Do you give your kids flu vaccines (injections or nasal spray)?

[Longboard]

TJ, the scope of

TJ, the scope of practice varies state to state, but in general chiropractors never use a needle unless it's for accupuncture.

Pharmacists never did until there was a fear of pandemic flu a few years back, and in some states dentists as well as medical students were authorized to adminster the vaccine.

Remember, MOST chiropractors don't even believe in vaccines. I actually did get a response from Dr. Lawrence D.C. a few hours ago and he felt that infants, elderly, and the immune compromised should consider it. Interestingly, he said people that work in clinics treating infants should consider it as well.

 

[Tfox]

For me it's a matter of

For me it's a matter of weighing the possible risks with the possible benefits. There are people who will tell you that vaccines are necessary and there are those who will tell you that they are the worst thing in the world. Since we don't really know what the side effects are, it becomes a risk that I don't want to take for my child. There are other ways to build up the immune system.

 

[Angie Bee]

Nope. Never had a flu vaccine

Nope. Never had a flu vaccine nor have any of the boys.

 

[ajb422]

Barefoot TJ wrote:My children

My children have always been vaccinated with the usual childhood vaccines, but I always waited until the later part of the requirement phase in order to do it, rather than the first stages (for example, if the suggestion was to innoculate between age one and three, I chose to push the vaccine back until they turned three), and that has worked well for us.

I like this idea. It was always what I figured I'd do once I had kids. Sort of minimize all risks.

I will not vaccinate for the flu shot as I don't believe we are at risk of a flu epidemic, the flu vaccine can't possibly hold the current strain of flu until the following year, by then there's a new strain,

To play devil's advocate a bit on this point, the only slight issue with this, and one of the reasons I think I might start getting them, is because if flu strains are similar having antibodies to one strain could prevent you from getting another, or at least getting minimal symptoms since your body will start fighting it sooner. There are some cross overs between the strains. Its why if you get lots of exposures to colds and flus as a child you tend to not get as sick as an adult. Your immune system "learns" more about what it needs to fight off. This is one of the reasons proposed for the elderly not having problems with the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreaks. Its possible that they all came in contact with a very similar strain somewhere way back, and their bodies were able to better fend off the newer virus since it got its notice of invasion a bit earlier than everyone else. Before I just counted on getting exposed to the flu on my own and making my antibiodies unassisted, but with so many people getting flu shots, I'm not sure how likely that exposure really is. Its nice not ever getting sick, but I do worry about how that affects my immune system.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

My kid got really sick after

My kid got really sick after getting the flu shot long ago. That was enough for me.

Another thing I did about vaccinations was waited on those final shots that were required in order for my child to attend school. When we would go to their well visits, the nurse and doc would say, he's due for this or that, and I would say what's the very longest I can delay this? They would tell me, and I would say, okay, delay it. If you aren't going to send your kids to Pre-K, then that's another two or three years you can get away with not having to vaccinate them.