one.

Plus that was all they had. You can't find H1N1 shots or mist anywhere around here. They have had a few clinics set up and I had my mom wait in line for several hours to get into one of those. All the doctors offices think they will be getting some in December, so hopefully that will be the case and we won't have to search for his second installment.

He didn't have any reaction to it.

Juni · Guru

I'm confused. If you don't have any immunity from future strains from either having the vaccine or having had a previous strain then why is the older generation (in this case) at less risk due to previous exposure and built up immunity that the younger generation doesn't have? This totally confuses me.

daisy · Guru

Juni wrote:

I'm confused. If you don't have any immunity from future strains from either having the vaccine or having had a previous strain then why is the older generation (in this case) at less risk due to previous exposure and built up immunity that the younger generation doesn't have? This totally confuses me.

i tooooooooooooooootally dont get it either!!!

Jo · Guru

muffy wrote:

Jolynn,

Personally for me, I am not getting it, nor is anyone in my family. My reasons are:

the pregnancy effect - i am concerned with complications DOWN THE ROAD for this baby. it might be born seemingly healthy, but what if it has problems in the future? the possible autism link related to other vaccinations, even though this vac is different, is a real concern to me... i keep thinking how horrible it would be if a few years down the road it was determined that there were effects to children whose preggo moms were vaccinated.

the vaccine is a category C rated drug in safefetus.com. i would take that IF it was medically necessary, but not as a possible preventative measure. tamiflu is also a category C rated drug. my plan is that IF i get sick, as soon as i sense anything is wrong i would immediately take tamiflu, a cat C drug. at least at that point i know that i would need it! (one other point, where i live the meds are available - i know i can get tamiflu if i need it, where in the states i heard that it can be hard to get in some places)

that said, i dont take ANY medications while pregnant unless in a dire emergency (and i suffered mightily with illness from weeks 9 to 24 of this pregnancy - horrible sinus, coughs... the only time i took med was when i HAD to take erithromiacin when i had a bad intentional bacterial infection, any i only broke down after 8 days of uncontrollable diarrhea/cramping - asides from that nothing at all)

Also, noone in our house has ever had a flu vaccine, and we simply are not going to start this year. (and to this point, no one has ever had the flu in our household)

this is just my opinion and is not meant to be taken as advice for you:)

thanks for your input, Megan

I'm like you with medications, I tend to not take them unless really necessary. This is such a tough decision to make.

muffy · Guru

daisy wrote:

Juni wrote:

I'm confused. If you don't have any immunity from future strains from either having the vaccine or having had a previous strain then why is the older generation (in this case) at less risk due to previous exposure and built up immunity that the younger generation doesn't have? This totally confuses me.

i tooooooooooooooootally dont get it either!!!

i understand it that in the 70's it was the same strain of the h1n1, thus the reason why that generation have some immunity.

there are many different strains of the flu - primarily A, B and C, and those have sub strains.

typically it is only the A strain that creates a big pandemic every 10-40 years. the bird flu a while back was h5n1, for example, and you do not have immunity from h1n1 with an h5n1 vaccine, for example.... (also, type A strains are found in both animals nad humans, thus wh they are sometimes named after an animal.

here is a small big of info:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5631713_different-strains-flu.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Jennie · Guru

I got it b/c I am around Addy all the time and we've been chronically exposed to it but have not had any infection yet -knock on wood-

I will get Colin his just b/c we were exposed hard core to it yesterday and those people DID NOT practice and sort of decency in terms of, "Oh look. Those people have a baby. I think we should keep our masks on." Nope. They took them off and got their germs everywhere...Agh. It made my decision for medical school firm.

Addy is too young so she doesn't qualify.

DH still refuses. Something about being in the Navy and having had too many shots...Something about anthrax shots made him something or other...shots he doesn't like..needles are icky...I only hear about 45% of what people say to me anyway. I'm not a very attentive listener.

Sara · Guru

We are not getting it. John might due to his nature of work.

If I were pregnant I would have no idea what I would do. I have seen some pretty scary stories of pregnant women that have got it. One being a mom on my ttc grad board. She was hospitalized for over 3 weeks and in bad, bad shape. She just got released on Tuesday.

Jo · Guru

Sara wrote:

We are not getting it. John might due to his nature of work.

If I were pregnant I would have no idea what I would do. I have seen some pretty scary stories of pregnant women that have got it. One being a mom on my ttc grad board. She was hospitalized for over 3 weeks and in bad, bad shape. She just got released on Tuesday.

Sara, she got the flu or the vaccine? Scary either way, I'm glad she's back home now.

Juanita · Guru

muffy wrote:

daisy wrote:

Juni wrote:

I'm confused. If you don't have any immunity from future strains from either having the vaccine or having had a previous strain then why is the older generation (in this case) at less risk due to previous exposure and built up immunity that the younger generation doesn't have? This totally confuses me.

i tooooooooooooooootally dont get it either!!!

i understand it that in the 70's it was the same strain of the h1n1, thus the reason why that generation have some immunity.

there are many different strains of the flu - primarily A, B and C, and those have sub strains.

typically it is only the A strain that creates a big pandemic every 10-40 years. the bird flu a while back was h5n1, for example, and you do not have immunity from h1n1 with an h5n1 vaccine, for example.... (also, type A strains are found in both animals nad humans, thus wh they are sometimes named after an animal.

here is a small big of info:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5631713_different-strains-flu.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

that's exactly right Megan.

Now, when the virus mutates, and it will because that's what they do, they may not have immunity to the "new" strain.

Viruses are a very, very complex thing..which is why I HATED Microbiology, lol

It's all a crapshoot and science just hopes they get it right. Which is why there's absolutely no guarantee and you can never tell what's going to happen now, or down the road, from the virus or the vaccine itself.

It sucks really, lol

Sara · Guru

Jo wrote:

Sara wrote:

We are not getting it. John might due to his nature of work.

If I were pregnant I would have no idea what I would do. I have seen some pretty scary stories of pregnant women that have got it. One being a mom on my ttc grad board. She was hospitalized for over 3 weeks and in bad, bad shape. She just got released on Tuesday.

Sara, she got the flu or the vaccine? Scary either way, I'm glad she's back home now.

She had the swine flu. She is about 30 wks pregnant with her 2nd boy right now. She actually just posted a note today thanking everyone for the continued prayers through everything. It was pretty scary reading updates.