H1N1 vaccine - has your child gotten it yet?

[Stitchnut]

Do your homework. Talk with your doctor and check your local children's hospital webite for information. The CDC also has info on their site. It is scary both ways. My 15 yr old nephew has the swine flu and he has terrible asthma. His little brother came home yesterday from school with it and he is 9. The nine year old is worse off. My SIL took them both to the ER and they aren't testing. They said it was a mute point. They were both given tamiflu, but when my SIL went to get the scripts filled, she was told it was on back order. The shots have barely been available in our area and kids are already sick with it.

 

[monkeybug]

Both my son and I got the h1n1 mist last Thursday. Neither of us have had any side effects. We get the seasonal flu shot every year, so I had no reason to fear side effects from this vaccine. It is produced in exactly the same way as the seasonal vaccine, it's just a different strain of influenza. The mist is Thermisol free as well.

 

[monkeybug]

My neighbor and her 2 year old also got the vaccine (we went together) they have had no side effects either.
We both think they should have given us little plastic pig noses to wear around instead of stickers though...

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

We both think they should have given us little plastic pig noses to wear around instead of stickers though...

Thanks for the laugh!
My family already got the seasonal flu shot/mist & will be getting the H1N1 too.

 

[Christine]

According to the below article, the vaccine is the same as usual vaccines:

TUESDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Even as the H1N1 swine flu vaccine is distributed coast to coast, many people say they have safety concerns that may stop them from getting vaccinated.

Although experts say those fears are unwarranted, a recent Associated Press-GfK poll found only about half of Americans said they are planning to get the vaccine. Most of those are older people -- so far among the least vulnerable to the virus.

Almost three-quarters of respondents said they were concerned about the vaccine's safety (although many of these said they still were going to get the shot).

And a University of Michigan poll found that only 40 percent of parents wanted to get their children inoculated.

But experts and officials continue to stress that not only is the vaccine safe, it's the surest way to protect yourself from the H1N1 swine flu virus.

"The H1N1 vaccine is made in exactly the same way, using the same material, the same companies, the same process as the seasonal flu vaccine we make every single year and give to tens and tens of millions of people," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci explained that even the seasonal flu vaccine is changed slightly each year, with slightly different strains.

Had the H1N1 virus emerged just a little bit earlier, it would have been included in this year's regular flu shot, he stated.

"We wouldn't be talking about safety now if [the H1N1 vaccine] were given within the context of the seasonal flu," Fauci continued.

Nor has the vaccine been made too quickly, as some have worried. In fact, "it hasn't been faster at all," said Dr. Robert Frenck, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases.

The seasonal flu vaccine goes into production around March and is available around August. The H1N1 virus was isolated in May and became available this month.

Side effects from the H1N1 vaccine have been mild, including tenderness and swelling at the injection site and a mild fever. In China, four of 39,000 people vaccinated reported muscle cramps and headaches.

"We've had experience with this particular variety of killed vaccine for 20 years, and the risks are primarily swollen arm and low-grade fever," said Dr. Nathan Litman, director of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "There are some very, very rare other events, but some of them happen naturally even in those who don't have the vaccine. The risk of disease and complications of disease is far greater than the vaccine."

Some concerns were precipitated by an earlier experience with swine flu vaccine. In 1976, the U.S. government vaccinated 43 million people against swine flu following an outbreak at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Some 500 of those vaccinated developed a rare neurodegenerative condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which many experts believe was linked to the shot. Twenty-five of those 500 died.

But the equation for this year's swine flu pandemic is already vastly different. The 1976 virus never spread beyond 240 soldiers stationed at the base, while the current outbreak has already sickened more than 340,000 people worldwide, killing 4,100 or more, according to the World Health Organization.

More information

Visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more on the H1N1 swine flu.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

Our family has never gotten the regular flu shot and we will not be getting the H1N1 vaccine either.

DH and I work in healthcare... DS #1 is in college and DS #2 is a senior in high school.

 

[LisaR]

Please do some research (from actual scientists and papers - not from scare websites) before deciding. There is so much senseless fear and misunderstanding out there about vaccines. People blithely decide to not get vaccinated or not to vaccinate their children based on so little actual information. I just don't understand how people can play with their (or their little one's) health without having a complete understanding, it breaks my heart to hear the stories of senseless deaths...

