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Permalink Reply by Liisa Underwood on November 30, 2009 at 4:49pm

My son is 4 and shows no signs of respiratory or cardiac compromise. Should he still only obtain the shot versus the nasal spray?

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Permalink Reply by cheryl cliff on November 30, 2009 at 5:07pm

Hi Lisa,

According to our neuro, Kevin Flanigan, you should obtain the shot and not the nasal spray. Also I understand there is a 2 week period after the shot where our guys are still vulnerable to H1N1. I was told our sons shouldn't even be near anyone who has had the nasal spray because it contains live virus. Hope this helps you decide.

best
cheryl

Liisa Underwood said:

My son is 4 and shows no signs of respiratory or cardiac compromise. Should he still only obtain the shot versus the nasal spray?

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Dallapè on November 30, 2009 at 9:37pm

Liisa, you have to ultimately do what you feel is best in your situation, but we are not accepting any vaccinations (flu or otherwise) while Ewan is still healthy and has good lung function. The way I feel is that I would rather his natural immune responses be allowed to work for as long as they can. Ewan has been on Pred for almost three years now. He eats much healthier than my other boys (often choosing a large salad over a hamburger) and takes daily antioxidants. The other three have had minor bugs this year, but Ewan has been unscathed by illness of any kind. We will re-evaluate each year, but for now we are staying off the shots.

Liisa Underwood said:

My son is 4 and shows no signs of respiratory or cardiac compromise. Should he still only obtain the shot versus the nasal spray?

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Permalink Reply by carrie on December 1, 2009 at 2:05pm

yes your son should get the H1N1 injectable not the nasal if he is on steroids. If he is not, one might still choose the injectable but you should consult your physician. I might just go that route if avavilable as the only downside i see is availability.

Jerry ,

Im not sure I understand what you are refering to regarding the distinction of the natural immune response generated to the vaccine versus the real virus (in the context of pred). Are you hoping that your son gets H1N1 to protect against it or a related virus later in life in some better way than the vaccine might or are you hoping not to encounter it (which would not provide any immunity for the future but he would keep him well this round ).

Carrie

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Dallapè on December 2, 2009 at 2:16am

I'm not "hoping" he'll get sick. In fact, we are training all of our boys how to reduce the risk of getting sick by changing simple behaviors. If he does get swine flu, however, it would give him a greater chance of partial immunity in future seasons. In fact, one of the theories as to why swine flu has hit the young harder than the old this time is that older folks have had more exposure to different strains of flu over the years and thus have a greater level of partial immunity.

I think the bigger issue, though, is with the overall health of the immune systems of our children. As a society we are so obsessed with anti-bacterial everything and now we have a vaccination schedule that looks like the arrival and departure screen at O'Hare airport. We don't vaccinate (though we almost considered the varicella vaccine when Ewan first went on Pred), so the recommended schedule I just pulled up was rather shocking to me. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vaccines/HQ01629 Do kids really get this many vaccinations these days? That's quite a bit more than when I was growing up.

If our kids don't get a chance for their immune systems to work I'm afraid that, like a muscle that is not allowed to work, it could atrophy and not work properly when needed.

carrie said:

yes your son should get the H1N1 injectable not the nasal if he is on steroids. If he is not, one might still choose the injectable but you should consult your physician. I might just go that route if avavilable as the only downside i see is availability.

Jerry ,

Im not sure I understand what you are refering to regarding the distinction of the natural immune response generated to the vaccine versus the real virus (in the context of pred). Are you hoping that your son gets H1N1 to protect against it or a related virus later in life in some better way than the vaccine might or are you hoping not to encounter it (which would not provide any immunity for the future but he would keep him well this round ).

Carrie

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Permalink Reply by Joyce Carpenter on December 2, 2009 at 11:50am

LIISa,
I agree with Dr. Flanigan; please get your sons vaccinated to protect against H1N1 virus. I see everyday what happens to healthy kids who get the H1N1 disease and then get complications from the virus; i.e. pneumonia. And if it does this to healthy kids think what it would do to our already compromised kids. Our sons could not survive these complications. Yes, I had my adult son with DMD vaccinated as soon as we could in our community. I and my colleagues cannot reiterate to other parents enough to GET YOUR Children the vaccine.!!!!!!!!
Joyce

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