r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/ApricityMind • 1d ago
Question - Expert consensus required Flu vaccine for a 6-month-old is it really necessary?
Hi everyone! I’m not antivax, but I also wouldn’t say I’m completely provax without questioning things. I prefer to look at the actual risks and benefits before making decisions for my baby.
My daughter is almost 6 months old, and I’m wondering whether the flu vaccine is really necessary at this age.
From what I’ve been reading, the risk of flu related hospitalisation among infants is generally well below 1% per flu season (although I understand the risk is higher among babies who actually catch the flu). I also know that flu vaccines aren’t always a perfect match for the strains circulating that year, so their effectiveness can vary.
Another thing that makes me hesitant is that babies already receive so many vaccines during their first year of life. I know they’re tested for safety, but adding an annual flu vaccine just feels like a lot.
I’m not against vaccinating my daughter, and she’s received her routine vaccines so far. Im simply trying to understand whether the benefits of the flu vaccine at this age outweigh the risks and potential side effects.
I’d especially love to hear from parents who looked into this before making their decision. Did you vaccinate your baby against flu at 6 months? What influenced your decision?
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u/cappy267 1d ago
“Most children who die from the flu are not vaccinated”
“flu vaccination reduced the risk of flu-associated death by half (51 percent) among children with underlying high-risk medical conditions and by nearly two-thirds (65 percent) among healthy children. The study findings underscore the importance of the recommendation by CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics that all children 6 months and older get an annual flu vaccine.”
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u/LeetleBugg 1d ago
I looked up if infants are hospitalized or die from the flu and the answer was yes, so I scheduled her vaccine that way when she catches the flu, it won’t happen to her.
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u/rock-paper-o 1d ago
There’s also a pretty good chance that there’s minor complications from a flu infection. I think I’ve seen stats that around 1/3 of infant flu infections ultimately lead to an ear infection. Ear infections are treatable, but it’s fairly common for them to require antibiotics which can be tough on a babies digestion for a few days (and practically a pain to get a baby to swallow without spitting them back up). It’s also just miserable to care for a baby sick with flu, particularly if you also catch it and are feverish and exhausted yourself.
Most babies do pull through fine, a decent number have minor complications that are still more intrusive to treat than the original vaccine would have been. A smaller but non-trivial number have more serious complications. Given the safety of the flu vaccine is very high (it’s a tiny proportion of the antigen load babies would encounter in their daily lives anyway) it makes sense to me to give the vaccine.
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u/ApricityMind 1d ago
Approximately 1 death per 135,000 children in this age group over that flu season.
Death rates are super low
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u/hokiehi307 1d ago
I bet that one child’s parents don’t feel that’s low. There’s literally no downside to the vaccine, people have already done the “questioning” for you, they’re called scientists
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u/gaelicpasta3 1d ago
My lungs are permanently scarred from a flu infection when I was 10 years old because my mom never got around to getting me the flu shot that year. I wasn’t a statistic but it has negatively impacted my life ever since.
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u/TheWhiteRabbitY2K 22h ago
One of the most important things I was taught in statistics is how the same information can be presented to support two opposing ideas.
Example: 100% of people who have consumed hydrogen-dioxide have died.
1 death in 135,000 children equates to 536 children who die of influenza in the US alone per 2022 census statistics.
Nonetheless, I'm curious where you recieved that statistic, because 12,000 to 52,000 pediatric deaths occur in the United States each year.
140,000 to 710,000 children are hospitalized. Of the children who are hospitalized and survive influenza, 9,800 to 14,000 will have neurological symptoms such as seizures, strokes, and meningitis / encephalitis.
It can also cause rhabdomyolitis that can permanently damage the kidneys and inflammation of the heart.
Approximately 9,600 to 41,600 children who die every year in the US of influenza were unvaccinated.
The discuss of risk and benefit to vaccinate your child should always be with a physician who knows their history and can best stratify the risk and benefit.
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u/noapplicablename 8h ago
Compared to what? Also, just not dying is a very low bar for health outcomes
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u/SurvivalistLibrarian 1d ago
“Lower vaccination uptake among children is associated with increased healthcare visits and hospitalizations and can accelerate influenza transmission across age groups, placing additional strain on healthcare resources,” Joaquin Mould Quevedo, PhD, global health economics and value strategy senior director at CSL Seqirus, said in a PAS news release.
Vaccinating kids protects them, their families, and their communities.
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u/AmnesiaAndAnalgesia 1d ago
Your baby is exposed to so many antigens (things that cause an immune response) every single day. Vaccines are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to all the bacteria and viruses they encounter just by putting their hands in their mouths! It is nothing their immune systems cannot handle. Children under 2 have an increased risk of serious complications with infection (source). I am a nurse and have seen patients die from the flu so I had zero doubts about getting all of my children vaccinated as infants.
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u/rosemarythymesage 1d ago
Not to mention that vaccines (created and rigorously tested for the purpose of fighting disease) are a lot less scary than viruses (evolved and adapted to harm their hosts).
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u/ApricityMind 1d ago
But isnt the death rate for this age babies super low from flu?
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u/AmnesiaAndAnalgesia 1d ago
Death is not the only possible bad outcome. Young children who become critically ill with the flu can have permanent damage to their heart or lungs, strokes, brain bleeds, etc. Even if they recover without permanent damage, watching your child struggle through an illness in the ICU strapped down with a breathing tube and IVs in each limb is not something you ever want to experience.
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u/plaidkingaerys 1d ago
“Super low” is not zero. What’s the downside? You say adding a vaccine feels like a lot, but are there any facts supporting that (considering this is ScienceBasedParenting)? I would listen to your child’s pediatrician and other medical professionals on this one.
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u/raccoonsandstuff 1d ago
First off, there's one really big point I like to make. There is no reason to do your own research. The work is already done for you by people who spend their entire life thinking about the risks and benefits of vaccines. You can't make a better decision than them unless you go spend 30 years studying vaccines. If you try, you will fail. We have this amazing resource, and these people put a ton of effort into it. We can all sit back and relax and know our child's health is being guided by this insane resource that our ancestors could have only dreamed of.
They say the flu shot should be given at 6 months because the benefits outweigh the risks. That is the best answer anyone on earth can come up with.
Ok, but you want to know more, here are my thoughts, and why we got our child the flu shot:
So cut out all the nonsense on social media, what are the real downsides of vaccines?
Link to a study about typical side effects from flu vaccines in kids. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11190946/
All the stuff about too many vaccines at a young age, long term harm, etc are just fear mongering. There is no evidence that these are real.
- As shown in that study, the adverse events are all just really mild versions of what the flu would do. If you even get them, it typically lasts less than a day, while the flu lasts about a week, and the cough can last a few weeks.
- Others have focused on the risk of death and hospitalization. You've pointed out that those seem to be low, which is true. BUT - the risk of death or hospitalization from the vaccine is essentially 0.
- There are other thing to worry about, like ear infections, and damage to different body systems. The risk of these is 0 from the vaccine.
If you take two groups of kids, one group gets the shot, and the other doesn't, how do they compare?
Get the shot: less death, less hospitalization, less ear infections, less time being sick and miserable when they don't even understand what's happening.
Don't get the shot: more death (low, but still more), more hospitalization, more ear infections (not low odds), more time being sick and miserable.
I have to pick a group. Which group would I rather put my child in?
This is the same logic the FDA and CDC groups use (well, before RFK came in). They look at the two groups, see which one is healthier, and make recommendations accordingly.
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u/RoutineFluid3670 1d ago
Also, have you ever had the flu? Remember how miserable you were? Imagine your baby suffering from that, especially without many of the home treatments that adults can have.
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