The N1H1 vaccine is a flu vaccine, it is not new. It is simply a new strain of the flu, which is what you get every year in the seasonal flu shots. The health care industry tries to predict the upcoming flu viruses and attempts to protect people by giving them a dead (or in a some select cases a severely weakened) virus. Your body then produced anti-bodies and when you come into contact with the real thing your body knows how to fight it off. This is not new and the technology has been around long enough for many long term studies.

N1H1 is scary because of high number of deaths among young and healthy people. Perhaps even more scary is how many people don't stay home when they're sick. So even if you or your child is okay, what about the risk to everyone else?

People drive cars every day and never give a thought to the "risks." Really, to stay safe, people should never get into one of these death traps. The statistics on deadly car accidents is much, much higher then any possible side effects from a flu shot...

Comments like this really irritate me. Why would you think that parents that decide not to vaccinate their kids with H1N1 have made "blatant" decisions with "little actual information?" You don't understand why people would "play with their kids health without having a complete understanding" of the issue? How dare you! I could say the same thing about your decision to vaccinate, but I won't. It is a decision that a parent needs to make with the help of their doctor. My doctor gets the seasonal flu vaccine for herself and her child every year and she will not be getting H1N1 for anyone in her family. She must not love her child either.

The process to make the vaccine may be identical to the process used to make the seasonal flu vaccine but the reality is, they do not understand this virus fully yet. They can not understand why one person has a mild fever one day and dies three days later. They don't get why some have horrible coughs but recover just fine and others end up on life support when their symptoms weren't anywhere near as bad as others. They are grasping at straws to figure this thing out. They don't have a handle on the virus itself. Doctors and scientists have been baffled by this.

The seasonal flu has a pattern. The symptoms are very similar in most people and the flu has a season. Unfortunately, those with weakened immune systems don't always recover but there is a very clear cut pattern. There is not a pattern to H1N1. People are getting it in the middle of summer. Some symptoms are no more severe than a cold. Some run incredibly high fevers for days and others don't even have a temperature. Scientists don't have answers as to how this virus is playing out so making a vaccine to combat something that they can't figure out is troublesome.

In addition, there was debate about this vaccine up until the minute it was released and I am certain they are still debating things behind closed doors. Do we add an adjuvants? One dose or two? Can you have it at the same time as the season flu shot? Will it do more harm or good to pregnant women? Do we give it to those with weakened or healthy immune systems first? The answers to those questions changed daily until they released it. It is kind of hard to go back now and say, "oops, just kidding. Turns out pregnant women shouldn't get it." The testing period for this vaccine was shortened. The test period should not end until March but the vaccine is already out. It has been rushed. We would never allow a drug manufacturer to put a new pill for heart disease out on the market 6 months early but we are allowing a vaccine to come out early and we don't even understand the virus itself.

I certainly hope the vaccine works and this virus disappears. But please do not judge me and make assumptions that I have not done any research. Besides being incredibly rude, it also couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[teacups]

Have not.
Will not.
We homeschool and work from home so I like to think our exposure is limted.
Of course you can be exposed at the grocery store.

The regular flu shots are terrible for us ( we have tried) so we will take our chances.

 

[monkeybug]

Comments like this really irritate me. Why would you think that parents that decide not to vaccinate their kids with H1N1 have made "blatant" decisions with "little actual information?" You don't understand why people would "play with their kids health without having a complete understanding" of the issue? How dare you! I could say the same thing about your decision to vaccinate, but I won't. It is a decision that a parent needs to make with the help of their doctor. My doctor gets the seasonal flu vaccine for herself and her child every year and she will not be getting H1N1 for anyone in her family. She must not love her child either.

The process to make the vaccine may be identical to the process used to make the seasonal flu vaccine but the reality is, they do not understand this virus fully yet. They can not understand why one person has a mild fever one day and dies three days later. They don't get why some have horrible coughs but recover just fine and others end up on life support when their symptoms weren't anywhere near as bad as others. They are grasping at straws to figure this thing out. They don't have a handle on the virus itself. Doctors and scientists have been baffled by this.

