Baby's flu shot

Today I took my 6 1/2-month old baby boy to get a flu shot.  He had four shots last week, so I'm not as worried about the actual shot, but there is some controversy surrounding flu shots and if they should be given to infants.  There is also a difference between the shot given to infants and that given to adults.  To top it all off, my wife noticed yesterday that baby's sniffling a little so that could have prevented his getting the flu shot.

It was all business this time, as compared to his 6-month checkup.  The nurse took his weight and his temperature, and the doctor used the stethoscope and checked his ears and throat.  He didn't cry as much as he did last time on the scale; he cried but didn't try to roll around and calmed down quickly afterwards.  The doctor checked listened to his chest with the stethoscope, then when she looked into his ears he cried a little.  She felt his glands under his jaw and looked at his throat.  The doctor was making sure he wasn't already sick before giving the shot.

The flu shot is not a guarantee that the person will not get the flu.  What we get as a flu shot has to be incubated for around a year before there's enough for the population, so each year doctors try and predict what next year's flu strain will be.  They develop a strain of the influenza virus, and kill it.  This is what's injected for an "inactivated" flu shot.  The immune system builds the antibodies to fight the virus, so if later you are exposed to it your body is ready.  There is also a "live, attenuated" way to be vaccinated involving nose spray.  Not for us.

There are several flu shots that are given depending on a person's age and health.  The elderly can get a "high-dose" inactivated vaccine, and infants get a special, no-preservative version.  I'd heard something about mercury and MSG being some of the nastier ingredients that have somehow made their way into flu shots, but I couldn't imagine that a doctor would inject a baby with mercury.  That shot that he was given did not have thimerosal, the preservative in adults' injection.  There is even a wikipedia page about the Thiomersal controversy, with a side note about the spelling.  Thiomersal is the "international nonproprietary name," different from thimerosal (its name in the U.S.).  At one point people believed thiomersal had something to do with increasing autism rates, but rates have continued to increase while infants and children are no longer given thiomersal.  It is a mercury derivative, and it's really best to stay away from mercury.  I might ask that all of his future flu shots be without thimerosal.

When I asked the doctor about thimerosal or thiomersal (I called it "the preservative"), the Doctor said she likes it when people do their homework.  She told me that they don't use thimerosal for babies, but I'm not sure if this is something their practice has decided or a blanket policy for pediatricians.  The best thing to do is ask your pediatrician; if you don't trust the answer you either need to work on your trust issues or a pediatrician that's not as sketchy.

There are people who don't believe in flu shots with or without thimerosal.  I'm sure there are lots of different reasons.  People who want their child's immune system to develop naturally, people who think the vaccine will give their baby the flu, people who believe the government puts mind-control drugs in the flu shot, alien super-virus, you name it.  Here's an interesting site with 10 Immune Boosting Flu Shot Alternatives.  I don't usually get a flu shot, probably because I think it's better to let the immune system work on its own.  But modern medicine does have some good vaccines for babies, so we're opting to have our child vaccinated.

The nurse and the doctor both asked if we thought baby was allergic to eggs; apparently that can be a problem with the flu shot.  We're supposed to watch for any bumps or redness on his leg where he got the shot, like with any injection.  We're also supposed to watch for fever, and I would guess that we give him tylenol if he does develop a fever.  The nurse asked if we had a tylenol dosing chart, I think she said tylenol rather than acetaminophen.  She told me that a fever was 100.5° for a baby, then immediately asked if I had a tylenol dosing chart.  I took that to mean give him tylenol if he goes over 100.5°.  The Colorado Children's Hospital tells all about what temperature is dangerous at what age, and I wouldn't start calling the doctor until he got to 102°.  Taking his temperature isn't fun either; when the time comes I'm sure I won't want to do it.

We don't have this exact thermometer, but it gets its reading from the same place:

He was a trooper again after the shot.  He cried hard at first but with my rocking and his pacifier he calmed down pretty quickly.  He does pretty well after shots, at least compared to the screams you hear in the halls of the pediatrician's office.  I hugged him and rocked him and before the nurse left he stopped crying.  When he turned to look at the nurse, however, he started crying again, maybe he's learning to associate her with the pain of the needle.  He's past the point of no return with the pacifier; someone told us that at around 6 months they become more attached to the pacifier if you don't take it away.  We haven't taken it away.  Now it helps him get to sleep at night, feel better after a shot, calm him down on a car ride, or buy us a few minutes if he's fussing for some reason.  I'll look into pacifiers more for a future post.

The CDC has a Q&A page about the flu shot, but it's mostly about adult flu shots.  It may still help to answer any questions you have, so check it out.

Here's another article from Forbes Magazine on a recent Congressional hearing on immunizations.  The article is very pro-immunization, and has the same air of know-it-allism that it accuses several congressional representatives of.  It's a big issue, and I'm sure it won't be resolved any time soon.