E-mail this story Printer-friendly format Search archives

By Shia Kapos
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 4, 2002

With the sniffle season in full bloom, parents of toddlers are considering a new recommendation to give flu shots to children as young as 6 months old.

In a new policy issued this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended flu shots for all healthy children ages 6 months to 2 years, as well as their older siblings, parents and caregivers.

Studies show more children in this age group have been hospitalized with influenza in recent years than people 65 and older--and it's been urged for years that senior citizens get flu shots.

The new recommendation comes as the number of vaccinations for children continues to rise, even as some parents grow increasingly anxious about side effects--a fear most health experts believe is unfounded.

The flu shots make sense, experts say, because the vaccine is safe and more children are getting seriously ill from the virus.

"Kids are exposed more to viral and infectious diseases," said Dr. Irwin Benuck, a pediatrician at Northwestern Memorial and Children's Memorial Hospitals in the Chicago area.

"Children are not so homebound as they once were. They are in shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, theaters. And with both parents working, you see more and more kids in day-care centers."

Benuck's office already has immunized dozens of toddlers against the flu and he expects that to increase with the pediatrics academy's latest recommendation.

For years, doctors have been recommending flu shots for children 6 months or older who have asthma, cystic fibrosis or chronic pulmonary diseases. The respiratory symptoms of the flu put these children at increased risk.

But the thinking was that a flu shot wasn't necessary for healthy children, said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a Barrington pediatrician with the Illinois chapter of the AAP.

"There wasn't a documented need for it," he said. "Then came the data of hospitalizations."

The pediatrics academy analyzed a number of studies on influenza and found it led to hospitalizations for more toddlers than elderly people.

The studies have found that for every 100,000 children, 200 to 300 are hospitalized because of influenza. That is as much as twice the hospitalization rate for those 65 and older and as much as 6 times the rate for those age 50 to 64.

Doctors are quick to point out that few children die from complications from the flu.

"There is some mortality, but the big thing we are trying to avoid is hospitalization," said Dr. Carol Baker, a member of AAP's committee on infectious diseases and a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Houston.

Children younger than 9 and receiving the flu shot for the first time must be given two doses one month apart.

After that, it is recommended that they receive it annually because influenza has different strains and changes every year.

Children under 6 months are not given the vaccine. Children 2 years and older can benefit from the vaccine but the AAP found no increased hospitalization rates among those children.

The vaccine is the same as that given to adults, though it is half the amount, doctors said. And children can have the same allergic reactions, such as a fever 6 to 24 hours after immunization.

Because the influenza vaccine is grown in chicken eggs, children allergic to chicken or egg proteins should not get it, according to the pediatrics academy.

But how does a parent or doctor know if a 6-month-old has that allergy?

Pediatricians with the AAP say reactions are rare and that they can only occur to those who already have been exposed to egg proteins.

"If one has never been exposed to a particular substance, one shouldn't be allergic," said Dr. Stanford Shulman, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Memorial Hospital and chairman of the AAP's infectious diseases committee.

Asif and Faryal Ahmed were among those seeking flu shots for their toddler, 16-month-old Yaseem. In addition to protecting Yaseem, the Lisle couple wants to protect the boy's infant brother, Ibrahim, from infection during the upcoming flu season.

"With this little guy so small, we wanted to add an extra line of defense," Faryal said Tuesday during Ibrahim's two-week checkup at the Northwestern Children's Practice in downtown Chicago.

The Ahmeds brought Yaseem along for the second part of his flu shot while his brother received one of the 20 vaccinations required by the time children reach age 2.

To parents who worry that their children's immune system is being overloaded with vaccines, experts say don't worry.

Rosenberg points to a report in the January 2002 issue of Pediatrics that found children today are actually exposed to fewer antigens--the substances that produce an immune response--in vaccines than ever before.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune