Doctors push flu shots for infants

Wausau Daily Herald
and The Associated Press

The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging flu shots for all healthy children from 6 months to 2 years old.

Siblings, parents and other caretakers also should get the shots if possible, the academy says.

The academy's policy echoes new government recommendations issued in September and is based on recent data showing that young children are hospitalized with influenza at least as often as adults older than 50, for whom yearly flu shots are recommended.

"It hasn't been a routine recommendation," said Dr. Ellen M. Schumann, a pediatrician at Marshfield Clinic Wausau Center. "It has been recommended for high-risk kids," including those with asthma, diabetes, heart problems, cystic fibrosis and other chronic illnesses.

Although the flu vaccine isn't licensed for babies younger than 6 months old, they, too, are at risk for hospitalization. The academy recommends shots for their families and caretakers for that reason, said Dr. Cody Meissner, chief of the pediatric infectious diseases division at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston and a member of the committee that wrote the new policy.

The recommendation likely will change recommendations given to parents by day care facilities.
"We will probably recommend flu shots a bit stronger than we usually do," said Laure Blanchard, executive director of Wausau Child Care Inc., which has three facilities in Wausau. "I think for young children, especially if they're at risk for other illnesses, it's a good thing for them to get vaccinated. We would also ask parents to contact their pediatricians."
Unlike most childhood vaccines, flu shots are needed every year because the virus changes so often.

Children younger than 9 should get two doses four weeks apart to ensure that they're adequately protected. One shot a year is recommended for older children who already have been given a flu vaccination, Schumann said.