The seasonal flu has a pattern. The symptoms are very similar in most people and the flu has a season. Unfortunately, those with weakened immune systems don't always recover but there is a very clear cut pattern. There is not a pattern to H1N1. People are getting it in the middle of summer. Some symptoms are no more severe than a cold. Some run incredibly high fevers for days and others don't even have a temperature. Scientists don't have answers as to how this virus is playing out so making a vaccine to combat something that they can't figure out is troureleased and I am certain they are still debating things behind closed doors. Do we add an adjuvants? One dose or two? Can you have it at the same time as the season flu shot? Will it do more harm or good to pregnant women? Do we give it to those with weakened or healthy immune systems first? The answers to those questions changed daily until they released it. It is kind of hard to go back now and say, "oops, just kidding. Turns out pregnant women shouldn't get it." The testing period for this vaccine was shortened. The test period should not end until March but the vaccine is already out. It has been rushed. We would never allow a drug manufacturer to put a new pill for heart disease out on the market 6 months early but we are allowing a vaccine to come out early and we don't even understand the virus itself.

I certainly hope the vaccine works and this virus disappears. But please do not judge me and make assumptions that I have not done any research. Besides being incredibly rude, it also couldn't be further from the truth.

I don't want to be involved in the vaccinate/don't vaccinate debate. I can understand both sides of the argument, and I think in both cases parents are making the decision based on what they feel is best for their kids and their health.
I just wanted to point out that someone with seasonal flu can go from having a mild fever to dead in three days, some might have a hacking cough and fully recover, some might seem to have a mild case and end up with serious co-infections. How a person reacts to a virus is always varied. It does not mean that our health care workers are grasping at straws.
There are CDC you tube videos (biased, I know) that are a part of the campaign to get seasonal vaccine. In them parents tell heartbreaking stories of how rapidly their children's illness progressed, and eventually killed them (the regular flu). I know when my son had RSV he went from barely noticeable symptoms to the picu in a matter of hours. Severe and rapid changes are fairly common in children with any influenza virus, not just the h1n1 strain. It's just a lot less common for children to catch the seasonal flu in the first place.

 

[livie1205]

my dd3 and I got the mist....along with TONS of other moms and toddlers at the local health dept.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Not yet, as soon as the killed virus shots become available we will all be on line. We are high risk here so we are not candidates for the weakened virus Mist. I just keep praying we stay healthy until we can get the shots + 2 weeks for immunity to kick in. To be honest, right now every day that passes seems like an eternity as we drift closer & closer into full Flu season. But, on the positive side Friday marks 2 weeks since we all got the regular Flu Shot and we'll have full immunity (at least as good as we can get) against the regular Flu

 

[2bearsmom]

My children have not received and none of us will. We don't get seasonal flu vaccines either. I do not trust any of the drug companies enough to get them. This H1N1 vaccine isn't new, most of the drug companies making it have applied for the patent at least 4yrs ago and got approval just this past April, right when swine flu was discovered in Mexico. The adjuvant squalene that they add can cause problems. We all have squalene in our bodies, but when you get it injected from a vaccine, the bodies immune system goes into overdrive, attacking all the squalene in your body. Not to mention the aluminum and mercury that accumlates in your brain from vaccines.

Baxter company had sent a batch of seasonal flu vaccine to Europe in April I think it was. Czech researchers then injected it into ferrets, which they always do and ferrets don't die from human seasonal flu. All the ferrets died and when they tested the vaccine it was found to contain live H5N1-bird flu virus. Whoops, that would have been a huge European bird flu pandemic had that not been found!

Everyone has an opinion on why they should get the vaccine and always say how awful we parents are that don't vaccinate. Maybe we think the same way about the parents that do vaccinate. I don't think we should attack anyone, except for the drug companies and the doctors that don't give the whole story.

 

[LisaR]

I don't want to be involved in the vaccinate/don't vaccinate debate. I can understand both sides of the argument, and I think in both cases parents are making the decision based on what they feel is best for their kids and their health.
I just wanted to point out that someone with seasonal flu can go from having a mild fever to dead in three days, some might have a hacking cough and fully recover, some might seem to have a mild case and end up with serious co-infections. How a person reacts to a virus is always varied. It does not mean that our health care workers are grasping at straws.
There are CDC you tube videos (biased, I know) that are a part of the campaign to get seasonal vaccine. In them parents tell heartbreaking stories of how rapidly their children's illness progressed, and eventually killed them (the regular flu). I know when my son had RSV he went from barely noticeable symptoms to the picu in a matter of hours. Severe and rapid changes are fairly common in children with any influenza virus, not just the h1n1 strain. It's just a lot less common for children to catch the seasonal flu in the first place.

Agreed! However, seasonal flu presents patterns. The reality is that people with weakened immune systems and / or the elderly tend to be the ones that pass away from the seasonal flu. The severity of the symptoms vary but the symptoms themselves are relatively the same. You may not have every symptom but it would be unusual to be diagnosed with the seasonal flu if you didn't have a fever and you didn't have body aches. There are definite signs to determine if you have a cold vs. seasonal flu. That is not the case with H1N1.

 

[hucifer]

My children have not received and none of us will. We don't get seasonal flu vaccines either. I do not trust any of the drug companies enough to get them. This H1N1 vaccine isn't new, most of the drug companies making it have applied for the patent at least 4yrs ago and got approval just this past April, right when swine flu was discovered in Mexico. The adjuvant squalene that they add can cause problems. We all have squalene in our bodies, but when you get it injected from a vaccine, the bodies immune system goes into overdrive, attacking all the squalene in your body. Not to mention the aluminum and mercury that accumlates in your brain from vaccines.

Baxter company had sent a batch of seasonal flu vaccine to Europe in April I think it was. Czech researchers then injected it into ferrets, which they always do and ferrets don't die from human seasonal flu. All the ferrets died and when they tested the vaccine it was found to contain live H5N1-bird flu virus. Whoops, that would have been a huge European bird flu pandemic had that not been found!

Everyone has an opinion on why they should get the vaccine and always say how awful we parents are that don't vaccinate. Maybe we think the same way about the parents that do vaccinate. I don't think we should attack anyone, except for the drug companies and the doctors that don't give the whole story.

Great post!

I am especially concerned about the adjuvant squalene, for the reasons you mentioned. From what I understand, you can swallow squalene and it will have no effect, but injecting it into a muscle can have devestating effects to the immune system.

And yes, I am doing a lot of research on this vaccine AND the illness and I still choose not to vaccinate myself or my family.

 

[monkeybug]

Agreed! However, seasonal flu presents patterns. The reality is that people with weakened immune systems and / or the elderly tend to be the ones that pass away from the seasonal flu. The severity of the symptoms vary but the symptoms themselves are relatively the same. You may not have every symptom but it would be unusual to be diagnosed with the seasonal flu if you didn't have a fever and you didn't have body aches. There are definite signs to determine if you have a cold vs. seasonal flu. That is not the case with H1N1.

I'm not an expert by any means, so I may be wrong, but I think there are a lot of "influenza like" virus' that present much like seasonal flu and end up being common colds.
My son and I recently went to the Dr. with fever (the body aches and chills that are associated with having fever) congestion, sore throat, and cough. We were diagnosed with a cold, not influenza.
I have always been told that influenza comes on very suddenly, almost out of the blue, where as a cold or other influenza like illness come about a bit more gradually. I have been told that h1n1 also hits out of the blue and that may be one way to tell if you have flu or just a cold. I am pretty sure that other than that, an influenza test is the only definite sign in determining a cold vs. seasonal flu. They usually have very similar symptoms.
Not everyone who gets the seasonal flu gets fever either. I have a friend who's kids never get fever, though like you said, I think it is much more common for people with h1n1 to not present with fever.
Every influenza strain is different, with varying degrees of illness. My husband received training about this years three strain vaccine and was told that they are strains we have not had in quite some time, people may have lower immunity to them than more recent strains, and therefore have more severe symptoms than with past seasonal flu. This was at a Military base, not a hospital though, so who knows how accurate that info. is.
One thing to consider is that the wide variety of symptoms or disease severity could also be because cold and flu are so similar, and Dr.s are no longer testing most patients for flu. Someone might go to the Dr. with a cold and be told they have h1n1 and someone might go to a different Dr. with h1n1 and be diagnosed with a cold. It's con-flusing!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I thought none of the vaccines out at the moment had adjuvant yet and in the US it's still in the "We're looking to see if it will work" phase. Did I miss something? If you know it is in our vaccination supplies could you please post which Pharma's include it in their vaccine. I want the vaccine but I won't be a guinea pig and would rather do without than risk an immunological storm. Asthmatics take Prednisone to shut down the immune response, kicking it into overdrive would be counter intuitive... if that stuff is in it and I can't avoid it no-one here will get the vaccine.

 

[monkeybug]

I thought none of the vaccines out at the moment had adjuvant yet and in the US it's still in the "We're looking to see if it will work" phase. Did I miss something? If you know it is in our vaccination supplies could you please post which Pharma's include it in their vaccine. I want the vaccine but I won't be a guinea pig and would rather do without than risk an immunological storm. Asthmatics take Prednisone to shut down the immune response, kicking it into overdrive would be counter intuitive... if that stuff is in it and I can't avoid it no-one here will get the vaccine.

Last I read none of the vaccine ordered by the US contained adjuvant.

 

[disney1990]

I thought none of the vaccines out at the moment had adjuvant yet and in the US it's still in the "We're looking to see if it will work" phase. Did I miss something? If you know it is in our vaccination supplies could you please post which Pharma's include it in their vaccine. I want the vaccine but I won't be a guinea pig and would rather do without than risk an immunological storm. Asthmatics take Prednisone to shut down the immune response, kicking it into overdrive would be counter intuitive... if that stuff is in it and I can't avoid it no-one here will get the vaccine.

As far as I know, it was decided that they would not be adding the adjuvant to the H1N1.

 

[luvwinnie]

My children have not received and none of us will. We don't get seasonal flu vaccines either. I do not trust any of the drug companies enough to get them. This H1N1 vaccine isn't new, most of the drug companies making it have applied for the patent at least 4yrs ago and got approval just this past April, right when swine flu was discovered in Mexico. The adjuvant squalene that they add can cause problems. We all have squalene in our bodies, but when you get it injected from a vaccine, the bodies immune system goes into overdrive, attacking all the squalene in your body. Not to mention the aluminum and mercury that accumlates in your brain from vaccines. .

Just want to clarify that the vaccine does not contain adjuvants in the U.S. right now.

 

[LisaR]

I'm not an expert by any means, so I may be wrong, but I think there are a lot of "influenza like" virus' that present much like seasonal flu and end up being common colds.
My son and I recently went to the Dr. with fever (the body aches and chills that are associated with having fever) congestion, sore throat, and cough. We were diagnosed with a cold, not influenza.
I have always been told that influenza comes on very suddenly, almost out of the blue, where as a cold or other influenza like illness come about a bit more gradually. I have been told that h1n1 also hits out of the blue and that may be one way to tell if you have flu or just a cold. I am pretty sure that other than that, an influenza test is the only definite sign in determining a cold vs. seasonal flu. They usually have very similar symptoms.
Not everyone who gets the seasonal flu gets fever either. I have a friend who's kids never get fever, though like you said, I think it is much more common for people with h1n1 to not present with fever.
Every influenza strain is different, with varying degrees of illness. My husband received training about this years three strain vaccine and was told that they are strains we have not had in quite some time, people may have lower immunity to them than more recent strains, and therefore have more severe symptoms than with past seasonal flu. This was at a Military base, not a hospital though, so who knows how accurate that info. is.
One thing to consider is that the wide variety of symptoms or disease severity could also be because cold and flu are so similar, and Dr.s are no longer testing most patients for flu. Someone might go to the Dr. with a cold and be told they have h1n1 and someone might go to a different Dr. with h1n1 and be diagnosed with a cold. It's con-flusing!

In general, the symptoms of a cold are much milder than flu symptoms, but the only accurate way to tell is with the test. However, if you are at home with a stuffy nose, sneezing and feeling run down, you would most likely not think about going to the doctor unless you are running a high fever or you have had these symptoms for a long period of time. Statistically, the chance of you dropping over dead from these mild symptoms are very slim even if you have a preexisting condition. If you have the more severe symptoms, your chance of death rises - especially with a preexisting condition.

With H1N1, people with cold like symptoms are dying. People with serious symptoms are dying. People with and without preexisting conditions are dying. And of course, MOST people with all of those same things mentioned above are recovering just fine, without hospitalization or prescription medication.

I understand that this is scary enough to make people want a vaccine. Heck, I am scared out of my mind that my kids will get this. However, it does not change the fact that they do not have a handle on this virus. I have listened to/watched/read report after report from scientists that are truly baffled by this virus. They all wish they had a better handle on it. There isn't any proof yet that those vaccinated will be immune from the virus. None. It hasn't been tested. It has absolutely been rushed to the market.

There can't be a single person out there that would disagree with the statement that the "facts" regarding H1N1 have been confusing. I expect that with something new. But the fact that there was confusion yesterday and now the vaccine is available, doesn't make the confusion go away. There are unanswered questions and time will tell if they got it right with this vaccine. I truly hope they did but I won't allow my family to be guinea pigs.